Episode 1
Tech Talks | Michelle Potorski, Procell InSite
In this episode of Tech Talks, Ian Richardson is joined by Michelle Potorski, President of Procell InSite, to explore the transformative power of predictive battery management in the cruise industry.
Discover how proactive device management prevents disruptions like door lock failures, enhances guest satisfaction, and streamlines operations with real-time maintenance alerts.
Learn how this innovative solution also supports sustainability goals by reducing waste and labor inefficiencies. Tune in to find out how intelligent power solutions are paving the way for a greener, more seamless future in cruise operations.
Find out more about Procell Insite here: Procell InSite | Procell
Transcript
>> Ian Richardson: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this edition of
Speaker:Seatrade Cruise Tech Talks, which is all about
Speaker:predictive power management. In
Speaker:this episode, we'll be discussing how predictive power management
Speaker:can enhance not only operational efficiency,
Speaker:but also guest satisfaction. I'm Ian
Speaker:Richardson, CEO and co founder of the ICEway and
Speaker:Seatrade Cruise Global's technology ambassador. And I'm joined
Speaker:by Michelle Potorski, VP and general
Speaker:manager of Duracell. Profess.
Speaker:Welcome, Michelle.
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Yeah, it's great having you with us. So. Well, why
Speaker:don't we start by, maybe you can introduce yourself what your role
Speaker:is at Duracell, and also tell us a little bit about
Speaker:what we're going to be talking about today.
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Great. So my name is Michelle
Speaker:Potorski. I work for
Speaker:Duracell and I lead their professional
Speaker:division which includes, Procell Batteries
Speaker:and also Procell Insight, which we'll be
Speaker:talking about today. So I've been with the company
Speaker:for about seven years
Speaker:and we had. I've been in this
Speaker:role for two years and, you know, the company has a
Speaker:really long legacy of providing
Speaker:the best energy solutions and a great
Speaker:history in battery management. Energy
Speaker:management. And we really understand
Speaker:battery operated devices inside and
Speaker:out. And that has led us to our newest
Speaker:innovation called Procell Insight.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Okay, sounds good.
Speaker:Okay, well, maybe we can start with,
Speaker:talking a little bit about some of the power
Speaker:management challenges in Cruise.
Speaker:What's the scope of the problem as you see it?
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Sure. So in Cruise there are
Speaker:many, many battery operated devices. So
Speaker:let's take, an average ship of
Speaker:about 3,000 cabins, and we estimate
Speaker:that there's over 40,000 batteries on board
Speaker:powering those devices. So everything from the door
Speaker:locks when you go into a room with a
Speaker:touchless system, to the safes where you might put your
Speaker:valuables to hand
Speaker:sanitizers and soap dispensers, paper
Speaker:towel dispensers, anything in a touchless bathroom.
Speaker:Those all take batteries. And what
Speaker:we noted is that there's really
Speaker:no good way to monitor those batteries and understand when
Speaker:they need to be changed. So it leads to
Speaker:usually two behaviors. One is that
Speaker:the, staff, the operations staff, may change them on a
Speaker:schedule, which allows
Speaker:them to avoid any concerns from a
Speaker:customer experience standpoint. But in that
Speaker:situation, they're throwing away batteries which have maybe
Speaker:sometimes as much as 70% of the life left in
Speaker:them. So they're doing this on a schedule, they're spending
Speaker:labor and they're spending money on batteries that they may not need
Speaker:to change out yet. But if they don't do that, they
Speaker:risk going too long and the battery dying
Speaker:and the device not working. And that could
Speaker:cause a very bad customer experience.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Right, yeah. So it's really getting that
Speaker:balance right between guest satisfaction and operational
Speaker:efficiency.
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Exactly, exactly. They want to make sure that you do
Speaker:everything that you can to avoid a negative customer experience
Speaker:in some situations. What could happen if the battery,
Speaker:for instance, in the door to the
Speaker:cabin was out, it means they couldn't get into the
Speaker:room, couldn't get into their, you know, reach their
Speaker:belongings. And they may be sitting outside their room
Speaker:for up to 45 minutes or even longer while the
Speaker:operations staff comes in and gets them access to that room
Speaker:again. So it's possibly a very
Speaker:negative experience. So they really want to do everything that they can to
Speaker:avoid that. But then on the flip side, right now there's a lot of
Speaker:guesswork involved in it, and it really leads
Speaker:to not operating as efficiently as
Speaker:possible, both from a, you know, a scheduling and staffing
Speaker:standpoint, from the operations team, and then
Speaker:also just a cost standpoint, M and spending dollars
Speaker:on batteries that didn't need to be changed out
Speaker:yet.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Okay, so tell us about, Procell Insight.
Speaker:what exactly is it and, what are the benefits?
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Absolutely. So Procell Insight
Speaker:is a wireless device management
Speaker:system. And the way it works, it's a very
Speaker:simple retrofit which makes every battery
Speaker:operated devices, even a data device, it makes it
Speaker:a smart device. So it connects them
Speaker:and in real time monitors the device
Speaker:and sends information back to a centralized
Speaker:dashboard. So at any given time,
Speaker:you'll know every battery all across the
Speaker:ship when it needs to be changed. So where it is, it
Speaker:gauges, it shows battery gauging. So it shows exactly
Speaker:where the battery is in its usable life.
