The worldwide maritime logistics business is the second largest in the world, after the oil and gas industry, with annual trade exceeding $20 trillion. It facilitates 90% of global trade, but in terms of technological development, it lags behind airlines and road logistics by over a decade.
Global shipping businesses are now using the terms “Ship 4.0” and “Maritime 4.0” to describe how they are harnessing data, real-time situational awareness, and analytical insights to increase the sector’s potential. Now, vessel owners, operators, and charter parties are actively seeking beyond Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions or homemade systems to see inside their ships, predict equipment in operation, follow crew health through remote sensors, and provide the industry’s urgently needed standard source of truth.
Sensing a dearth of interest in these technologies in India, Joy Basu and Captain Harminder created Smart Ship Hub in 2019 and are developing a remote vessel and fleet management platform that uses real sensor and process data, to provide trusted business information and analytics services to ship owners and managers in the country.
Smart Ship Hub performs the same function for ships and other floating objects as avionics does for planes. Sensors, IoT, Big Data, and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are used in the digital platform to assist fleet owners, technicians, charter companies, ports, insurers, ship suppliers, brokers, and agents in tracking, monitoring, controlling, and predicting different operational aspects.
Any ocean-going boat, including merchant vessels, navy vessels, cruise ships, yachts, oil rigs, and fishing vessels, can be upgraded in two days with Smart Ship Hub’s digital platform for a variety of remote management procedures spanning operational, technical, and commercial workflows. Through its Digital Tower, these include monitoring projected arrival times, port communication, vessel and fleet energy management, database management for ship management operations, analytics and trends for vessel consumption regions, machinery dependability and consistency, and a central repository of live data servicing each entity.
Orion Ship (Singapore), Fleet Management Ltd. (Hong Kong), Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. (India), the Indian Navy, Nova Ships (Singapore), and Seven Island Shipping (India), , are among Smart Ship Hub’s clients. Customers have witnessed up to a 5% reduction in fuel consumption, a 15% reduction in operational expenditures, and a 35% reduction in shore operations. By demonstrating remote management capabilities, ship owners were able to boost asset reliability by 30%, allowing them to demand a premium from charter parties.
One of the Smart Ship Hub’s clienteles is a renowned Bulker and Tanker company with operations in Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia, and 20 ships on the Smart Ship Hub’s digital service. They get real-time information from vessels concerning navigation, weather, engine performance, fuel consumption, emission and exhaust, cargo condition, and a variety of other organizational and management KPIs. This allows for immediate decision-making when it comes to modifying vessel speed and navigation parameters, in the event of external conditions such as wind/sea surge, strong currents, all while sticking to ETA plans that have significant trade implications.
