Using real-time structural insight as a competitive edge at ITS

International Transportation Service (ITS) is a container terminal operator located in one of the oldest and most strategically important harbors in Southern California, the United States. They are also known for being very open to piloting with innovation and new sustainability practices.

The engineering and asset management team is responsible for maintaining highly critical steel assets, including ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes and other heavy equipment that directly impact terminal availability and operational safety.

The challenge

While established inspection methods such as Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) are widely used and often required by regulation, they are time-consuming, resource-intensive, and provide only periodic snapshots of asset condition. For large structures like STS cranes that often have stress points in hard to access areas, this sometimes led to uncertainty around fatigue and crack growth, making it difficult to balance safety, uptime, and maintenance efficiency.

Why Villari

ITS explored Villari as part of a broader initiative to adopt technologies that could improve asset reliability while strengthening operational performance and protect uptime. Villari’s wireless crack-detection system offers continuous, real-time insight into the most critical structural locations on STS cranes, without disrupting ongoing operations.

“For us, the operational availability and reliability of our cranes are everything. The promise of Villari, giving us real-time visibility into critical areas of our STS cranes, provides us with a new competitive edge to maximize uptime without compromising safety or reliability”. Akram Hussien, Head of Engineering and Asset Management at International Transportation Service 

Solution & early impact

As part of the demo project, Villari sensors were installed on two critical STS cranes. The Villari system is designed to deliver continuous visibility into structural behavior at key fatigue-sensitive locations. Through this project, the ITS engineering team aims to

·       validate inspection findings

·       reduce unnecessary manual checks

·       gain earlier insight into potential fatigue development

·       better understand how continuous monitoring can support more focused maintenance planning

Have you experienced similar challenges or are just looking for new ways to improve the efficiency of your operations? Reach out to us!