Speaker:And it proactively sends a flag when the battery,
Speaker:when it's getting dangerously low and the battery needs to be
Speaker:changed out. So again,
Speaker:what it does, it provides an opportunity to
Speaker:address and protect guest satisfaction.
Speaker:So you could, you know, again, if that
Speaker:guest has a bad experience that they're locked out of their room,
Speaker:they could. We know that over 40% of guests, when they have a
Speaker:negative experience, they post about it, they tell
Speaker:people, and one bad review could
Speaker:lead to 30 lost bookings. So this can
Speaker:translates into quite a bit of lost revenue.
Speaker:And you want to do everything you can to avoid that. So it
Speaker:protects guest satisfaction, it increases
Speaker:operational efficiency. So as we were talking about
Speaker:earlier, the, the time and labor that it takes to
Speaker:go around and do these frequent battery checks and
Speaker:change out the battery on a schedule. This
Speaker:is very cumbersome. And cruise line spends over
Speaker:$100,000 in annual hours
Speaker:fleet wide replacing batteries. So it is a
Speaker:significant drain on labor and it
Speaker:is something that could be much, much more efficient.
Speaker:And then lastly, it's better from a sustainability
Speaker:perspective because you know, many cruise lines are
Speaker:making commitments to reduce waste and adopt
Speaker:more eco friendly practices and
Speaker:optimizing battery replacement really helps to
Speaker:meet those sustainability goals and it also improves brand
Speaker:perception among those eco conscious travelers.
Speaker:So just think about the unnecessary waste
Speaker:that proactive battery replacement is causing
Speaker:and it creates a situation when there's more batteries
Speaker:in the landfill fills this larger carbon
Speaker:footprint and it really just increased waste. A
Speaker:typical cruise ship, you know, 40,000
Speaker:batteries on board generates tons of waste by
Speaker:discarding them with again sometimes up to
Speaker:70% of the battery power still
Speaker:unused. So this is a, ah, this
Speaker:is a really great opportunity to reduce
Speaker:the number of batteries that are thrown out unnecessarily
Speaker:and really meet those sustainability goals.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Sounds great.
Speaker:Now listeners to this podcast will already
Speaker:know about the cruise environment.
Speaker:It presenting quite unique challenges. Can you
Speaker:explain a little bit about how the product, how you've adapted
Speaker:the product for cruise ships specifically?
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: So we have created Procell
Speaker:Insights. It's a wireless device management
Speaker:solution and as we thought about
Speaker:its applicability on cruise lines, we said this is
Speaker:really the perfect environment because
Speaker:there's so many devices and
Speaker:such a high demand on cruise ships. So there's a high
Speaker:drain on these devices and it's so important
Speaker:to get it right. So what we've done, we've created,
Speaker:we've enhanced the functionality
Speaker:so it provides
Speaker:predictive alerts again when those door lock batteries need to
Speaker:be replaced or other devices. So it
Speaker:ensures that because they take away the risk
Speaker:of the battery failing prematurely, it
Speaker:protects that guest experience, ensures the guests can always have
Speaker:access to their cabins and always have the best user
Speaker:experience. We've also
Speaker:created a situation where the dashboard, again it
Speaker:can be centrally reviewed at any time. These different
Speaker:customized views depending if you're looking at one ship, if you're
Speaker:looking at a fleet of ships, but it is created
Speaker:so it's very simple, it's intuitive and it
Speaker:can alert the operations team when the batteries need to
Speaker:be replaced. It can also give them a sense of how
Speaker:battery operated devices are performing so there's an
Speaker:outage on the device that will flag that as well.
Speaker:And then lastly, from a sustainability standpoint,
Speaker:we not only have less Batteries, because they're
Speaker:changing them less often. And by the way, we started with the
Speaker:Procell battery being one of the longest lasting
Speaker:batteries. So that was our first step. And then with
Speaker:Procell Insight, it actually makes sure that you can use the battery
Speaker:to the furthest possible extent and usable life of that
Speaker:battery. And then we also for cruise
Speaker:line, a recycling program. So we have a very
Speaker:simple battery collection. It's a simple bin
Speaker:that we take when the turnaround happens for
Speaker:the cruise lines and for the ships. And it's a
Speaker:very seamless way for us to take the battery and then
Speaker:recycle that battery in kind of a very closed loop
Speaker:recycling process. And this
Speaker:is an excellent solution for cruise line.
Speaker:It really makes it a seamless
Speaker:experience overall.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Okay, yeah, I was going to talk a little bit about, the
Speaker:sustainability story of it, so maybe you can
Speaker:elaborate a little bit about that. You talked about the closed loop
Speaker:battery collection and recycling. How does that, work?
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Okay, so from a sustainability standpoint,
Speaker:first thing that we do is create the longest lasting battery.
