To accelerate Intelligent Vessel outcomes, Wärtsilä uses a start-up mindset. The company has opened the first of four Digital Acceleration Centres to speed up the innovation and co-creation with customers on a range of new business models.
The first Digital Acceleration Centre ha[ds_preview]s launched today in Helsinki, Finland; the second will open in December in Singapore and two further acceleration centres, one in Central Europe and one in North America, are anticipated during 2018. In addition, »pop-up« DACs will be tested with customers around the globe.
According to the company, opening DACs is an integral part of Wärtsilä’s digital transformation, which will shift Wärtsilä towards a data-driven, insights led, smart technology company that enables sustainable societies.
»The Digital Acceleration Centre is all about getting business outcomes at pace. By adopting a start-up mind-set, we can rapidly prototype ideas with customers; including the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, block chain and virtual reality,« says Wärtsilä’s Chief Digital Officer Marco Ryan.
»A matter of weeks«
Wärtsilä‘s first Digital Acceleration Centre in Helsinki has already been running as a beta version for a couple of months and several projects have been accelerated there with different partners. Current projects include for example co-creation with one of major cruise companies. One of the successes incubated so far in the Helsinki DAC is Wärtsilä’s Intelligent Vessel Strategy.
»The Digital Acceleration Centre shows its true power in such complex concepts like Intelligent Vessels. In a matter of weeks we created an aligned strategy, concepts, roadmaps, and technology requirements that would have taken months or years. Each concept can be cut into smaller projects which are incubated and developed into Minimal Viable Products (MVP) far quicker than ever before. Even if occasionally an idea fails in the incubation phase, we see that as a learning opportunity and a valuable insight into building a better solution,« Ryan says.
Projects pick up pace
Wärtsilä’s start-up acquisition, Eniram, has worked together with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCL) for years in optimising fleet and ship operations as well as reducing emissions and cutting fuel costs. Building on this experience, Wärtsilä and RCL are now working closely together in a partnership to develop all aspects of the intelligent vessel further, using the DAC to accelerate some of the prototyping.
Wärtsilä has also partnered up with Accenture Interactive in the Digital Acceleration Centres to speed up innovation and go-to-market as well as to help grow Wärtsilä’s own talent. The latest example of the Intelligent Vessel strategy is Wärtsilä’s acquisition of Guidance Marine, a technology leader in the marine industry for sensor solutions relating to dynamic positioning and other vessel control systems.
Further examples include the successful remote control navigation test in August carried out together with Gulfmark Offshore, the U.S. based operator. The testing involved driving the vessel off the North Sea coast of Scotland through a sequence of manoeuvres using a combination of Dynamic Positioning (DP) and manual joystick control.
