Seeing the process through
APT screen shot
The introduction of berth scheduling software at Associated Petroleum Terminals (APT) in Immingham a few years ago was not without its difficulties. Bob Law, APT's oil movements controller, saw the process through. "Many of my colleagues were understandably sceptical," he says. "We had managed berthing operations seemingly quite well until then and they were worried that this would prove to be just another toy to play with."
Until the introduction of Cirrus Logistics' SEABERTH, APT managers had handled the complex and constantly changing operation - which serves Total and ConocoPhillip's Humberside refineries - using spreadsheets. Experience and best assumptions made effective planning possible - but only within a narrow window, and the process was slow so that scheduling could not be fully optimised.
Bob Law says the greatest challenge in establishing a technology-based system was fear of change. In this type of case, his advice is to introduce colleagues to a new system gently, encouraging them initially to see it as an additional tool rather than a replacement for an existing system.He is opposed to formal training sessions at the outset but prefers instead to convert people by allowing them to test out a trial model in the safety and security of their own PC.
"It's potentially a big mistake to make managers feel forced to adopt a new system," he says. "People need to gain confidence in the product for themselves and, if they are switching to an IT system for the first time, to learn that they won't break it just because they hit the wrong key.
"If you allow people to feel that they themselves are making the decision to change, they can be weaned off the old system and then, at this stage, you may want to accelerate the process with some training."
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
