Energy and marine solutions provider MHB sets sail with expansive AI-enabled network

MHB offers a full range of construction and engineering services for the offshore and onshore oil and gas industry, from engineering design and procurement to construction, installation, and commissioning. Its diverse projects include the construction of production topsides, process modules, turrets, floating production systems, buoy systems, and mobile offshore storage units. MHB also supports comprehensive ship repair and refurbishment.

At its fabrication yard, the company had paper-based ops and aging tech that was not able to capture business needs as the company returned to growth after several difficult years of low oil prices and the economic downturn.

“We needed more AI, more IoT, and a transformation of our infrastructure,” explains Raslan Rahim, Head of ICT, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering.

To facilitate digital transformation, MHB needed a network that could support digitalization of its workflows, including its daily work checklist system for marine repair project monitoring and tracking. Fast, reliable Wi-Fi would also lay the foundation to gather machine data to be used for predictive maintenance and to optimize heavy machinery usage.

The Wi-Fi is the foundation of MHB’s digital daily work checklist system that is used to monitor and track marine repairs. MHB is seeing a reduction in work turnaround times and an increase in accuracy of work done in its marine operations and plans to continue its momentum of digitalization to further improve the accuracy and precision of repair work conducted and increase the efficiency of its repair processes.

“Before Juniper Networks, we relied on paper checklists, and final approvals on jobs could take seven or eight days before reaching the client,” says Raslan. “With Wi-Fi connectivity, we can reduce the approval cycle, which means jobs can be completed faster. The faster we can complete jobs, the more ships that can come in, and the more revenue we generate.”

The Juniper network at MHB is an integral part of its 24x7 operations—and connectivity helps keep projects on schedule. “It takes two to three years to build an oil and gas structure, and the timeline is tight. Any delays in workflow due to a network outage can cost massive financial setbacks if the project is delivered behind schedule,” he says.

As a next step, Raslan plans to explore the addition of connected smart devices and IoT sensors to equipment like cranes, trucks, and machinery to optimize utilization and track their location. “We can use these smart technologies now because we have a strong network infrastructure,” Raslan adds.