"The world is moving towards a future that is more and more connected, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the shipping sector. The opportunities offered through smart technology will foster a new era of collaboration and knowledge sharing with customers, suppliers and partners," said Roger Holm, President, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.
The company claimed that the marine industry is faced with major sources of inefficiency that impose a significant negative impact on business operations and profitability. These inefficiencies can be considered as 'waste'; the three most notable sources of waste being overcapacity, inadequate port-to-port fuel efficiency, and time wasted waiting when entering ports and other high traffic areas.
Eliminating this waste forms the basis of Wärtsilä's strategy towards ecosystem thinking, the company said at a presentation in London last week.
Wärtsilä has identified four primary forces that will re-shape the industry - shared capacity will improve fill rates and reduce unit costs; big data analytics will optimise both operations and energy management; intelligent vessels will enable automated and optimised processes; and smart ports will result in smoother and faster port operations.
"Wärtsilä is ideally positioned, together with our customers and partners, for positive disruptive development and to lead the transformation into a new era of shipping. Building on our strong existing portfolio of products, systems, and solutions, the broadest in the marine sector, and on our vast installed base and industry knowhow, we shall continue to develop the smart technologies, business models, and competences needed to create a Smart Marine Ecosystem," Holm added.
"Servicing our customers means supporting them throughout the lifecycle of their installations. This means that we are looking at the smartest way of operating and maintaining assets, as well as optimising performance in order to have the safest, and most environmentally sound and efficient operating profiles. In the future, we shall be looking more holistically at customer business operations. Instead of optimising a single vessel, we may be optimising a fleet, or even the customer's business. In the long term, vessel-as-a-service becomes the ultimate means of providing asset and lifecycle management services." Pierpaolo Barbone, President, Wärtsilä Services said.
Wärtsilä has already opened a Digital Acceleration Centre (DAC), located in Helsinki, to speed up innovation and to co-create with customers a range of new business models and solutions. These include the industry's most advanced intelligent vessel and other ground-breaking projects. A second DAC is scheduled to open in Singapore this month, and during 2018, two more will be opened in Central Europe and North America.
In another move, Wärtsilä has accelerated its collaboration with start-ups and universities by launching the Wärtsilä SparkUp Challenge.
The Challenge is divided into two different cohorts - Smart Marine and Smart Energy.
It starts with the focus on Smart Marine Vision, with Wärtsilä inviting start-ups to collaborate and co-create projects around smart shipping. The application period started on 30th November and continues until 31st January, 2018.
After the application closes, the Wärtsilä SparkUp jury will choose up to 12 start-ups and universities to compete in a four-day challenge organised in Helsinki during March, 2018.
Two winners will get the chance to work with Wärtsilä in one of two DACs, either in Helsinki or Singapore to create a minimum viable product (MVP).
"This is an amazing opportunity to co-create with us for, and really accelerate the development of, innovative digital services that sit at the heart of transforming Wärtsilä into being an as-a-service smart technology company. For up to six months, we will provide the winning teams space and exposure to our experts' advice. The winners will also get a capital grant of €50.000," said Alid Dettke, Wärtsilä's vice president of digital innovation.