Blog

Shaping of Emerging technologies and its impact on shipping industry

November 20, 2018 by admin

Shipping is a very old industry and has been there in existence since many centuries.  The adoption of technology by the industry has been slow especially due to the fragmented nature of business and operations. Today, the shipping industry is at an inflection point where technology has gathered a strong interest and technology and its use cases are discussed, debated, conceptualised, and prototyped and implemented across the shipping industry.

With respect to technology and the changes it aims to bring in the shipping industry, there are primary three school of thoughts within the seafarer’s mind especially with respect to technology disruption

Demography of seafarers holding above views are predominantly based on the era of their shipping career, with definitely a certain amount of overlap. Recently I was party to a discussion on this issue in an online forum and the dichotomy of these views were quite evident during the discussion.

Emerging technologies shaping all the industries

The key emerging technologies will influence all disciples, economies and industries and will do so at an unprecedented rate. The new technologies will create a fusion between the physical, digital and the biological worlds.

Some of the key shifts discussed in the World economic forum related to emerging technologies are as below:

(Not an exhaustive list)

1. Implantable Technologies
    A microchip implant is a device that can be implanted into the body of a human or animal. The size of these microchips is extremely small; therefore, they can be easily implanted without the need for complicated surgery.
2. Wearable internet
   Wearable technology is a blanket term for electronics that can be worn on the body, either as an accessory or as part of material used in clothing. This ability to both send and receive data.
3. Ubiquitous computing
   Ubiquitous computing is a concept in software engineering and computer science where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format.
4. Internet of things / Industrial internet of things (IOT / IIOT)
   The Internet of things is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity, which enables these things to connect, collect and exchange data.
5. Driverless/ Autonomous cars (We can assume ships too for shipping industry)
   An autonomous car is a vehicle that can guide itself without human conduction. This kind of vehicle has become a concrete reality and may pave the way for future systems where computers take over the art of driving. An autonomous car is also known as driverless car, robot car, self-driving car or autonomous vehicle.
6. Smart cities
   Smart city is a designation given to a city that incorporates information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance the quality and performance of urban services such as energy, transportation and utilities in order to reduce resource consumption, wastage and overall costs.
7. Artificial intelligence – Decision making & White collar jobs
   The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
8. Robotics & Services
   Specially one programmable by a computer— capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. An external control device can guide robots or the control may be embedded within.
9. Bitcoin and Block chain
   A Block chain is a decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the consensus of the network.
10. The sharing economy
    The sharing economy is an economic model often defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing or sharing access to goods and services that are facilitated by a community based on-line platform.
11. 3D Printing
    3D printing is any of various processes in which material is joined or solidified under computer control to create a three-dimensional object, with material being added together. 3D printing is used in both rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing.
12. Bionic enhancements
    In medicine, bionics means the replacement or enhancement of organs or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it.

The shifts mentioned above are at different stages of their maturity, will influence all disciples, economies and industries, and will do so at an unprecedented rate and shipping is no exception.

Emerging Technology in shipping industry

Shipping is generating a lot of interest among the technology enthusiasts, primarily due to it being a traditional industry, as they believe this industry is ripe for undergoing through a technology disruption. There are many start-ups, which has sprung up in last 3-4 years, which aim to change the way the industry operates. There are multiple marine hackathons and marine start up accelerator programs conducted across the world to promote technology disruption.

Without going into lot of details below are few of the areas in shipping industry where considerable work is undertaken to change the way shipping has been operating as per the “Global Marine Technology Trends 2030” 

(Not an exhaustive list)

*Within each technology areas, there are multiple initiatives and use cases which are being designed and developed

Objectives of technology adoption in shipping industry

Shipping industry has been mostly dependent on human skills and seamanship’s and the outcomes were mostly dependent on an individual competency. While we cannot say that it has been operating at the suboptimal level, the key motive of these developments are to remove or reduce the dependency on human element.

The key objectives of multiple technology adoption is to drive the below objectives:

• Visibility – Improve operational and financial visibility
• Cost reduction – Reduce total cost of operations
• Process driven – Process dependency instead of people dependency
• Predictive – Predictive actions instead of reactive actions
• Real time – Real time analysis and decision-making
• Efficiency – Automate and reduce turnaround time
• Effective – Do more with less

How we see the impact of technology going forward

Technology is definitely going to re shape the industry as compared to the way it has been operated since last 20-40 years. However, for any successful and sustainable implementation of technology, the complete shipping ecosystem needs to be changed and aligned. Shipping industry has operated in a fragmented manner with multiple stakeholders working in silos, and this will be one of the key challenges to address from an operational standpoint.

In addition, the technologies driving the shipping revolution will have major impacts on statutory bodies, governments, Policy makers, businesses, seafarers, and infrastructure, which will take time to re align to what technology has to offer.

Capt. Dhananjay Singh
Managing Director- Barco Infotech solutions
https://www.barcoinfotech.com