Predictive analytics and advisory services are in great demand to maximize intervals between maintenance periods, streamline logistics for deliveries and ensure that main engines are operating optimally, thereby lowering operating costs and minimizing fuel consumption. Wärtsilä plans a ‘huge step’ forward in the development of a next generation of service and maintenance technologies – its augmented reality goggles. The ship’s satellite communications will be used by the goggles to deliver audio-visual guidance to onboard engineers from remote experts. Last week, Wärtsilä had signed a maintenance agreement with GasLog to ensure the reliability of operation of GasLog’s seven LNG carriers. Educated decisions can be made only when the huge data churned out is reduced to the barest minimum. For example, a cargo ship typically generates around 2.5 gigabytes of data a day!
The day has arrived to go beyond the Internet of things to the Internet of big things. Earlier this year, Caterpillar Marine acquired vessel monitoring and data analytics company ESRG Technologies Group for the remote monitoring and diagnostics of more than 65 onboard systems as well as the expertise to provide meaningful recommendations to ship-owners. Caterpillar is now able to make vessel productivity and equipment recommendations not only for the engine but on the entire ship as well as all of the operating systems.
ClassNK is also extending its reach into big data. After launching CMAXS PMS in 2014, the classification society is now looking to integrate it with the ClassNK Data Center to bring together the data collected from CMAXS in secure onshore centers with tightly controlled access. The center could enable ship operators to monitor every vessel in an alliance’s fleet. Similarly, an engine manufacturer could monitor the performance of every one of its engines around the world.
Lloyd’s Register (LR), in their Global Marine Technology Trends 2030 report, describes a new era of data as beneficial to the industry. Most definitions of big data include the three Vs, data of high volume, velocity, and variety, or information assets that demand cost-effective and innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.
Mining data in the shipping industry will offer:
- An early recognition of problems.
- Speeding up the simulation time to allow the industry to take faster actions.
- Improvement of asset utilization, employee productivity, customer experience, and supply chain logistics.
- Stakeholders will be able to monitor live audio and high-definition or 3D video collected on board.
- Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags will support through-life asset management, including the tracking status of cargoes as well as structural and machinery components.
Faster and more capable processors will handle data of high complexity and volume and data transfer speed will be accelerated with the help of the increasing bandwidth. With the integration of 5G, WiFi and new generation satellites, LR predicts that there will be transformation everywhere.
Source: Wärtsilä
