Join forces to realise cost savings
However ultimately beneficial, a simulator can still represent a significant cost to some ports or operators. However, three ports in Brazil have found a way to spread the cost.
The Santa Catarina state government is to acquire a crane simulator to train dockers at the ports of Itajaí, Imbituba and São Francisco do Sul,which it is hoped will help bring down crane operating costs through enhancing the skills of the workforce by additional training.
Saul Airoso, director of port integration at Itajaí, says the simulator is budgeted at R$1.8m ($1.02m) and overall return on investment will be derived from income generated through the use of the equipment by the Brazilian Navy.
"The simulator is expected to benefit approximately 1,580 workers at Santa Catarina's three public ports, in addition to dockers employed by private ports in the state. The equipment itself will be located in the Port Training Centre, here in Itajaí," says Mr Airoso.
It will be able to provide training on a number of different types of crane, ranging from those on geared vessels, luffing jib cranes, quayside gantry cranes, mobile harbour cranes and yard cranes.
"The equipment will be able to simulate whatever ambient conditions are required by the individual operator and be able to create specific conditions relating to either vessel or quayside operations peculiar to each port," he adds. "According to the manufacturers, just by a simple software change and adjustments to the controls, it will be relatively easy to adapt the simulator to recreate conditions in any of the three ports, from where the majority of workers to be trained will come."
Asked whether these types of courses will ultimately replace on-the-job training, Mr Airoso says that 90% of all objectives in this area should be achieved through the use of the simulator, a prototype of which has already been tested by Rio de Janeiro's Federal University.
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