How A Software Company Is Making Dockyards Easier To Manage
HALIFAX–Industries worldwide are investing in smarter technology to make operations more automated and efficient. The naval and ocean tech industries are no different. Small and medium-sized companies in Halifax are playing a major role in shaping future dockyard operations.
Recently, COVE and Thales Canada selected two winners of $175,000 grants for their Naval Technology Innovation Challenges. Datifex, which is headquartered in Toronto but also operates out of the PIER in Halifax, was one of the winners. Another east coast company, CORSphere, won the other grant.
These companies’ innovations will help deliver the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships and Joint Support Ships (AJISS) program.
In simple terms, Datifex’s software takes complicated information and creates an easy-to-use, interactive tool, often in the form of a 3D model. This makes operations and problem solving smarter and more efficient.
“We call them engagement systems,” explains Corey Kirkhus, Datifex’s director of business development. “And they’re used to manage complex operations, assets, and training. We’ll take data from a bunch of different sources and we’ll combine it into a single virtual environment. That’s often a 3D representation of a facility or an asset like a ship at the dockyard.”
“We build all the features necessary for people to collaborate in these applications. The main point is they make complex information very lightweight and accessible.”
Datifex’s software achieves the goals of any smart technology. It takes tasks that must usually be done manually and makes the information accessible through a tablet or other device.
“We take information from different sources and combine it in a single place,” says Kirkhus. “Let’s say an activity is taking place on a dockyard, we show it as a 3D representation of the documents. You can see the jetties where the ships are up, the status of the facilities, and the lay down areas. So instead of running around looking for spreadsheets that people have stashed away in a drawer, you can click on the ship to see the activity that’s taking place on it.”
One of the areas that Datifex is able to help with is ship maintenance. With all the necessary information logged into a user-friendly database, all the stakeholders are able to work with more efficiency.
“What’s even more compelling is we’re able to take the engineering information associated with that ship… we made them lightweight and accessible,” explains Kirkhus. “We’ll take all that spreadsheet data… and anybody who works for Thales can access wherever they are, they could be in the dockyard on an iPad looking at the maintenance that needs to take place on a ship.”
“What we’re able to do is map all of the defects on the ship. In the past, it was a very manual process to survey a ship, identify an issue, log that issue in their database. And then for a team to take all those defects and plan a work period around them. What we do is we help them organize that information and make it a lot easier for engineers to communicate with other stakeholders.”
What’s amazing about Datifex is how the company saw potential to take technology designed for entertainment and apply it to complex industries. Chris Erickson Datifex’s founder and CEO realized the engines used to make videogames could help in making other applications more interactive.
“It all starts from our CEO’s vision,” says Kirkhus. “He started out with the idea that game engines can be used to help people understand information and make their jobs more interactive. At the base of everything we have is a game engine similar to what you would see on any sort of popular online Steam game. And then Chris has a lot of experience in large complex industries.”
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].