Episode Transcript
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>> Ian Richardson (00:03):
Hi, everyone, and welcome to this edition of
Seatrade Cruise Tech Talks, which is all about
predictive power management. In
this episode, we'll be discussing how predictive power management
can enhance not only operational efficiency,
but also guest satisfaction. I'm Ian
Richardson, CEO and co founder of the ICEway and
Seatrade Cruise Global's technology ambassador. And I'm joined
(00:25):
by Michelle Potorski, VP and general
manager of Duracell. Profess.
Welcome, Michelle.
>> Michelle Potorski (00:36):
Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here.
>> Ian Richardson (00:39):
Yeah, it's great having you with us. So. Well, why
don't we start by, maybe you can introduce yourself what your role
is at Duracell, and also tell us a little bit about
what we're going to be talking about today.
>> Michelle Potorski (00:49):
Great. So my name is Michelle
Potorski. I work for
Duracell and I lead their professional
division which includes, Procell Batteries
and also Procell Insight, which we'll be
talking about today. So I've been with the company
for about seven years
and we had. I've been in this
(01:11):
role for two years and, you know, the company has a
really long legacy of providing
the best energy solutions and a great
history in battery management. Energy
management. And we really understand
battery operated devices inside and
out. And that has led us to our newest
innovation called Procell Insight.
>> Ian Richardson (01:33):
Okay, sounds good.
Okay, well, maybe we can start with,
talking a little bit about some of the power
management challenges in Cruise.
What's the scope of the problem as you see it?
>> Michelle Potorski (01:45):
Sure. So in Cruise there are
many, many battery operated devices. So
let's take, an average ship of
about 3,000 cabins, and we estimate
that there's over 40,000 batteries on board
powering those devices. So everything from the door
locks when you go into a room with a
(02:06):
touchless system, to the safes where you might put your
valuables to hand
sanitizers and soap dispensers, paper
towel dispensers, anything in a touchless bathroom.
Those all take batteries. And what
we noted is that there's really
no good way to monitor those batteries and understand when
they need to be changed. So it leads to
(02:28):
usually two behaviors. One is that
the, staff, the operations staff, may change them on a
schedule, which allows
them to avoid any concerns from a
customer experience standpoint. But in that
situation, they're throwing away batteries which have maybe
sometimes as much as 70% of the life left in
them. So they're doing this on a schedule, they're spending
(02:50):
labor and they're spending money on batteries that they may not need
to change out yet. But if they don't do that, they
risk going too long and the battery dying
and the device not working. And that could
cause a very bad customer experience.
>> Ian Richardson (03:04):
Right, yeah. So it's really getting that
balance right between guest satisfaction and operational
efficiency.
>> Michelle Potorski (03:11):
Exactly, exactly. They want to make sure that you do
everything that you can to avoid a negative customer experience
in some situations. What could happen if the battery,
for instance, in the door to the
cabin was out, it means they couldn't get into the
room, couldn't get into their, you know, reach their
belongings. And they may be sitting outside their room
(03:32):
for up to 45 minutes or even longer while the
operations staff comes in and gets them access to that room
again. So it's possibly a very
negative experience. So they really want to do everything that they can to
avoid that. But then on the flip side, right now there's a lot of
guesswork involved in it, and it really leads
to not operating as efficiently as
possible, both from a, you know, a scheduling and staffing
(03:55):
standpoint, from the operations team, and then
also just a cost standpoint, M and spending dollars
on batteries that didn't need to be changed out
yet.
>> Ian Richardson (04:03):
Okay, so tell us about, Procell Insight.
what exactly is it and, what are the benefits?
>> Michelle Potorski (04:09):
Absolutely. So Procell Insight
is a wireless device management
system. And the way it works, it's a very
simple retrofit which makes every battery
operated devices, even a data device, it makes it
a smart device. So it connects them
and in real time monitors the device
and sends information back to a centralized
(04:31):
dashboard. So at any given time,
you'll know every battery all across the
ship when it needs to be changed. So where it is, it
gauges, it shows battery gauging. So it shows exactly
where the battery is in its usable life.
