Greek shipping company Neptune Lines has agreed a fleet-wide contract to implement a data acquisition and analytics platform from METIS Cyberspace Technology, to add artificial intelligence to the management of its Pure Car & Truck Carriers.
The PCTCs (Pure Car & Truck Carriers) will be installed with METIS Ship Connect, an automated data acquisition system that uses a network of Wireless Intelligent Collectors to harvest machinery, navigation and operational data, regardless of equipment supplier.
The system’s ship performance analysis software also integrates AIS data, weather forecasts and information fetched from the vessels’ regular reports to provide services such as automated noon reporting, analysis of technical and operational performance and weather-related reporting.
Outputs include dashboards showing the condition of main engines, diesel generators, ballast water treatment systems and other machinery, as well as power and fuel consumption. KPIs such as ‘power vs speed’ are displayed under the full ship speed range and in all weathers using machine learning models, which run ‘what if’ routing scenarios to weigh up consequences for fuel and arrival times.
“As a leading finished vehicle logistics provider active across more than 40 ports, Neptune Lines forms an integral part of the automotive industry’s downstream supply chain,” said Nikos Paterakis, Neptune’s Chief Operating Officer.
“Over the past few years, IoT devices and NLP (natural language processing) technology, through the data they collect, became key drivers of higher operational efficiency, which at the end leads to better performance for the customers of the logistics industry.”
“It is time for shipping to quickly adapt to the changes, enwrap the new technologies and get to the next performance level with the sophistication and service quality demanded in our times.”
Customised system functionality being added by METIS specifically for Neptune Lines includes continuous speed profile optimisation across its Mediterranean, North Europe and Black Sea routes, emissions indicator monitoring, and antifouling coatings performance assessment. Generator operations in port will also be monitored to minimise power consumption and emissions.
“Neptune Lines is a new customer and the PCTC sector is a new vessel type for METIS, but the ability of AI to empower shipping companies in their journey towards digital transformation is fully applicable to all kinds of vessel,” said Mike Konstantinidis, CEO, METIS.
“Round the clock data acquisition from all available sources provides a rich, high-resolution picture of ship performance rather than a patchwork of inconsistent datasets. As the industry’s only end-to-end platform powered by AI, the true value of the METIS solution is cumulative; applied fleet-wide, its benefits add up to more than the sum of its individual technical, operational and cost gains.”
