Wallem enables digital transformation in shipping with humans in the loop

‍Luis Benito, Wallem Group’s new Business Development & Marketing Director, is passionate that keeping the human in the loop is critical to create business value and improve life at sea in shipping’s collaborative digital future.

Having joined Wallem just a few months ago I am impressed that seafarers are being directly involved in efforts to make the best use of digital technologies to improve safety and efficiency across the industry.

As maritime leaders, it is vital that industry partners collaborate to ensure that shipping’s digital transformation delivers value for vessel owners and operators and enhances wellbeing for seafarers.

At Wallem, we describe the process of enabling crews to use new technologies, which will improve life at sea and deliver value to our customers, as ensuring the Human is in the Loop. It is about making sure seafarers can see and understand the benefits of employing digital systems and in turn embrace those ways of working.

We recognise that these changes can be challenging, both to existing business models and regulatory approaches, which is why it is so important that major industry partners co-create new ways of operating together. We need to lead by example to demonstrate the advantages and help make it possible for others to replicate them.

Transparency is critical if industry stakeholders are to have confidence. Sharing data - with owners and customers – is essential for each stakeholder to use information with confidence and, for example, get the most out of voyage planning and route optimisation.

In a world of continuous KPIs, customers need full disclosure that voyage terms as well as their regulatory requirements are being met.

For Wallem, achieving these aims has involved developing its own database which connects with customers’ operating systems and ensures a Single-Source-of-Truth Platform. And we have developed “Wallem GPT” - a database of policies, procedures and regulations that crews can search in seconds for advice and information on whatever they need to know.

We can achieve alignment of action across the needs of stakeholders in near-real time, if we implement this technology to collaborate.  

Faster and more agile connectivity is also playing a critical role in shipping’s digitalisation, supporting both quicker data interchanges for better business and nautical decision making, and allowing seafarers to stay better connected with family and friends.

Today, at Wallem, our shore-based workforce is already 45% female. I am convinced technology that keeps the Human in the Loop can help the maritime industry raise levels of diversity, as new systems and approaches demand new skills and attract different types of people. In turn, I believe, these talented people will help us to drive forward with digitalisation.

There is certainly more to do. I would compare the discussions about AI in shipping today to the ones we were holding on digitalisation back in 2015-2016. However, I believe uptake will come much more quickly, partly because AI and its benefits are already being perceived in everyday life.

While AI will augment the technologies we already use onboard, Wallem’s goal remains not to replace people but to make them more effective. Developing a hybrid way of working where technology enables humans to do what they do best will deliver more value to customers and increase job satisfaction for our people.

By ensuring that the human remains firmly in the loop, ship managers become key enablers of digitalisation by engaging with customers as partners to co-create shipping’s workplace future.

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