IN THE DOCK
an organisation is investing in both training and safety. “This tends to have a snowball effect of one feeding into the other,” he says. “The operators will be safer, but it’s not just the operator: it’s everybody on the quay who’s going to be a little bit safer as well.
“It can be a critical part of the whole
ecosystem changing. It’s more like creating a culture change. The simulator is that catalyst to culture change because it requires you to think a little bit differently.”
Current trends While the market for simulators is relatively mature in North America and Europe, it is now starting to grow in other regions. Van de Kletersteeg feels that, in North America and Europe, the market already understands and acknowledges the benefits of simulator training. “The perception, I think, hasn’t really changed in recent years,” he says. “The convincing arguments were delivered
CM Labs’ Intellia simulator for STS cranes trains operators on safety and productivity standards faster.
more than a decade ago with respect to simulation training and the value that it brings.” He notes that there are regional differences in Australia and New Zealand. While also mature markets, they emphasise the use of straddle carriers more in that part of the world. “They’ve got very high standards, but slightly different requirements,” he says. “We’ve done projects over there, including with Patrick Terminals and Flinders Ports.” Flinders was an early adopter, whereas
Patrick Terminals more recently became a CM Labs customer. Winning them over required creating a new hardware solution called the MasterCab. “The idea there is it’s this immersive experience; you sit inside of the simulator, and you’re surrounded,” says Van de Kletersteeg. “It’s the most immersive simulator that we offer.” CM Labs had to completely replicate the working environment experienced by a Patrick Terminals operator.
CM Labs has also seen big changes in the global South, largely driven by international
operators wanting to replicate productivity and safety standards from ports in developed markets. “Port terminal operators are going to be global, but also some shipping companies are getting into the mix as well,” says Van de Kletersteeg. “So, you have a global influence over every single region, including developing regions. “What they’re looking at is leaping ahead.
Think of it like in China when they said, ‘We can either lay telephone lines all over the place like they did in North America, or we can just leapfrog that and go to cell phones and give cell phones to the entire population,’ which is why you see such a high adoption rate. In South America, simulators seem to be that way. You can get people to accelerate their productivity, and safety is definitely a major aspect as well.” CM Labs has recently seen an uptick in enquiries from this region. They often stem from hearing about the success of simulators in other ports. “We’ve had a bunch of customers come to us and say, ‘We’ve seen simulators, we’ve seen what they can do, and we want that for our port as well.’ “In many cases, they can attribute some of their success to having a training simulator in place and a robust training programme to support it, of course, because the simulator is a tool in a broader ecosystem.” He adds that this has led to customers
travelling to CM Labs’ Montreal offices to find out more about what the simulator can do, and how they can integrate it into their training programme.
Training management The company has addressed this need with the launch of its SimGuide. “The idea behind SimGuide,” says Van de Kletersteeg, “is that we’ll set you up with a simulator and we’re going to help you understand how to make a curriculum to get people onboarded and to accelerate their learning. That could be someone who doesn’t know how to operate a crane at all or how to operate it in the best possible way. Ports can work with our system and a qualified instructor to develop a training programme to allow them to maximise safety and productivity.” This also fed into the development of the
Intellia suite of training products, launched at TOC Europe 2024. “Training management has become very important in the past couple of years,” says Van de Kletersteeg. “So that’s what was pushing the investment in Intellia. Reporting has been a key part of this – enhancing the metrics that we’re tracking and trying to give, in a very visual manner, information to the instructor to understand
viii | June 2025 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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