Kongsberg Digital Partners with MAN on Project for Höegh Autoliners

In order to accelerate the rate of digitalization in the maritime industry and secure greater value for customers on both sides, Kongsberg Digital and MAN are now formalizing the MoU from October 2019 and entering into a strategic digitalization partnership. Their first joint project is together with Höegh Autoliners.

In October 2019, MAN and Kongsberg Digital signed an MoU stating the companies would work together to develop digitalization solutions for the maritime sector. This was the result of the companies realizing their separate efforts in this space were complementary. Kongsberg Digital has launched a new, cost efficient data infrastructure solutions for the broad maritime market, called Vessel Insight. Vessel Insight captures contextualized data from vessel and fleet for use in value generating applications for ship owners and operators.

In parallel, German Marine solutions provider MAN has developed their own digital solution, PrimeServe Assist, for optimization of engine use and maintenance to the large majority of vessels with their two-stroke engines onboard. With two major maritime vendors collaborating on a common data infrastructure, customers will get the benefit of interfacing with one system instead of many, automated data integration, and larger selection of digital solutions. This will make the digital transformation faster and more cost efficient for customers in the maritime sector.

"The engine is the most critical component onboard a vessel, and this strategic collaboration will ensure optimal operations and maintenance of the engine. This will generate significant value to our customers. We look forward to working together with MAN and our customers to ensure that they get the digital solutions that fit their capabilities and needs," says Hege Skryseth, President of Kongsberg Digital.

The maritime industry is in a transformational phase when it comes to extracting value from digitalization. Now that two major vendors will work together to further develop a powerful, safe and open infrastructure, this transformation will be accelerated. For vendors of digital solutions and services, developing value adding applications and software for the customers will be easier and more cost efficient, which in turn leads to a broader selection of solutions for customers to choose from. This speeds up the ability to digitalize and gives ship owners and operators a quicker return on their digital investment.

Per Hansson, Head of Digital and Strategy at MAN Energy Solutions, says: “We are constantly searching for opportunities to bring the benefits from digital development to our customers faster and easier. Our advanced analytics and support services are areas where we can provide unique benefits to our customers’ businesses – further optimizing the operation, maintenance and availability of their vessels. Working together with renowned industry partners like Kongsberg gives us one more way to provide our services to our customers, and to jointly further digitization within the maritime sector.”

The first partnership project is focused on delivering a joint digital infrastructure to an important customer. MAN and KONGSBERG have partnered with Höegh Autoliners, and while the project is currently in a testing and validation phase, the goal is to enable real time engine monitoring and digital assistance for optimization, while reducing digital equipment onboard. Kongsberg provides its data infrastructure solution Vessel Insight for real time data transfer while MAN deploys PrimeServe Assist for engine data analysis.

Geir Frode Abelsen, Head of Technical Operations in Höegh Autoliners says: For us in Hoegh Autoliners, this collaboration is an important step towards the utilisation of digital solutions in optimising the running and maintenance of our engines in a safe and effective way.

This article is sponsored by Kongsberg Digital.