The companies have, long ago, realized that what places them among the champions is their more effective and efficient decision making (Graph I₁).

The above rules are also valid for shipping companies, if their managers apply additionally an activity known as “best timing” (Goulielmos, 2021a) ! The “best decision-making” stage, however, comes after an important 1^st stage, which is the “preparation”! The purpose of the “preparation” is “to supply” company’s management with the (required) information, for him/her to be able to take the best decisions! This can be done better… the digital way, as we will show.

Moreover, management defined who the manager is! He/she is company’s person who decides (Robbins & Coulter, 2018) , including the sentimental female-managers! Moreover, the decision-making, almost always, solves a problem! Thus, “decision making” is the main function of management! In addition, any technology, which enables managers to improve this endeavor, is welcome.

Moreover, managers, often, try to make a choice between 1 or 2 minimum alternatives. Management, naturally, is a profession facing a number of “obstacles”. The obstacles are usually related to manager’s effort to achieve a desired goal, a purpose, or to implement a directional plan (Shipping)!

To defend, however, the value of a “competitive decision-making, in business”, including the efficient & effective timing for shipping, we believe, is like bringing coal to Newcastle!

• Classical management versus digital management

Is classical management different than the digital one?

• Has digital management to… handle “Big Data”-BD?

There is the case where the sales, on line, can be 175,000 per second₂₀₁₆ (in “Alibaba”-China)! How a manager can make sense of that? But what are BD?

• BD are the “vast”, “quantifiable” information, analyzable only by highly sophisticated data processing means”.

It is desirable, at the individual company’s level, for a small number of ships, say from 30 to 50, to be displayed on a map, in actual time, replacing the “pin-manual-plastic world map” of the old days…?

The above paradigm of “Alibaba” showed, however, exactly the need of handling BD! Worth noting is that this area is where the mathematical models, the predictive algorithms & the AI software, in measuring & monitoring people & machines, are used!

It is true that Management did not rush into adopting digitalization in all its crucial functions: Leading, Organizing, Controlling/Feedback, Basics of Managing in today’s Workplace, but Planning, by 2018. Digitalization holds only a part in what are identified as “contemporary issues in planning” (Robbins & Coulter, 2018, p. 300-304), and of course in communications.

The central aim of this work is to show how “digitalization”, offering 11 (5 + 6)¹ so far₂₀₁₉ services, can help (shipping) companies to decide more effectively & efficiently! Τhis, tantamount means, to show how managers solve a problem, the digital way!

The paper is cast in 9 parts as follows, after literature review & methodology. Part I dealt with an axiom: “the knowledge increases one’s power & the suitable data raises one’s knowledge”; Part II dealt with the “Cloud” Computing; Part III dealt with the recent technology in the service of shipping; Part IV dealt with what Shipping Companies are doing now_end2023; Part V dealt with certain agonies of the World economies; Part VI dealt with the fact that EU-28 falls back in innovation-expenditure vis-à-vis its competitors; Part VII dealt with the Agonies of USA & China; Part VIII dealt with an important question: “Does digitalization mean transformation & adoption of the digital technologies? Part IX dealt with an epilogue. Finally, we concluded.

Goulielmos (2020a, 2020b) dealt with the “digital revolution” & its impact on the management of the sipping companies as well its perspectives. Calderon-Monge & Ribeiro-Soriano (2023) argued that, in 2018, the digitally transformed firms covered $13.5 b of the global GDP & by 2023 this increased almost 4 times to $53.3 b! Based on 119 publications between 2018 & 2022 the emphasis has been placed on Management, Marketing, Finance & Accounting.

Calderon-Monge & Ribeiro-Soriano (2023) argued further that Europe leads the way in the number of published review articles on digitalization, over 28 global countries between 2018 & 2022, with the 50% to belong to England, Italy, Germany & France.

Australia & N Zealand followed with 15%, while N America & Canada held 13%, India 8.2% & China 5%! One cannot be specific about digital management because 7 areas have to be added together: supply chain management, logistics, manufacturing, human resources management, knowledge management, business management & entrepreneurship.

Methodology explaining the technical jargon²

Our first feeling, with digitalization, is the obvious need³ for a glossary! Here, we presented in some depth only 2 terms, given the space we have: the “Platform” & the “Cloud⁴”!

