Project overview
How does WGA usually inspect assets?
As a business, we are dedicated to finding the best solutions for our clients, and most of us won’t rest until we do just that. Our industrial group – mechanical, process, maritime and structural engineers – do a lot of inspections, and while we always look for the most efficient and effective ways to deliver on those projects, the fact is, the common methods of asset inspection are generally quite prehistoric.
Inspecting an asset usually involves having rope access technicians abseiling down large structures ers on ropes and engineers on site taking photos, reporting defects as they see them, then heading back to the office, downloading everything and writing up a report. For any company, there can be a real disconnect between when they are on site in front of the asset, and when they write up the reports.
Services
Precision Reality Twins (PRT), Precision Asset Intelligence (PAI) Data Acquisition, Reporting and Project Management
Project team
Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec, Trendspek
Key outcomes
1 days
Capture time
vs traditional capture time of weeks
24 hours
Model creation
vs traditional “No model, photos only”
22,000
Data points
vs traditional data points of up to 50
2D PDF images
High res model output
vs traditional output of photos and report
Less
Cost
vs traditional high cost of manual labour
“We now have a digital capture of the assets so we can go back and inspect any time, even if we missed that traditional three-day shutdown window. The detail on screen means it’s just like being there, if not better.”
How did you discover Trendspek?
The growth in technology during my career so far has allowed me to expand into a role that didn’t exist in a lot of businesses in our industry, even two or three years ago.
I’m tasked with connecting our different consulting departments with new technology and integrating that into our workflows, to deliver the best solutions to our clients.
In 2022, WGA won a three-year contract to inspect 25+ cranes annually across ports in Brisbane and Sydney. Instead of taking cranes assets offline for 3 days and undertaking inspections the traditional way, we wanted to build in efficiencies from a time, engineering and safety perspective.
Opening the office in Brisbane in 2021, the localised team wanted to bring something unique to the project and in doing so, provide greater value for our clients.
With drone capability and modelling inhouse, we firstly developed a proof of concept on a publicly accessible crane based in Adelaide. After pulling the data together, we realised our technology, like most, wasn’t up to it.
Passionate about solving problems and knowing there was a more fit for purpose solution, I reached out to an industry contact who introduced us to Trendspek.
Within 48 hours I had access to demo data sets and before even talking to the Trendspek team, I could see the software was agile, intuitive and accurate – I was really interested in learning more.
How did Trendspek change your process?
These cranes get inspected every year, and every one of them is taken offline for three days so our teams can crawl all over them – abseiling from the top or accessing them on ladders or platforms. It takes a large a team to inspect one crane.
We have refined this process to a fairly efficient pace and workflow, but everything can always be further optimised!
Though it cut down capture time from three days to one, the driving factor behind our decision to use Trendspek was safety of our people and safety for the Client. If we could use a drone and capture more than we would traditionally, there was no need to have people working on ropes or at dangerous heights.
With one person using the drone and two on site walking over parts like the machine house, which is restricted access, we reduced the number of people required, improved our efficiency and decreased the cost to our clients, who had operational cranes for a total of 50 additional days each year.
But that wasn’t even the big win – we now have a digital capture of the assets so we can go back and inspect any time, even if we missed that traditional three-day shutdown window. The detail on screen means it’s just like being there, if not better.
“Our vision at WGA is to introduce new technologies across the business to deliver effective solutions for our clients and help manage risk. I do believe that Trendspek will give us the leading edge”
Will you use Trendspek again?
I’m proud of our client and team for daring to be different - stepping away from the traditional methods and towards a new way of doing things. For more than 50 years, the Ports and Marine industry have utilised manual inspection methods - so it’s a big and brave move and has already paid off.
Our clients were captivated by the drone out on their site, but they were really impressed when they saw how clear the model is, the quality, and how easy Trendspek is to use, with no need to install software.
We were also surprised at the cost. We had thought something like this would not be affordable, but as technology develops and becomes more commonly-used, the prices decrease, and Trendspek came in a lot more cost-effective than we anticipated.
Next time we are asked to tender, I think our senior leaders will be asking a lot more questions about Trendspek upfront, before we submit our response.
We want to continue to invite bright young minds into our business, and to do that we need to expand the employee experience, build their abilities and skillsets – we need to be at the forefront of technology – and Trendspek ticks that big box for us.
Better. From every angle.
At Trendspek, we understand the importance of assets, because to us, our clients are our most valuable assets. We have worked in
close partnership with some of the world’s biggest asset management companies, delivering our service, their way.