Shipping needs to focus on collecting the right data rather than any data, and needs to be less scared of sharing it.
While industry is heavily focused on the threat of disruption, it needs to still focus on the fact that there are over 50,000 ships, some with limited data extraction possibilities on the water that won´t be upgraded for another 10 or 15 years.
Opening up one of the Disruptive Talks at the year’s Nor-Shipping in Oslo, Jan Otto De Kat from US-based class society ABS said that while there are significant changes in the industry, it would be better to describe them more as a transformation rather than disruption.
He did however point out that ship designers need to change design practices to realise how ships will actually be used. While the operational data has been used by class to develop regulations, he said that a stronger feedback loop. pushing operational data back to the ship and equipment designers would be of a great benefit.
De Kat also focused on the importance of people onboard. Monitoring of systems is becoming ever more important onboard ships, and the data is the key issue. But are we collecting too much data? De Kat Jan believes we are just in the initial stages. He said there is a lot of data that has been collected for years that is not being used ” but we have to make up our minds what the key information is”.
An expert panel of Jan 0tto de Kat Director of Energy Efficiency and Vessel Performance, ABS (pictured) alongside Colin Rawlins, M.D., V Group (Germany), Joern Springer, Senior Director Fleet Support Centre, Hapag Lloyd and Tues Van Beek, General Manager Innovation at Wartsila were tasked with identifying ‘What problems need disrupting in the maritime industry?’
Hapag Lloyd operations director Joern Springer of Hapag Lloyd stressed the point that owners or operators should not obsess with seeking the perfect set of data. The first thing his company does with any data is a simple plausibility test. He drew parallels with weather forecasting. There still needs to be a human in the loop, he said.
Colin Rawlins of V Group spoke about how crews react to this digital transition and increased automation. He doesn´t expect the 45,000 crew V Group manages to disappear overnight. the biggest challenge he sees is improving crew training, especially with regards to safety. One key element of this is plain English. Onboard instruction manuals can use very complicated language and are difficult to understand, even for native English speakers
Setting the scene:
Jan Otto de Kat set the scene for the following discussion:
- physical and digital threats and disruptions need to be reconciled
- the increasing volume of data impacts every area of shipping operations and is key that will unlock disruption
- This causes challenges to the traditional role of class meaning
Panel discussion: The video
