Overview of Key Challenges

The significant obstacles engineers face when adapting digitalization within the maritime industry. Despite ongoing investment, digitalization encounters several key implementation barriers. Overcoming these requires collaboration between technology, policy, and human capital.

1.Data Integration and Interoperability

Every ship, port, and operator collects vast data, but this data is often in isolation.

• Without standardized formats, it is very difficult for these data sets to communicate.

• Basic health monitoring data, such as temperature, stress, and vibration, often uses different coding systems and lacks standard protocols.

• To expand the potential and adaptation of digitalization, there is a need for shared data architecture and open standards.

2. Cyber Security and Data Ownership

Maritime systems are vulnerable to cyber attacks, similar to any IT infrastructure.

• The data gathered by sensors and technology are equally important as any available confidential data.

• A crucial question is raised about who controls the operational data once it is in the cloud—the ship owner, the software provider, or the regulator.

• Cyber security must be embedded in the design framework and not merely added as an afterthought.

• The risk of the data being breached is considered quite similar to the failure of the structure itself. Therefore, safety related to the data itself must be ensured when designing any digitalization framework.

3. Workforce Skill and Digital Competence

The sources note that technology advances faster than human capability and policy readiness.

• The maritime workforce needs upskilling their skills to manage data-driven and AI-enabled systems.

• The aim is to ensure operators possess the necessary skill or knowledge to operate the systems developed based on digitalization.

4. Regulatory and Standardization Gaps

The regulatory landscape has not kept pace with the technology.

• While authorities and classification societies need to update standards, global harmonization remains limited.

• This limitation prevents the industry from fully accepting the level of upgraded technology.