Smart Ships. Smart Ideas. Smarter Working

September 24, 2016 - Smart ships are likely to be carrying cargoes within 10 years but all in the logistics chain need to adapt in order to make good use of the new technology and the huge amount of data that will be available as a result. According to Sue Terpilowski, President of WISTA UK – the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association UK – shipping will go from a “poor beginning” in terms of generating and using data to be at the forefront of new technology. All thanks to customer demand. Ms Terpilowski, who is also Managing Director of Image Line Communications, said the change would see “talking” ships within 10 years. “Even the paint will be able to tell you about the waves hitting the ship.

These ships are going to be telling you about the weight and the stresses on deck when slow steaming would be appropriate and many more operational elements. There are many opportunities for the industry, but is it ready to take advantage?” And she continued: “Ship intelligence will be the driving force that will determine the future of the industry, the type of ships at sea and the competencies requires of tomorrow’s seafarers.”

Legislators, ship finance and service sectors will all need to make changes to cope with the advent of the smart ship and new skills will be required from operating companies. Technology is being developed that can be adapted to shipping operations and over the next five years Ms Terpilowski predicts that there will be machine to machine (M2M) and the internet of things (IoT) connectivity in logistics. “The logistics sector wants transparency. As a smart ship to smart logistics means reduced inventory and production lines running at optimum levels. This allows two way planning – intelligent buying and customer services that combine articles from different sources.”