Maritime software house NAPA has become the first service provider for the Ship Data Center’s Internet of Ships Open Platform (IoS-OP), which will see the company provide ship performance analytics and voyage optimisation services to stakeholders sharing data on the system.
Both Ship Data Center and NAPA are owned by classification society ClassNK, with the platform headquartered in Japan.
The aim of the IoS-OP is to create a digital maritime cluster by reducing the costs of data ownership and portability for owners and operators, while allowing yards and manufacturers to access a data pool that can act as a foundation for further innovation and research.
NAPA will aim to deliver vessel performance analysis to shipping stakeholders based on the information supplied, which it says will be possible regardless of the type of data available – from simple noon reports through to data drawn from a vessel’s Automatic Identification System (AIS).
IoS-OP was developed based on the principles of simultaneous collaboration and competition, bringing together different companies throughout the maritime industry that may at times be colleagues and competitors, from shipping companies to shipbuilders and equipment and service suppliers.
“Collecting data on its own doesn’t add value unless you can turn it into insight,” said Naoki Mizutani, Managing Director, NAPA Japan.
“At NAPA, we can build on more than 30 years of naval architectural expertise and combine that knowledge with the latest Big Data tools to find answers to the questions the industry needs answering. How are we going to dramatically reduce emissions and stay profitable? How can we keep making ships that perform better, and safer?”
“To answer these questions collaboration is key. Being able to draw on data from the whole IoS-OP consortium means we can get better results, and maximise the benefit we provide to the whole community.”
