Digital Transformation in Ship Operations and Management: Digital Twin Technology Applications

Introduction

Organizations operating in a classial structure lose time, money, and therefore their competitive power day by day, compared to organizations that use digital technology available today. This is because works on paper require more time and manpower. Today, there is almost no institution left that is still working on paper, however using computers in an organization does not necessarily mean that digital transformation is fully realized. Digital transformation also defines an organizational transformation. Using digital systems is only a means of full scale transformation. Digital transformation can be defined as organizational transformation in the digital age, where people's purchasing preferences are shaped by developments in information technologies (Tanniru, Xi, & Sandhu, 2020). Digital transformation strategies have four basic dimensions: the use of technologies, changes in value creation, structural changes, and financial aspects (Matt, Hess, & Benlian, 2015). Although digital transformation is a difficult and time-consuming process, it still helps organizations to achieve more profit by ensuring sustainability and competitiveness. However, current efforts to realize digital transformation do not yet have clear standards and they may require different processes for individual institution. Despite the difficulties in the transformation period, due to the magnitude of the benefits to be achieved, today all organizations in the world are trying to achieve digital transformation. With the encouragement of increasing competition in recent years, digital transformation efforts in the maritime industry have also gained momentum. DT technology, as an integral part of this transformation, has become a step ahead and found a wider place in maritime industry.

Ship operations and management, which covers all maritime trade, is a sub-field under the maritime industry. The maritime industry includes shipbuilding, marine resources and marine fisheries, marine tourism, and ship operations and management (Stopford, 2009). In this chapter, the “Ship operations and management” sub-field of the maritime industry has been focused on, studies conducted with digital twin technology have been examined and future projections have been made.

The concept of DT refers to a copy of a real object in a virtual environment. The twin-generated object can be a simple device or a complex system. Talking about the twin of an object is possible by transferring all its information to its twin. For this reason, the created twin needs to be constantly updated with current data. This is the most evident difference between the DT and the simulation. While there is no information transfer from the real object in simulation technology, there is a continuous data flow from the real object to the twin in the DT technology. On the other hand simulations use assumptions whereas DT uses real data to perform their functions. A DT is an integrated multi-physics, multi-scale, and probabilistic simulation of a complex object. It consists of a physical object, a virtual object, and the data that connects them. It functions to realize the convergence of physical object and virtual object and by doing so it reflects the actual life of its corresponding twin - the original object. It also uses the best physical models and sensor updates to ensure efficiency and sustainability in design, production, and service periods that constitute the life cycle of a product (Tao et al., 2018). Today DT technology is used in many sectors such as aviation, space, automotive, energy, healthcare, and maritime industry.

The maritime industry has started to benefit from DT technology in recent years within the scope of digital transformation. Especially in the ship operations and management sub-group of the maritime industry, many pilot projects are carried out on ship and port operation/management. Thus, it is aimed to establish a sustainable, competitive, and profitable system by finding the most optimal solutions in the complex environment of maritime transportation and port management. Thus, the research question in this study is, “could DT technology be useful for digital transformation in ship operations and management?” Hence the study examines applications conducted with DT technology in ship operations and management. The aim of the section is to introduce the potential uses of DT technology in ship operations and management within digital transformation and to provide insight into how DT technology can create opportunities to solve current and potential problems in the sector.