On complicated technical systems such as vessels, there is an enormous amount of different sensors, that measure some kind of input from the physical world. A person technically trained is able to gain some information from a single sensor reading, but the information is much more useful when the data from multiple sensors and sources is combined and aggregated at a higher level, where the whole vessel can be seen as a moving sensor.
Pekka Autere, Lead Analyst at Eniram, explains in the following text how sensor readings from several vessels can be used to assess vessel performance and thus evaluate if individual vessel performance is up to the mark or not.
Eniram, June 25, 2014; Image: ASC