Marine Facilities Planning System
The Marine Facilities Planning system (MFP) is a software system developed in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). MFP is designed to integrate the different aspects of equipment, personnel, and voyage planning behind marine research operations into a single system.
Platform:
Web
Industry:
Maritime
Team size:
2 people
Country:
Netherlands
Project Duration:
2.5 years
The year started & completed:
2017 – 2019
We built a modular planning system for the maritime industry, developed alongside the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and the Natural Environment Research Council.
Scope and Objectives
One system covering the equipment, the people, and the voyages behind marine research.
Inventory Management
Tracking the equipment a marine research operation owns and where each piece of it currently sits.
Project and Personnel Planning
Project management alongside a personnel planning tool, so the work and the people assigned to it are planned in the same system.
Cruise and Voyage Planning
Cruise planning and a voyage planning tool covering the scheduling of research trips from end to end.
Mooring Configuration
Configuration of moorings, holding the arrangements that each deployment depends on.
Barcode Scanning
Barcode scanner support, connecting the physical equipment on a quayside or a deck to its record in the system.
Focus Areas and Deliverables
01
Independent Modules
02
Integration Testing
03
Web Application and Interface
04
Collaboration with the Research Institutes
Challenges Identified
Modules That Must Work as One
MFP is a complex system made of small modules, each able to work independently, and that modular nature was the biggest challenge of the development process. Developing neat modules for different purposes was challenging but straightforward; making sure that together they created a well-functioning ecosystem behaving as expected was the cumbersome part.
Integration Testing as a Cornerstone
The answer was to put integration testing at the centre of the development approach, so the interactions between modules were verified continuously as the system grew.
Assembling a Clock
Building MFP was similar to building a clock: a variety of small details had to be perfected and assembled into one mechanism that ticks the seconds away with unfailing precision.
Results of the Project
A multi-functional planning product for the maritime industry.
MFP is a multi-functional software product for the maritime industry, offering inventory management, project management, a personnel planning tool, cruise planning, barcode scanners, mooring configuration, a voyage planning tool, and more.
Business Value
The whole of a marine research operation planned in one place.
One System for the Whole Operation
Equipment, projects, personnel, cruises, moorings, and voyages are planned in a single system, so the parts of an operation that depend on each other are managed together.
Modules That Stand Alone
Each module works independently, so an institution can start with the part it needs most and add the rest as it goes.
Built with the Institutions That Use It
Developing alongside the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and NERC put the domain expertise of working research bodies into the product itself.
Reliability by Construction
Integration testing at the centre of the approach means the interactions between modules are proven, which is what a planning system carrying real voyages has to offer.
Tools & Technologies
JavaScript
MYSQL