Speaker:And then with Procell Insight, we're able to use the
Speaker:batteries to the full extent of its life. And
Speaker:then with the recycling program, we're able to take the product
Speaker:back, bring it back and extract
Speaker:the usable materials. So we re filter that back
Speaker:into our production process. It's a very
Speaker:streamlined process and it helps us
Speaker:maximize the impact of the battery, it
Speaker:helps us use the materials to the greatest
Speaker:extent and it helps the
Speaker:cruise lines and our partners meet their
Speaker:sustainability goals overall.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: That sounds great. I mean, and the alternative, I assume,
Speaker:is a lot of these batteries go into landfill or
Speaker:they're just sort of lesser efficient
Speaker:recycling, pathways.
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Absolutely. To go into landfills. And what
Speaker:we know, again in an average cruise line,
Speaker:this Insight program can help reduce waste
Speaker:by tens of thousands of pounds annually,
Speaker:which considerably contributes to their
Speaker:sustainability goals. So it really makes a big impact.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Fantastic.
Speaker:So looking ahead, maybe you can tell us a little bit about what
Speaker:your vision or what Procell's vision for
Speaker:2025 is and beyond.
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: We have a very, I would say, innovative
Speaker:approach to battery management and device
Speaker:management. We believe that intelligent power
Speaker:solutions will further improve as
Speaker:IoT and battery technology advances
Speaker:and we will continue to
Speaker:evolve with that. So we see a world where
Speaker:innovation like Procell insights really
Speaker:help to enhance the guest experience overall,
Speaker:enhance operational efficiency and enhanced
Speaker:sustainability. And as the technology
Speaker:evolves, our vision for how we evolve with
Speaker:it is very advanced. The sensors that
Speaker:we place the retrofit for personal
Speaker:insight, it gives us a tremendous amount
Speaker:of access to data. And data
Speaker:is so important to our cruise line
Speaker:partners because it gives them insights on how to
Speaker:be more operationally efficient, how to even get
Speaker:ahead of the curve from a, sustainability
Speaker:standpoint, but also how to further delight the
Speaker:guests and how to further increase that guest experience
Speaker:and enhance the guest experience. There's so
Speaker:much they can learn from the data that we're able to collect through
Speaker:these sensors. So not only battery gauging,
Speaker:but things like heat maps and
Speaker:understanding usage patterns of different devices
Speaker:in different parts of the ship. It
Speaker:really can be quite eye opening and mind
Speaker:opening. So we want to continue to be there
Speaker:to help drive that kind of efficiency
Speaker:and also to help them really further
Speaker:elevate that guest experience.
Speaker:We also really want to continue
Speaker:to collaborate with the industry to
Speaker:meet their goals. So we have had a rich collaboration with
Speaker:CLIA and we will continue to do that to
Speaker:understand how we can
Speaker:further innovate to meet the goals of our
Speaker:partners. We want to make sure that we listen
Speaker:and we share our vision of a
Speaker:purely, fully predictive
Speaker:ecosystem for these very
Speaker:sustainability conscious cruise operations.
Speaker:So we are actively working with a number of
Speaker:cruise lines on this vision and our
Speaker:installation plans for Insight as the first step.
Speaker:But really the future is so
Speaker:rich for what we can then do together.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: That sounds fascinating.
Speaker:so, ah, do you have any final thoughts of what you'd like our listeners to
Speaker:take away in understanding Procell?
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: So Procell Insight is an
Speaker:exciting innovation which is really focused on
Speaker:elevating the guest experience, enhancing guest
Speaker:satisfaction, driving operational
Speaker:efficiency and also sustainability.
Speaker:And Procell is fully
Speaker:committed to leading the power technology
Speaker:that supports the cruise industry's unique
Speaker:needs. I would also
Speaker:encourage listeners to reach out to Procell
Speaker:or visit Procell Insight. The
Speaker:website is
Speaker:www.procell.com
Speaker:insight to learn more about this
Speaker:innovation and I also invite industry
Speaker:stakeholders to explore pilot programs,
Speaker:partnerships and all the content that we
Speaker:have on the site. But also reach out to us and
Speaker:we can help further demonstrate insight's impact
Speaker:specifically for you.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: fantastic. So if our listeners feel
Speaker:Inspired after today's TechTalk, they can reach out
Speaker:to Procell or visit the website and learn
Speaker:more all about Procell Insight and what it's doing for the
Speaker:industry. All that's left to do now really is just to.
Speaker:Thank you Michelle. It's been a really fascinating discussion. I've really
Speaker:enjoyed learning more about Procell Insight. I'm
Speaker:sure our listeners have too. So thanks very much.
Speaker:>> Michelle Potorski: Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity
Speaker:and it was an excellent experience. Thank you.
Speaker:>> Ian Richardson: Great. Thanks. Michelle.
Speaker:Thanks for joining me on this episode of Tech Talks from the
Speaker:ICEway and Seatrade Cruise. I hope you took
Speaker:something from it and I very much look forward to seeing you next time.
