There are a lot of moving parts for Ports of Auckland to keep their eye on – maintaining key assets can be a complicated and ever-changing process. That’s why we set anchor on site, our embedded team proving the crucial difference for setting a maintenance plan on course and ensuring smooth sailing into the future.

Ports of Auckland welcomed three new ‘super-cranes’ in 2018, joining the five existing cranes and other key assets on the waterfront in the City Of Sails.

The port needed to protect their investment to ensure continued optimal operation and ongoing growth in the future.

However, with important work being delayed due to varying shipping schedules, the previous maintenance suppliers were struggling to gain traction on key crane projects.

“The main issue was planning and supervision,” says Miller. “Only National Group would commit the necessary management resources to ensure the jobs would be done well.”

A nimble and responsive team handling key tasks was of huge value to the busy port. Embedding a specialist National Group team on site was a way to make sure everything stayed ship-shape despite the constantly moving timeframes.

John Miller, Operations Engineer at POAL, says that the proposal for National Group “closely met our requirements”.

“The main issue was planning and supervision,” says Miller. “Only National Group would commit the necessary management resources to ensure the jobs would be done well.”

For National Group Project Delivery Leader Renato Amorim the satellite office was a simple and effective answer for the busy port.

John Miller, Operations Engineer at POAL, says that the proposal for National Decorators “closely met our requirements”.

For National Group Project Delivery Leader Renato Amorim the satellite office was a simple and effective answer for the busy port.

“Our onsite scheduler connects to all the various parties to make the work come together,” says Amorim. “This close working relationship with the POAL scheduling team has allowed us to get many more windows to work on the cranes. And when we cannot work on the cranes we undertake maintenance works on the other assets at the port.”

“Having someone there scheduling work and liaising with the various stakeholders is the only way we could meet the standards we’ve set in our service, particularly when it comes to speed of response and overall cost-effectiveness,” he says.

“The team is setup to care for the assets as if they were their own...”

“It’s the best way to work alongside the client without preventing their everyday work.”

“The team is setup to care for the assets as if they were their own,” says Gabi Betelli, Project Manager at National Group.

“They keep their eye on things and notice anything that might need extra attention.”

“Periodically we also have specialists from head office on site also,” says Betelli. “They will come for process mapping and strategy sessions to continually improve our service.”

Keeping on top of maintenance and protecting the various assets is clearly no small task. When arriving on-site it becomes clear why.

The three new remote-controlled container-lifting cranes are the largest cranes in Australasia. Each can lift four containers at once and weighs an incredible 2100 tonnes, almost twice that of the existing cranes. Combined they are worth over $60 million. Protecting this investment for the future means putting in the hard work today and tomorrow.