Bid data herald era of smart ships
In recent years, growth of the shipbuilding industry has been stalled, and China, as the world's biggest shipbuilding country, faces a developmental bottleneck after explosive growth. The saturated conventional market and the mid- and low-end markets that have little technical differentiation are facing overcapacity, sacrificing price for quantity due to weak competitiveness for high-cost and low added-value and undergoing difficulty in technical reform and production experience for the sake of diversified orders and numerous batches that lead to hard cost and quality control. The asset-intensive shipping companies also face the problems as difficulty in controlling operation cost and guaranteeing safety and cost-efficiency, susceptibility to market fluctuation, complicated sources of personnel and equipments and high management cost, and thus mired in losses.
"For shipping companies, their problem is loss. However, those possessing big data tools are making loads of many. The contrast is like ice and fire", said Gao Yongjun, manager of the Strategy Development Department of COSCO. In his view, the bottleneck suffered by the shipping industry is how to make breakthroughs. He hopes that big data can solve some problems and bring some tangible benefits.
"There are three problems we consider every day. The first is ship safety, the second is cost-efficiency, and the third is energy conservation and environmental protection. Failure in any aspect would mean the end of the company. From an operation point of view, the eternal subject of a shipping company is its ability to predict the market, master the safety of ship operation, and control cost reasonably. "
The angst of shipbuilding companies and shipping companies is the epitome of Chinese industry's call for new mindset. Zhang Hongjun, director of CSSC Systems Engineering Research Institute and director of Marine Equipment Information Intelligent Management and Application Innovation Center, said that the time is ripe for big data to make profit for companies. In the shipbuilding industry in the past, a deal was concluded when the ship was delivered; but in order to create new value, a ship must become an intelligent vessel capable of "thinking".
What is intelligent shipbuilding? Zhang Hongjun said that in our understanding the core technology is an intelligent information service system that integrates internet with entities and shore with sea. To construct an internet-entity-integrated architecture through information sharing between operation companies and manufacturers and between designers and manufacturers, achieve the full-process system integration from design, production, operation, to service, make coordinated efforts to establish an industrial union with high added value, and form an industrial chain of China's shipbuilding industry throughout the whole life cycle of vessels, and thus create new value for companies.
As for vessels, the differences of individual market increase customized demands in the market; it's necessary to build up the scale rapidly. This process would need the sound exchange, analysis, and digging of data. This could synergize market demands with operating company demands, manufacturer demands, and design into an integrated body. The realization of Industry 4.0 in shipbuilding is the combination of customization and large-scale production; it is also the combination of the present and the future, creating new value in the process of creating new demands.
The foremost of these new values is the significant improvement of the ability to react to market conditions. Take shipping companies. Market reaction can find the most suitable ships and the most suitable route for the most suitable shipping demands. Manufacturers can improve ship design with the most suitable ship satisfaction demand and the most suitable supply demand according to the quick reaction of the market
New values also bring the reduction of operation cost. Without global service network fleets will not be able to go abroad, but the cost of setting up service network globally would be very high. Upon the basis of big data, though, in-ship systems are automated, and cost can be reduced to the greatest extent as interconnection is realized. The operation of fleets can connect more closely with the use of oil, materials and spare parts. For instance, when China's fleets go on an escort mission in Somali, about 80 percent of the spare parts will come back intact, because we don't know what parts we will need to use; this would mean a lot of capital stock for manufacturers and buyers of spare parts. But if we have a real-time knowledge of the use of spare parts and achieve remote control from shore base, we would be able to reduce cost greatly. Besides, when faults happen when a ship is abroad, it would be necessary to send advanced maintenance personnel to replace the broken-down equipments. The cost of such personnel is very high; but if we can achieve shore-based integration and remote service, with the use of big data we can save the human cost.
Meanwhile, with the improvement of market response ability and the reduction of operation cost, the cost-efficiency will go up naturally. Also, the construction of an intelligent shipyard can maximize resource allocation in the manufacturing process, and thus improve production efficiency.
Currently, CSSC's big-data-based industrial reform is called the 5S Project, namely, a ship operation intelligent service system that features Sea, Ship, System, Smart, and Service. It can tell the ship the most oil-efficient way to sail, and how to obtain logistics and security information beyond operation, etc. Some ship-owners have asked for the application of the service function on their ships. Currently, CSSC has commissioned CSSC Shipping Company in Shang and plans to establish an operation platform in the shipping field in the first half of next year. As for main engine guarantee, the integration of oversea service network with domestic information service network realizes the construction of the main engine guarantee data center.
