Adapt or die? Four key technology trends for a sustainable shipping industry

Roger Adamson, ceo of Stark Moore McMillan continues his series on the technology threats and opportunities facing shipping, focusing on four emerging issues: the sentient ship, the cyborg crew, shipistics and business e-volution

Historically conservative and insular, like many industries before it shipping is facing a watershed period. Currently languishing in the worst downturn many can remember, regulatory compliance and survival in many sectors is the prime focus. But some are already acknowledging that a longer-term view is necessary. In order to secure its future shipping must be focussing on efficiency, competitive advantage and the type of technological innovation other industries are already preparing for and implementing.

I’ve previously outlined what we call the ‘e-nautics’ agenda; the transition to new, digital and technological-based standards of operation and monitoring within the maritime space being driven by regulation, commercial necessity and global change. The study and exploration of this technology-enabled maritime future, Futurenautics is grouped around four key trends, the sentient ship, the cyborg crew, shipistics [a point deducted here for debasement of English – Ed] and business e-volution.

These subject areas include IT-enabled trends and converging technologies both inside and outside shipping: nanotechnology, sensors and actuators, smart materials, connected communications, M2M, the Cloud, big data and the automation of knowledge work.

From nano-tech coatings for waterproofing and anti-fouling to fuel and oil additives, the sentient ship covers the impact of new technologies on the design, construction, materials and operation of commercial vessels. The potential of High Throughput Satellite (HTS) data links, innovative bridge and hull design and algorithms which allow ships to learn and sail themselves are all mirrored in R&D in other industries.

But the potential of smart ships to revolutionise the industry is only being glimpsed. The unpromisingly-named Buckypaper for example, is one tenth the weight yet potentially 500 times stronger than steel. Its lightness means a vehicle built from it needs less fuel, improving energy efficiency. It also offers improved structural integrity and allows wireless data transfer through the composite material. It is already being investigated to build the aeroplanes of the future, but what about for the ships of the future?

And what of the crew on these new smart ships? Wearable tech which transmits a seafarer’s whereabouts to the ship could transform the safety landscape, but the potential for integrating crew and vessel is far greater. From implanted chips facilitating wireless money transfer and payments, confirming identity and enhancing security to the ‘quantified self’ – ingestible sensors monitoring crew health, rest hours/sleep and delivering medication, the management and deployment of technology is poised to deliver sci-fi possibilities.

As HTS facilitates data ‘heavy-lifting’ the potential of big data to shipping will begin to be realised. As companies utilise the cloud to allow business applications to be accessed both onboard and ashore terabytes of data will be streamed to shore and collected by company-wide operations – and shipistics will emerge.

Essential to this will be analysts with the skill-sets to mine and analyse this data, plus new business processes to enable real-time monitoring and transparency and the experimentation that can inform business decisions and drive product and service innovation. Already experts are warning of a worldwide shortage of people qualified to undertake this kind of role, but very few in shipping are even alert to the technology, people, skills and mindsets needed within maritime organisations to capitalise and defend against this trend.

But the lack of preparedness goes wider and deeper than that. The maritime industry has already been described as existing, if not in the stone age, then certainly in the middle of last century by analysts, and remaining competitive in a future of business e-volution will require a wholesale reappraisal of business models and operations.

The potential of machine to machine communications and the internet of things, cloud computing, big data, knowledge automation and customer and consumer expectations will change business profoundly. Maritime leaders must be prepared to consider how the cloud offers them new, creative ways to monetise physical assets as a service, how transparency and data availability erodes established market norms and threatens disintermediation as businesses seek closer integration with their customers.

They should also be prepared to consider new multi-dimensional business models as old sources of competitive advantage give way to new ones. Crucially they must also understand the potential consequences of a failure to innovate in laying the way open to aggressive new cross-industry competitors.

LR’s Global Marine Trends 2030 report – one of the original drivers to the Futurenautics project – paints a picture of a maritime industry as a passive reactor to global drivers and circumstances. Shipping and maritime will change, from ship design, materials and operations to the organisational and commercial structure of shipping and maritime businesses and the jobs and skill-sets of their people both at sea and ashore.

The extent to which it is the master of its own destiny depends upon senior shipping and maritime leaders being equipped with information and contextual analysis of these trends and the opportunities and threats they hold.

Futurenautics aims to demonstrate the importance of transitioning IT/technology from a cost-centre to an enabler of business intelligence and innovation at the heart of the business. It will help shipping and maritime leaders to understand the new skill-sets they, their employees and stakeholders will require to remain competitive and how new consumer and customer expectations will threaten established industry structures, and the importance of innovation in the face of new cross-industry competitors.

And above all Futurenautics aims to inform, educate, engage and entertain and perhaps inspire the next  generation to help shipping shed its image of a passive reactor and become and engaged leader in application of technology.

To register for your free digital launch copy of the quarterly Futurenautics journal, please visit www.futurenautics.com.