And it proactively sends a flag when the battery,
when it's getting dangerously low and the battery needs to be
changed out. So again,
(04:54):
what it does, it provides an opportunity to
address and protect guest satisfaction.
So you could, you know, again, if that
guest has a bad experience that they're locked out of their room,
they could. We know that over 40% of guests, when they have a
negative experience, they post about it, they tell
people, and one bad review could
(05:14):
lead to 30 lost bookings. So this can
translates into quite a bit of lost revenue.
And you want to do everything you can to avoid that. So it
protects guest satisfaction, it increases
operational efficiency. So as we were talking about
earlier, the, the time and labor that it takes to
go around and do these frequent battery checks and
change out the battery on a schedule. This
(05:37):
is very cumbersome. And cruise line spends over
$100,000 in annual hours
fleet wide replacing batteries. So it is a
significant drain on labor and it
is something that could be much, much more efficient.
And then lastly, it's better from a sustainability
perspective because you know, many cruise lines are
(05:57):
making commitments to reduce waste and adopt
more eco friendly practices and
optimizing battery replacement really helps to
meet those sustainability goals and it also improves brand
perception among those eco conscious travelers.
So just think about the unnecessary waste
that proactive battery replacement is causing
(06:18):
and it creates a situation when there's more batteries
in the landfill fills this larger carbon
footprint and it really just increased waste. A
typical cruise ship, you know, 40,000
batteries on board generates tons of waste by
discarding them with again sometimes up to
70% of the battery power still
unused. So this is a, ah, this
(06:40):
is a really great opportunity to reduce
the number of batteries that are thrown out unnecessarily
and really meet those sustainability goals.
>> Ian Richardson (06:48):
Sounds great.
Now listeners to this podcast will already
know about the cruise environment.
It presenting quite unique challenges. Can you
explain a little bit about how the product, how you've adapted
the product for cruise ships specifically?
>> Michelle Potorski (07:05):
So we have created Procell
Insights. It's a wireless device management
solution and as we thought about
its applicability on cruise lines, we said this is
really the perfect environment because
there's so many devices and
such a high demand on cruise ships. So there's a high
drain on these devices and it's so important
(07:27):
to get it right. So what we've done, we've created,
we've enhanced the functionality
so it provides
predictive alerts again when those door lock batteries need to
be replaced or other devices. So it
ensures that because they take away the risk
of the battery failing prematurely, it
protects that guest experience, ensures the guests can always have
(07:50):
access to their cabins and always have the best user
experience. We've also
created a situation where the dashboard, again it
can be centrally reviewed at any time. These different
customized views depending if you're looking at one ship, if you're
looking at a fleet of ships, but it is created
so it's very simple, it's intuitive and it
(08:10):
can alert the operations team when the batteries need to
be replaced. It can also give them a sense of how
battery operated devices are performing so there's an
outage on the device that will flag that as well.
And then lastly, from a sustainability standpoint,
we not only have less Batteries, because they're
changing them less often. And by the way, we started with the
(08:31):
Procell battery being one of the longest lasting
batteries. So that was our first step. And then with
Procell Insight, it actually makes sure that you can use the battery
to the furthest possible extent and usable life of that
battery. And then we also for cruise
line, a recycling program. So we have a very
simple battery collection. It's a simple bin
(08:51):
that we take when the turnaround happens for
the cruise lines and for the ships. And it's a
very seamless way for us to take the battery and then
recycle that battery in kind of a very closed loop
recycling process. And this
is an excellent solution for cruise line.
It really makes it a seamless
experience overall.
>> Ian Richardson (09:13):
Okay, yeah, I was going to talk a little bit about, the
sustainability story of it, so maybe you can
elaborate a little bit about that. You talked about the closed loop
battery collection and recycling. How does that, work?
>> Michelle Potorski (09:24):
Okay, so from a sustainability standpoint,
first thing that we do is create the longest lasting battery.
