For shipowners still on the sidelines of the digitalisation push, Kongsberg Digital head Shane McArdle has some advice.
The Irish chief executive of the Norwegian industrial software company encouraged owners to find their end goal, and then work backward to figure out how digital tools can help achieve those goals.
“They have to start with a business case. Is it to decarbonise? Then you work back to your sensor,” McArdle said. “You don’t start with your sensor.”
Some companies have argued that adding digital tools can be time-consuming and expensive, while others worry that crews will not be able to adapt to the new systems on board. Others have expressed concerns that the volume of data allows for the fudging of numbers, leading to bad conclusions.
But digital solutions also come with the promise of helping owners and operators improve efficiency, slash emissions and bring down costs by more closely monitoring their performance and routing voyages through calm seas.
“You absolutely have to know at least what your North Star is from a digitalisation point of view,” McArdle said.
“It can be broad, like decarbonisation is a huge topic. Is it fuel optimisation? Weather reporting? How do you use your engines?
“And then we can even look at it, take it from a very simple sensor on a vessel into ‘how do we operate from onshore to offshore’.”
If ports are moving towards dynamic slots, for example, owners need to have a better idea of when ships will be calling there, and digitalisation can help.
McArdle insisted the technology itself is not the hurdle to digitalising the industry — Kongsberg Digital has outfitted thousands of vessels with sensors that feed into its Vessel Insight architecture. Many digital tools have been used in other industries for years.
Data quality and formats, two persistent issues, have been ironed out, he said.
What will truly move shipping forward is a willingness for owners to get on board.
“It’s people willing to take it the next step further to prove out the value,” McArdle said.
“Once you have the access to the data, once you’ve got platforms in there — and we’re building towards standards for the maritime industry, because Kongsberg is good at that — then it’s about proving the value and the applications you can build once you have the access to it.
“I’d say adoption is the biggest hurdle.”
