In our last article, we shared the key elements for digitalization in port terminals, along with some insights on enhancing operational control and improving yard automation.

To better understand the current competitive landscape and digital transformation status of the maritime industry, Nokia partnered with ABI Research to survey port operators in five key markets: France, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. We studied their barriers to adoption, and the degree of alignment between their IT infrastructure investments and operational technology (OT) use cases underpinned by digital technologies.

This research was part of a survey of 500 enterprise leaders across seven industries. Our aim was to create a maturity index that would help the industries understand how they are positioned for Industry 4.0 success.

The Industry 4.0 maturity index

According to our analysis, port operators scored 60.9 out of 100 on IT maturity, which covers technology deployments with industrial Wi-Fi, private LTE/5G, edge compute, cloud, ruggedized devices and management systems. They scored 67.3 on OT use case deployments, which covers asset performance improvement, operation optimization, worker collaboration and data analytics. When these scores are close, there is greater alignment between IT and OT teams. Port operators lag behind other verticals in IT and OT deployments.

In the OT environment, our survey studied the most common use cases, including equipment and asset performance improvement, operation optimization, data analytics and work delivery. Port operators are generally behind other verticals in digitalizing existing assets and operations and connecting them to the Internet. They have also been slower to deploy use cases such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and digital twins, and need to take advantage of their IT infrastructure while prioritizing workforce operations and worker safety. The top use cases for port operators are data analytics-driven root cause identification and video-based quality inspection. 

Charts and indexes suggest that devising, implementing and harnessing digital transformation projects is a straightforward crawl, walk, run process. But there are many pitfalls along the way.

1.       Accelerate the deployment of private wireless and edge compute

While industrial Wi-Fi serves great purposes in connecting yard assets and providing basic connectivity for communications, it has fundamental drawbacks in coverage, latency, security and reliability that hinder digital transformation. When it comes to automating machines or mobilizing robots such as AGVs and AMRs, private wireless trumps industrial Wi-Fi. Our manufacturing customer in Turkey saw a 25 percent performance improvement in its 38 AGVs on private wireless, in comparison to Wi-Fi.

To take advantage of enhanced capabilities such as low latency and real-time analytics, port operators should consider adopting edge compute and streamline application connectivity.

2.       Explore digital twins

Digital twin applications are still in an experimental phase. Some industrial enterprises have already adopted digital twins to simulate key processes and collect real-time insights. A digital twin is the ideal solution to fully automate yard and processes and ensure worker safety. The deployment of digital twins across an enterprise’s full operational environment can pave the way to the industrial metaverse.

3.       Drive sustainability with technology

Energy consumption in private wireless is reduced of up to 84 percent in comparison with industrial Wi-Fi, thanks to a drastic reduction of the number of access points. Streamlining ship-to-shore communications using private wireless, radio, satellite and microwave technologies would reduce idle time for ship anchorage, thereby mitigating impacts on the surrounding environment, air quality and water quality.

To learn more about how to build a smarter and more automated port, visit www.nokia.com/networks/industries/maritime/