Traditionally, loading computers have operated in isolation on board ships (instead of: to ensure safety, remaining) since by class regulation, as an onboard safety instrument, they must be inaccessible from the outside. However, in today’s fast-paced shipping industry, the insights about cargo from these computers are invaluable to stakeholders ashore, especially during emergencies, incidents, claims, and for extracting business intelligence from historical data. Real-time visualization of onboard conditions and seamless data sharing among stakeholders are now essential.  

With MACS3 Connected, critical loading computer data transforms into a centralized data pool, powering smarter decisions and enhancing business intelligence for cargo movement, hull stress analysis, newbuild designs, and repair plans. 

With isolated onboard instruments there are existing pain points in Connectivity Onboard and Ashore 

• Missing real-time visualization of the actual onboard situation​ 
• Time wasted in repetitive telephone and email exchanges between onboard and onshore teams​ 
• Loss of time in telephone and email exchange between shipping company and external stakeholders ​ 
• A missing single source of truth in case of incidents, emergencies or claims leaves room for lots of discussion 
• Lacking business intelligence data that must be collected manually in spreadsheets
  
• Limited visibility on the movement of cargo only on manual spreadsheets

Why do you want a Connected Loading Computer? 

MACS3 Connected allows for central loading computer information to be stored in the cloud and thereby providing a real-time visualization of the actual onboard situation and the possibility to share it with other stakeholders. 

Loading computer data comes from three sources: the software itself, the specific ship profile and the actual loading condition of the vessel showing exactly the cargo loaded on board. 

With a standard loading computer, the software version onboard and in the office version ashore might differ considerably due to the time of differing software updates. The same is true for the ship profile. The ship profile onboard might differ from that used in the office version on shore because it is only updated in one version and not in the other. The loading condition of the ship changes multiple times during the voyage with each new port call. 

In a connected loading computer these three sources remain centrally stored in the cloud and once the onshore staff needs loading computer information from onboard, they can pull from the cloud the actual software version, the actual onboard profile and the latest loading condition (departure condition from last port) of the vessel and so receive a 100% mirror of the real actual onboard situation at a glance. This solution is called the MACS3 Launcher because it launches the actual MACS3 onboard version with one button click. 

The MACS3 Launcher will provide the same set of data for  

• Emergency Response Team & Externals 
• Nautical Team 
• Technical Team 
• Management of the Shipping Company 

In today’s setup the actual MACS3 version information and the actual ship file version information reside only onboard the ship, so information gathering, and exchange must be done via telephone and email. Once this crucial information is collected, the mirrored setup can only be run on one device in the office of the shipping company and contains information for only one ship at a time and must be repeated for each vessel with respective installations. This process is cumbersome and time-consuming. 

With the MACS3 Launcher this time-consuming process is fully automated with one button-click. The MACS3 Launcher is mobile-optimized, the application can be used on any mobile device without friction, has an intuitive and touch-optimized interface and is available on any tablet or a smartphone – no matter what mobile platform is in use.