"It's added a total of 50 operational days to their cranes each year."
For over 40 years, Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec has been a trusted engineering leader in Australia. They adopted Trendspek to transform the inspection process for a fleet of container cranes.
Wallbridge Gilbert Aztec's team of engineers is trusted expert in Australia for the last 40 years, regularly conducting inspections across large mechanical, process, maritime and structural assets.
As Andrew Brown, Digital Technology Manager at WGA explains, they are "dedicated to finding the best solutions for our clients, and most of us won't rest until we do just that."
"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."
"Our industrial group do a lot of inspections, and while we always look for the most efficient ways to deliver on those projects, the fact is, the common methods of asset inspection are generally quite prehistoric."
"Inspecting an asset manually usually involves having rope access technicians abseiling down large structures 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."
This prompted WGA to explore innovative solutions.
"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.”
vs. 3 days with traditional capture
vs. 2D report with static photos
vs. 50 using manual capture (ropes, machinery)
using 3D models and reports
In 2022, WGA secured a three-year contract to inspect 25+ cranes annually across ports in Brisbane and Sydney.
"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.
Instead of undertaking inspections the traditional way, Brown wanted to build in efficiencies from a time, engineering and safety perspective - to bring something unique to the project, that provided greater value to their clients.
"With drone capability and modelling in-house, 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."
Through an industry contact, Brown was introduced to Trendspek. Within 48 hours, he had access to demo datasets and was impressed by the software’s agility, intuitiveness, and precision.
“Before even talking to the Trendspek team, I could see the software was agile, intuitive and accurate – I was really interested in learning more."
.png)
.png)
"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 would be no need to have people working on ropes or at dangerous heights."
With Trendspek, WGA eliminated the need for rope access or platform setups - replacing these with just one drone operator and two team members on-site.
"It cut down capture time from three days to one, but 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 would be no need to have people working on ropes or at dangerous heights."
By adopting Trendspek, WGA's client have also gained operational uptime for an additional 50 days annually, with a suite of comprehensive condition insights for better decision-making around routine maintenance.
"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, according to Brown, the the biggest “win” was the ability to digitally revisit assets at any time.
“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.”
“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.”
For WGA, Trendspek has proven to be more than just a tool — it’s become a step towards a new BAU in asset inspections.
“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 Maritime industry has 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 Trendspek’s 3D model is — the quality, how easy Trendspek is to use, and 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."
"That means we need to be at the forefront of technology – and Trendspek ticks that big box for us.”
.svg)
