New Technical Software System Developed to Predict Potential Grounding of Vessels

FINLAND – JAPAN – As digitalisation of the maritime sector continues apace Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and ClassNK have joined with Finnish maritime software, services, and data analysis provider NAPA to develop a navigational risk monitoring system which has been adopted in MOL's fleet of over 700 ships.

Building on the combined expertise of all three partners in fields of ship operations, safe routing, and risk analysis, the system aims to increase safety across MOL’s fleet by predicting the risk of grounding in advance and alerting the shoreside teams, giving them greater situational awareness of navigation risks. Satoshi Fujii, General Manager of Smart Shipping Division at MOL, commented:

“With this project, our Smart Shipping Division has demonstrated its ability to drive collaboration with other tech leaders in the industry and to improve safety and performance at scale. We believe that the sure management of navigational risks is the absolute necessity for maritime industries, and this system does that, both analysing grounding risks and alerting on it. We believe that it will help to prevent accidental grounding during ocean voyages.”

The system also incorporates carefully calculated alerts and notifications to shore-based safety operations teams whenever the increased navigational risk is detected, in turn, enhancing the ability to avoid and mitigate incidents. Commenting on the solution, Pekka Pakkanen, EVP Shipping Solutions at NAPA, said:

“We’re proud to see the evolution of this project and the culmination of our efforts into a solution that has the potential to increase safety standards across the industry. The deployment of the solution to a global fleet of over 700 vessels truly shows how far cloud-based solutions have come in recent years. It also shows the benefit they can bring to solving critical operational issues, with the ability to roll out throughout a large fleet without any additional hardware installation,”

Pekka Pakkanen’s Asian based colleague, Managing Director of NAPA Japan Naoki Mizutani, said the collaboration demonstrates how shipping’s digital innovators can collaborate to address critical safety challenges quickly and effectively, blending NAPA’s state-of-the-art data analysis capabilities with ClassNK and MOL’s strong safety cultures. Last word went to Dr Toshiro Arima, Corporate Officer and General Manager of Digital Transformation Centre at ClassNK, who added:

“We are very pleased to be part of the project and contribute to the technology that will lead to robust and sustainable seaborne trade. This is a perfect example of a collaborative approach, and ClassNK will continue working with the frontrunners of the industry to solve shipping’s various challenges.”

Photo: Ships have increased in size, and the technology to manage them moved on since MOL launched the first of its container carriers in 1968.