• The “Cloud” refers to storing & accessing data on the Internet.

• The cloud is also an “Internet metaphor” (https://www.pcmag.com/, 17/04/2015).

The cloud, in its first reading, leads one’s mind to meteorological phenomena, connected perhaps with how to cause… rainfalls!

• A “platform” is a combination of “software & technology” for the companies to unify & streamline their business operations, & their IT systems (Graph 1).

As shown, there are 4 targets, very important for management! The question now is:

• To be, or become, digital?

A company can be digital by design or transformed into one. In both cases the “digital software & hardware” are required! The “letting” company can decide, in advance, from a menu, what information needs, provided that this has the following properties (Graph 2).

The above capabilities clearly enable management to make a big step forward!

The further big advantage, we believe, is that the digital services can be “rented” (& stopped), one by one! The scope of the “renting” company is to be able to offer, (to its customers/charterers), a number of what are called (digital) offerings⁵.

For shipping important areas are also ship’s safety & security! In a⁶ Greek shipping digital transformation roadmap, a ship-owner has to manage digitally both: ship’s Quality (covering: ships’/tankers’ safety, risk assessment, international safety management code-ISM & ship’s operations) & safety (covering also: crew management plus the 3 first items from quality)!

• By DO it is meant “information-enriched” solutions (Graph 3)!

As shown, this points-out clearly that DOs are used towards achieving efficiency.

• Understanding the digital philosophy!

For a company to benefit from the digital “revolution”, it is useful to understand its philosophy. This takes first into account the fact-unnoticed till certain years ago, that “knowledge⁷ & information-K & I”, are continuously piling-up out there! K & I are indeed produced by hundreds of relevant doers⁸, worldwide every moment.

But, the operational K & I are also “laid-up” surely inside the company & certainly inside the vessel! The question that cropped-up was, naturally, how to obtain & exploit K & I for company’s benefit? In other words (Graph 4):

& with a final view to enable managers to take better decisions!

• The “Lego” philosophy

Ross et al., (2019) , mentioned, a “LEGO movie” (p. 57), to explain how a company has to understand a digital platform! Their paradigm is of course a metaphor, where the various “Lego” bricks carry data/information etc., which a manager can obtain.

Thus, a new term has appeared called “componentization” closely related to digitalization! Without components, surely nothing can be built-up, & without digitalization, no rapid, new, results can be ever derived… Even by using the same “bricks”, which we already have, but arranged differently, as the case may be, so that to achieve more efficient & effective decisions! So, the digital companies have really to (Graph 5):

Thus, a solution can quickly be assembled, from existing re-usable parts, given that a track of them is kept-up. Where? Naturally in… company’s “digital platform” (Graph 6)!

• Company’s digital platform

As shown, a digital platform is, nothing more than, a company’s … warehouse! But the components, we mentioned, are, really… slices of a code, having specific⁹ tasks! The digital platform-DP has to provide (Graph 7 and Graph 8).

Also:

Of course the purchase & the collection of data from sensors, smart devices & other web services, (very important for shipping), will have to¹⁰ be done, so that to build, or buy, certain re-usable APIs (à applications of programming interfaces).

• The APIs are enabled software components having a code (Graph 9) in:

Companies, increasingly, the last 6 years at least-have based their strategy for change-including their planning function-on data (Robbins-Coulter, 2018, p. 302). Such a strategy relied on what is known as “business intelligence” (Graph 10).

The BI has focused on: 1) what is going-on inside the company, including the important area known as “employees’ motivation” & 2) in what exactly one’s competitors is doing! The adoption e.g., of a new technology by one’s competitors, perhaps digital, is a main indication of a potential threat, & of an effort of them to improve their performance!

Technology nowadays provides: “3 digital tools¹¹” (Graph 11)!

The digital tools, which were applied first by management, were destined to support company’s planning function.

“The internet of things” also emerged, really, something of another rather very strange term! à This means that certain “things”, from one’s everyday life, can provide, as well, store, data, concerning one’s “performance”, in the Internet.

