In 2023, a more proactive mode of management with data at its heart will be taken up to comply with incoming regulations and deliver safer, more efficient operations, writes Sasha Heriot from Wärtsilä Voyage.
As regulatory pressure to decarbonise ramps up, data-driven decision-making will be the easiest, most effective way for organisations to start curbing emissions today, not five years from now. A growing number of operators will realise that slow steaming has diminishing returns, and more companies will publicly commit to using technology – such as AI – to fast-track emissions reduction, for example through voyage optimisation.
Digital technology will be used to break down silos and ensure whole supply chains can communicate more efficiently. We expect more port operators to invest in technology to increase the efficiency of ship calls, support just-in-time arrivals and enable green shipping corridors.
In 2023, the maritime sector will continue to realise the benefits of digital twinning to help make clean tech R&D more realistic. The digital twin market is expected to grow from $6.9 billion in 2022 to $73.5 billion in 2027, and maritime is increasingly drawing on this technology to create digital versions of existing vessels. This has the potential to allow organisations to use simulated, but still near-real conditions, to test different scenarios without risk or compromising on safety.
It will become the first step of much of the industry’s technological innovation process. It will be followed by physical trials on test vessels and in experience centres to speed up innovation, enabling organisations to fail fast and maximise time and cost efficiencies to bring new technology to market quicker.
We expect to continue seeing advancement towards highly automated shipping in 2023, as the benefits of autonomy become clearer. However, like all technological change, the reality is that highly automated vessels will come about in a step change fashion even though much of the groundwork has been done, adopted, and is well understood by the market.
We also foresee the introduction of talent from logistics, IT and sustainability specialists to increase the pace of technological change and to deliver against the industry’s ambitious net zero strategies. This will help drive digital maturity and support the adoption of digital technologies that can deliver immediate results on decarbonisation.
However, if shipping companies are going to benefit from data-driven insights or even alternative fuels, crews must be highly competent, operate with the highest levels of safety and have access to continuous training programmes. It was recently reported that up to 800,000 seafarers will require additional training to meet decarbonisation goals, as part of a new action plan announced at COP27 to upskill the maritime workforce.
In 2023, we will see the industry fully embrace VR and mixed-reality training methods, ushering in a new era of learning and development within the industry. Physical training can be expensive, time consuming, and if carried out onboard, also potentially high-risk. Blending this with virtual training can provide a range of benefits. Learners can experience simulated versions of life at sea, operating in near-real conditions to see how they may operate in a range of different scenarios.
Connectivity breakthroughs will continue to enable the use of more technology within training – for example, the option of using onboard simulators, previously unthinkable even in recent years, now has potential to become the norm for many vessels.
We believe that the industry’s sustainability goals and the pathway to decarbonisation are intrinsically linked to digitalisation, and the impact that digitalisation and data-driven insights will have on the industry is going to be huge. No longer an optional extra, taking progressive action on digitalisation will be the difference between success and failure in 2023 and beyond.
