Title: A decision support system for the development of voyage and maintenance plans for ships

Authors: Christina Diakaki; Natalia Panagiotidou; Anastasios Pouliezos; Georgios D. Kontes; George S. Stavrakakis; Kostas Belibassakis; Theodoros P. Gerostathis; George Livanos; Dimitrios-Nikolaos Pagonis; Gerasimos Theotokatos

Addresses: School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece ' Telecommunications Systems Institute, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece ' School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece ' School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece ' School of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania, Greece ' School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografos 15773, Athens, Greece ' Department of Naval Architecture, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Ag. Spyridonos Str., Egaleo 12210, Athens, Greece ' Department of Naval Architecture, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Ag. Spyridonos Str., Egaleo 12210, Athens, Greece ' Department of Naval Architecture, Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Ag. Spyridonos Str., Egaleo 12210, Athens, Greece ' Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 100 Montrose Street, G4 0LZ, Glasgow, UK

Abstract: The waterborne sector faces nowadays significant challenges due to several environmental, financial and other concerns. Such challenges may be addressed, among others, by optimising voyage plans, and diagnosing as early as possible engine failures that may lead to performance degradation. These two issues are addressed by the decision support system (DSS) presented herein, which focuses on the operation of merchant ships. For the development of voyage plans, a multicriteria decision problem is developed and handled with the PROMETHE method, while a multivariable control chart is used for the fault diagnosis problem. A MATLAB-based software implementation of the DSS has been developed adopting a modular architecture, while, in order to provide a generic software solution, the required input data are retrieved from dedicated web-services, following specific communication and data exchange protocols.

Keywords: voyage planning; marine engines; fault diagnosis; condition based maintenance; decision support systems; DSS; multicriteria decision analysis; MCDA; maintenance planning; merchant ships; engine failure; PROMETHE; multivariable control charts; web services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDSS.2015.067274

International Journal of Decision Support Systems, 2015 Vol.1 No.1, pp.42 - 71

Received: 14 Jan 2014
Accepted: 21 Feb 2014
Published online: 18 Mar 2015 *

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