According to “Eurostat”, the % of the Greek companies using “Cloud”₂₀₂₃ was 22%, vis-à-vis 17%₂₀₂₀. In the EU-28, the % was almost double: 42%₂₀₂₃ compared with 36%₂₀₂₀! The “Cloud computing¹²”, as this is its proper name, is à “a rentable internet application, i.e., a service, using hardware & software, in a set-up information center providing a place for storage”.

Such software services are called apropos à “software, for sale, as a service” –”SaaS”, as this is what really is. The cloud-center need not be near the final user, but it has to be equipped so that to serve its user(s) automatically, fast & easy.

Always the business world realized the importance of information, & its technology, although “computerization” initially was not easily understood by the top managers, who were also reluctant by its rather high cost & complexity! The importance of the flexibility of the “original vast computing systems” to change was not as desired & the so called “Enterprise Resources Systems” ERS¹³ i.e., the software systems handled the entire functions of a company.

The first & widespread applications were, and still¹⁴ are, in the areas of Accounting, Human resources management-HRM, including crew, the payrolls, the MGA, etc., in an area called “MRP¹⁵, manufacturing resource planning”.

The personal computers diffused indeed the advantages of technology to almost all middle managers/operators & eventually to ship’s officers, providing to them their own “computer personal station”, adding speed to their actions & other benefits.

The Cloud computing & its benefits, presented above, depends entirely on having full access to the Internet. This creates problems, if connectivity is impossible, difficult or discontinuous, through the existing communication system of the satellites. We come to this now as far as shipping is concerned.

Vessel’s difficulty to enjoy digitalization in full, as in her shore office, was & still is, we believe, but to a lesser degree as time goes-by, her degree of accessibility to Internet, beyond the e-mail service. The e-mail remains still central of course, as well the AI-pin… If our generation wishes to be proud for something, this is the area of communications!

However, a further hopeful innovation came from the so called “MICE-1”, the “nano-satellite” or “CubeSat”₂₀₂₃! This “nano-satellite” provides not only the capability of communication from/to ships, everywhere, including in the so called “blind spots”, but also shows the route of the vessel…!

In addition, one “nano-satellite” is able to communicate with another, using the laser technology. Given the small size of a “CubeSat”, (10 × 20 × 40 cm), there may be as many as 16, at the same time, (requiring from 16 to 24 m Euro of course), so that their broadcasting to be continuous, i.e., in every few minutes!

Moreover, the “DUTHSat-2” can spot a “sea pollution” caused in a marine accident &/or by ship’s “bilge waters”. In addition, the “Optisat cube sat” uses a laser “flying terminal” for a faster than hitherto data transmission! Another innovation, which is mentioned below, concerns ship’s main engine alternative-fuel (Goulielmos, 2021b) .

Shipping, hopes by 2027, & by using vessel’s “high frequency data collection systems”, BD, AI, “the smarter class notations”, (in all new buildings), & the new platforms, (plus taking into account the “CII” & “ETS” rules; & the “flow meters”), to reduce ships’ greenhouse gas emissions. This project to a certain degree is based on the degree of the connectivity of office with vessel, & in the possibility to give orders from a distance & see also their implementation!

This part shows what exact initiatives certain pioneering shipping companies have taken in end 2023, their planning time & thus to form an idea what is going on now among shipping companies, their digital consultants & their Class. We expect of course the rest of the companies to follow those that took the first steps. We know from experience that the adoption of new technologies by maritime companies is slower and appears first in the multinational companies in the country.

A shipping company has first to ask the help of one provider of digital technologies, and why not & of its Class. Classes have worked-out new “notations” now, following the recent developments in the so called “shipping digitalization”!

As mentioned above, the first step is to have better/improved data, so that the effectiveness of the shipping companies to increase -with a view to reduce gases’ emissions due to the greenhouse effect, which is the urgent part of what we have to do!

Such a project as the above, as mentioned, needs a platform of data collection, monitoring certain ship functions & subsystems, & using technologies of the type of the “Internet of things”. Obviously, from the above, we need sensors on board in order to know in real time at least:

The above data has to be analyzed, using also “artificial neural networks” & a (relevant) platform, providing also suggestions so that to improve the situation, & to make certain prognoses, inside the IMO regulations!

The targets are: the energy effectiveness of the vessel; improving ship’s speed; having weather prognoses, & emissions’ follow-up; improving the connectivity ship-office, & to give orders from a distance & follow-up their execution, as mentioned; high frequency data, till 2027, & analytics, as well flow meters, are required. One’s charter parties to have rules for the CII & the ETS!

