Better technology for safer seafaring

Digitalisation is almost as close to the top of shipping industry priorities as its cousin decarbonisation. The two are inextricably linked, one the enabler of the other, or at least the means to improve performance until the new fuels the industry needs become available.

Digital tools offer the means to respond to multiple challenges: enabling owners to calculate and report fuel consumption, making voyages more efficient by providing supporting navigational data or connecting crew.

As we have observed before on these pages, the real challenge is the interface of digitalisation and people in ways that keep mariners focused on key tasks, improve human performance and support health and welfare.

The latest in a series of reports commissioned from consultant Thetius by communications provider Inmarsat asks three important questions of the shipping industry. First, what value should the maritime sector place on human factors when considering the digital transformation of the shipping industry?

Next, what role does human performance play in building a lean, competitive, digitalised, and profitable merchant shipping operation? And finally, how do human factors interrelate with digital processes, procedures, and technologies to create a ship that delivers the right outcomes for its owners and a safe and stimulating environment for its crew?

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