And then with Procell Insight, we're able to use the
batteries to the full extent of its life. And
then with the recycling program, we're able to take the product
back, bring it back and extract
the usable materials. So we re filter that back
(09:44):
into our production process. It's a very
streamlined process and it helps us
maximize the impact of the battery, it
helps us use the materials to the greatest
extent and it helps the
cruise lines and our partners meet their
sustainability goals overall.
>> Ian Richardson (10:02):
That sounds great. I mean, and the alternative, I assume,
is a lot of these batteries go into landfill or
they're just sort of lesser efficient
recycling, pathways.
>> Michelle Potorski (10:12):
Absolutely. To go into landfills. And what
we know, again in an average cruise line,
this Insight program can help reduce waste
by tens of thousands of pounds annually,
which considerably contributes to their
sustainability goals. So it really makes a big impact.
>> Ian Richardson (10:29):
Fantastic.
So looking ahead, maybe you can tell us a little bit about what
your vision or what Procell's vision for
2025 is and beyond.
>> Michelle Potorski (10:38):
We have a very, I would say, innovative
approach to battery management and device
management. We believe that intelligent power
solutions will further improve as
IoT and battery technology advances
and we will continue to
evolve with that. So we see a world where
(10:59):
innovation like Procell insights really
help to enhance the guest experience overall,
enhance operational efficiency and enhanced
sustainability. And as the technology
evolves, our vision for how we evolve with
it is very advanced. The sensors that
we place the retrofit for personal
insight, it gives us a tremendous amount
(11:21):
of access to data. And data
is so important to our cruise line
partners because it gives them insights on how to
be more operationally efficient, how to even get
ahead of the curve from a, sustainability
standpoint, but also how to further delight the
guests and how to further increase that guest experience
and enhance the guest experience. There's so
(11:43):
much they can learn from the data that we're able to collect through
these sensors. So not only battery gauging,
but things like heat maps and
understanding usage patterns of different devices
in different parts of the ship. It
really can be quite eye opening and mind
opening. So we want to continue to be there
to help drive that kind of efficiency
(12:06):
and also to help them really further
elevate that guest experience.
We also really want to continue
to collaborate with the industry to
meet their goals. So we have had a rich collaboration with
CLIA and we will continue to do that to
understand how we can
(12:26):
further innovate to meet the goals of our
partners. We want to make sure that we listen
and we share our vision of a
purely, fully predictive
ecosystem for these very
sustainability conscious cruise operations.
So we are actively working with a number of
cruise lines on this vision and our
(12:48):
installation plans for Insight as the first step.
But really the future is so
rich for what we can then do together.
>> Ian Richardson (12:56):
That sounds fascinating.
so, ah, do you have any final thoughts of what you'd like our listeners to
take away in understanding Procell?
>> Michelle Potorski (13:03):
So Procell Insight is an
exciting innovation which is really focused on
elevating the guest experience, enhancing guest
satisfaction, driving operational
efficiency and also sustainability.
And Procell is fully
committed to leading the power technology
(13:24):
that supports the cruise industry's unique
needs. I would also
encourage listeners to reach out to Procell
or visit Procell Insight. The
website is
www.procell.com
insight to learn more about this
innovation and I also invite industry
stakeholders to explore pilot programs,
(13:46):
partnerships and all the content that we
have on the site. But also reach out to us and
we can help further demonstrate insight's impact
specifically for you.
>> Ian Richardson (13:56):
fantastic. So if our listeners feel
Inspired after today's TechTalk, they can reach out
to Procell or visit the website and learn
more all about Procell Insight and what it's doing for the
industry. All that's left to do now really is just to.
Thank you Michelle. It's been a really fascinating discussion. I've really
enjoyed learning more about Procell Insight. I'm
(14:16):
sure our listeners have too. So thanks very much.
>> Michelle Potorski (14:18):
Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity
and it was an excellent experience. Thank you.
>> Ian Richardson (14:24):
Great. Thanks. Michelle.
Thanks for joining me on this episode of Tech Talks from the
ICEway and Seatrade Cruise. I hope you took
something from it and I very much look forward to seeing you next time.