We have next to digress! This is so because a company, & even more, a shipping company, needs a peaceful international environment to grow where no local wars will be present like the Russia-Ukraine or Israel-Palestine one or attacks from Hufi Jordanian pirates.

The agonies of the global economies are not about how to connect ships to the Internet, but how to save the planet from its aggressive climate & from the cropping-up, one after the other, of local wars/& terrorism!

Many, however, look forward for the coming “Paradise on Earth”, to be created by… “Artificial Intelligence”, AI, our new God or devil! One must admit that “Eva”, an AI application for detecting COVID-19, helped Greek authorities to spot a double number of travelers of high risk, showing no symptoms! The world spent already more than $23 b for the applications of the AI.

Of course, the robots, another digital service, will no doubt “steal” working positions from humans, but there are, out there, many dangerous & automated tasks to be assigned to them, including tasks on board the vessel! Remember that a number of crew members, & people from the repair yards personnel, died, by entering in closed spaces, where the forces of the “explosion triangle” were present!

Apropos, a Greek start-up company, embarked in making “things” from “carbon-fibers” using the robots! The idea is to make things from lighter materials, stronger, & cheaper, if possible. The lighter dimension means to use more efficient materials. We believe that the research in replacing older building/manufacturing/chemical materials, etc. with new, is one of the important developments of the human ingenuity. Imagine a ship madE, in whole or in parts, by carbon fibers how lighter is going to be… & how cheaper!

Robots work also in the old textile works, & not only, & in all hand-made old professions using the 3D printers/3D scanning & laser & 3D knitting! Furniture can also be produced by robots. Here is the human brain to excel in all types of handcrafting!

We return, however, to the agonies of our “home” à Europe.

The Director of the “European Investment Bank”_Oct.2023, stated his concern in a Greek press interview, for the EU “reluctance”, quantified by the low (=2%) of the GDP of the EU-27, to invest in innovation, vis-à-vis its competitors in N America & Asia!

Figure 1 presents the number of the start-up companies₂₀₂₀, usually in the high technology sectors, having a capitalization of $1 b & over, which spent about $149 b globally, from which 68 b (46%) by the Chinese & only 43 b by EU-7 (29%)! Worth noting is that the 70% of them (704 start-ups) emerged in USA (52%) & in China (243; 18%), while 12% only in EU-7 (146)!

The European more acute problem, however, is not so much its fewer start-ups, but the competition exerted from USA, which₂₀₂₂ “donated” $369 b “tax exemptions” & “subsidies” for green investments, if they were carried-out there! As a result 2 grant EU-4 companies will invest $1.5 b in USA & one will get $1.3 b subsidy from the S Carolina state…

Their leaders were skeptical about AI during their recent meeting_{Nov. 2023 in San Francisco}! The human brain can think of 1 idea per second, but the “ChatGPT”, an AI product, can enable human brain to achieve 200 ideas per second! A recent conference, which took place 27th Nov. 2023 in Las Vegas, named “RE: Invent”, a new branch of AI emerged called “Genetic AI”. An assistant of this is the “Amazon Q”, which permits to create content in the form of a text, sound, picture or video, in companies’ service in the cloud, to reply to business questions!

About 7000 Chinese firms do business in USA, having invested more than $130 b, & supplied Americans with about 230,000 labor positions. Moreover, China dominated in the production of nickel, of solar panels & still holds a serious part of the American debt, while important is also the Chinese production of microchips.

We have to congratulate the above 2 countries, in our opinion: 1) USA, for producing “food” & “clothing”, at quantities & prices attainable by its labor class, at least at the time I visited USA, & 2) China, for producing products which the world labor class can buy! We may add here UK caring for, at the least at the time I used to write there my doctoral thesis, its citizens to be able to obtain a car & a house (on mortgage)!

Worth noting is that the direct Chinese foreign investment in USA-FDI, as well its capital inflow, peaked-up at about $66 - $68 b₂₀₁₆ (Figure 3).