In the big data era, intelligence has become an inevitable trend in the field of shipbuilding and shipping. With the mission of becoming a powerful marine nation, the development of intelligent ships is irresistible. More courage and broader vision are needed to give the shipbuilding industry a bigger market.
"There are three problems we consider every day. The first is ship safety, the second is cost-efficiency, and the third is energy conservation and environmental protection. Failure in any aspect would mean the end of the company. From an operation point of view, the eternal subject of a shipping company is its ability to predict the market, master the safety of ship operation, and control cost reasonably. "
The angst of shipbuilding companies and shipping companies is the epitome of Chinese industry's call for new mindset. Zhang Hongjun, director of CSSC Systems Engineering Research Institute and director of Marine Equipment Information Intelligent Management and Application Innovation Center, said that the time is ripe for big data to make profit for companies. In the shipbuilding industry in the past, a deal was concluded when the ship was delivered; but in order to create new value, a ship must become an intelligent vessel capable of "thinking".
What is intelligent shipbuilding? Zhang Hongjun said that in our understanding the core technology is an intelligent information service system that integrates internet with entities and shore with sea. To construct an internet-entity-integrated architecture through information sharing between operation companies and manufacturers and between designers and manufacturers, achieve the full-process system integration from design, production, operation, to service, make coordinated efforts to establish an industrial union with high added value, and form an industrial chain of China's shipbuilding industry throughout the whole life cycle of vessels, and thus create new value for companies.
As for vessels, the differences of individual market increase customized demands in the market; it's necessary to build up the scale rapidly. This process would need the sound exchange, analysis, and digging of data. This could synergize market demands with operating company demands, manufacturer demands, and design into an integrated body. The realization of Industry 4.0 in shipbuilding is the combination of customization and large-scale production; it is also the combination of the present and the future, creating new value in the process of creating new demands.
The foremost of these new values is the significant improvement of the ability to react to market conditions. Take shipping companies. Market reaction can find the most suitable ships and the most suitable route for the most suitable shipping demands. Manufacturers can improve ship design with the most suitable ship satisfaction demand and the most suitable supply demand according to the quick reaction of the market
New values also bring the reduction of operation cost. Without global service network fleets will not be able to go abroad, but the cost of setting up service network globally would be very high. Upon the basis of big data, though, in-ship systems are automated, and cost can be reduced to the greatest extent as interconnection is realized. The operation of fleets can connect more closely with the use of oil, materials and spare parts. For instance, when China's fleets go on an escort mission in Somali, about 80 percent of the spare parts will come back intact, because we don't know what parts we will need to use; this would mean a lot of capital stock for manufacturers and buyers of spare parts. But if we have a real-time knowledge of the use of spare parts and achieve remote control from shore base, we would be able to reduce cost greatly. Besides, when faults happen when a ship is abroad, it would be necessary to send advanced maintenance personnel to replace the broken-down equipments. The cost of such personnel is very high; but if we can achieve shore-based integration and remote service, with the use of big data we can save the human cost.
Meanwhile, with the improvement of market response ability and the reduction of operation cost, the cost-efficiency will go up naturally. Also, the construction of an intelligent shipyard can maximize resource allocation in the manufacturing process, and thus improve production efficiency.
Currently, CSSC's big-data-based industrial reform is called the 5S Project, namely, a ship operation intelligent service system that features Sea, Ship, System, Smart, and Service. It can tell the ship the most oil-efficient way to sail, and how to obtain logistics and security information beyond operation, etc. Some ship-owners have asked for the application of the service function on their ships. Currently, CSSC has commissioned CSSC Shipping Company in Shang and plans to establish an operation platform in the shipping field in the first half of next year. As for main engine guarantee, the integration of oversea service network with domestic information service network realizes the construction of the main engine guarantee data center.
In the big data era, intelligence has become an inevitable trend in the field of shipbuilding and shipping. With the mission of becoming a powerful marine nation, the development of intelligent ships is irresistible. More courage and broader vision are needed to give the shipbuilding industry a bigger market.
