November 7, 2023: 

Harvest Technology Group is pleased to announce the success of its webinar with Offshore Engineer Magazine on October 17, 2023.

Presenting the webinar was Chief Product Officer, Damiain Brown and Special Projects Lead Adam Ford, who discussed the challenges and opportunities of remote operations.

Thank you to those who attended, we appreciate your participation and interest. If you were unable to join us, you can watch the webinar recording by registering here. For more information about this topic, a summary of the presentation is provided below.

What is remote operations?

There is a growing trend in the offshore, energy and maritime industries towards the use of remote support and remote operations technology in place of traditional methods of working. At its core, this trend is being driven by prioritising personnel health, safety, and well-being, achieving more with less, driving cost efficiencies and minimising environmental impact.

Remote operations is defined as actively managing operations from a remote location using technology for real-time monitoring, control, and management. This involves live data acquisition, coordination of ongoing operations and remote monitoring and control of assets.

Remote support is often the first stepping stone on the journey to remote operations, defined as a technology driven service where a specialist remotely provides assistance, troubleshooting or guidance from a different location.

For example, temporarily increasing site or operations awareness by live streaming camera feed from a vessel to onshore subject matter experts during operations or for unplanned or emergency response such as fault diagnosis, incident management or telehealth.

How to get started on your remote operations journey.

1. Define your objectives: It is important to define specific and quantifiable goals to measure your organisation’s success. This could be safety improvements, workforce diversification, employee wellbeing, reducing environmental impact, or operational efficiencies.
2. Assess the feasibility: Identify the factors that could impact your adoption including technical readiness, safety and regulatory compliance and cyber security.
3. Develop a remote operations culture: Engaging your workforce and managing the organisational change to create a positive culture is crucial to successful implementation. Key factors that impact success include leadership commitment, clear strategy, effective communication, and employee consultation.
4. Technology and Infrastructure: Assess and establish systems and infrastructure to support remote operations. This can include bandwidth optimisation, data capture devices, edge computing and integration with existing systems.

Challenges and opportunities for organisations implementing remote operations