Creating Value for Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) in Ship Machinery Maintenance from BIG Data and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Seagoing ships transport nearly 90% (International Maritime Organization, in IMO’s contribution to sustainable maritime development, 2012) of the world trade by volume worldwide through a large network of maritime logistics companies located in different time zones making it the lifeline of the global economy. This makes it challenging for the shipping companies to run their operations economically ensuring the safety of life at sea and a pollution-free environment. The introduction of Electronic Chart Display and Information System onboard ships to improve safe navigation and the use of sensors to monitor machinery parameters and track real-time ship performance have paved the way for digital transformation in the maritime industry. These performance monitoring tools though fundamental to improving fleet performance, fetch enormous data, however, their complexity makes it challenging to deal with the 4 Vs, volume, velocity, veracity, and a variety associated with big data terminology. This paper describes how ships can benefit by deploying Big Data analytics, the Internet of Things and Artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing the value of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) in ship maintenance and thus are indispensable for the RCM. The author believes that the synergy that will be created by using Big data, RCM and AI concepts will enable the creation of a maintenance business model that will eventually develop a new growth engine for the stakeholders in the shipping industry.