Only one year₂₀₁₆ can be considered the good one, & the last one, for the Chinese FDI & capital inflow into USA. The USA capital inflow in China, respectively, peaked-up later₂₀₁₉ with $13 b & the FDI peaked-up with $30.5 b₂₀₁₈. Then, both countries withdrew from these activities, affecting the whole world & Germany in particular!

Germany today has to find ways for its Government to be able to borrow to spend money for the “green transition”! Germans have put Euro 60 b aside, destined for the Pandemic, but not used, but their Constitutional Court did not allow Government in using them! The German infrastructure needs renovation, underlined that also by the IMF, long ago… Our personal opinion is to consider the decisions of the Courts, which have no “economists as judges”, irrelevant.

Worth noting is that the planned German Green investments of Euro 104 b will not be carried-out by the German companies, if Government does not spend also the above amount! Germany will have a debt 65% of the GDP₂₀₂₄, while the Euro zone has 90%, USA 121% & Japan 260%₂₀₂₃! Germany is a victim of its debt policy, meaning the “iron maintenance” for the Government to borrow only 0.35% of its GDP!

We return now to digital reality!

For a non-digital company to become digital, it has to change, & at the same time to adopt (rent) all or part of the, at the present eleven available, digital technologies (Graph 13).

The digital menu, as shown, is extensive, & is based on 3 capabilities (Graph 14).

As shown, the data, which a shipping company needs, should be available everywhere & at the moment is needed! This includes the time when the vessel is travelling in the oceans, where communications cannot be equally feasible as at shore!

Companies, in general, & shipping companies -in particular, have by now to be re-designed… for a future success, called “digital success”! But the process, called “digital transformation”, outlined above, is a long journey, because the re-design concerns the manner by which the entire company has worked so far!

It seems that the talents, the skills, the processes, the systems & the roles of an existing company, which have proved to be the means of its past success, are now, & thus tomorrow, irrelevant (Ross et al., 2019) !

A transformation process is thus, no doubt, required (Graph 18) as follow:

Four building blocks, however, towards a digital transformation are required (Graph 19).

An important maritime (digital) chapter is vessel’s maintenance, we believe! The digital philosophy, we reckon, is apropos fit for this important side of the shipping business! The ship’s items, which are maintainable, are indeed many, & are both operational like the main engine, the power stations, the boiler, the electric systems, and others, & non operational like ship’s metal body, cargo spaces/holds, gear, ballast & fuel tanks, and other items subject to age’s influence. Here, “Internet of things” & “the analytics” can improve maintenance, for all ship’s equipments, following the digital “Planned maintenance system” (PMS).

There is a good idea to allow vessel’s charterers to “see” the “ship’s maintenance strategy”/history, before fixing her, in the cloud! Planned maintenance adds confidence to ship’s services & allows over-aged ships to trade (over 10 - 15 years of age)! The proper ship’s maintenance deducts also the fear from the charterers for a probable marine accident. The “mobility” technologies can also allow crew to turn-on a light, or unlock a door, or unlock the medicine cupboard, the alcohol & cigarette lockers, or a refrigerator’s door, or to allow entry into ship’s kitchen, ship’s laboratory & ship’s spare parts, etc. remotely with an AI-pin…

Important, however, are the digital tools for the crew welfare & that of the office personnel, especially for those companies that provide loans, extra pension schemes, medical assistance & participation in company’s profits.

When I was an office HR manager in a large shipping company, I proposed to management the “anti-cyclical life cycle treatment” of company’s personnel! This policy meant, for company’s personnel, after a number of years working in the company, to consider them say as a “permanent” staff. Then, given that when a person is young, round his/her 30 s-is lacking a car and a house etc., & when is old, over his/her 50 s, has already built an adequate property, which… however, cannot be… used, I asked the company to fill the “life gaps”…

In other words, to frame the financial needs of both crew & office permanent personnel, with long term loans in terms of their life events -buying a car, getting married, buying a house, having kids, planning retirement, being deployed, using mobile & other digital technologies!

Many have written about digitalization, but almost no one has defined it! Digitalization indeed uses a better/faster technology; it provides a new type of communications & it means a new way of doing business!

But a (digital) intervention has to be done after a good judgment” & “always to protect… humans from technology”, because the “technology & the machines should always be servants to humans²⁰, & never be, or become, Masters!”

Source: author.

Of course, digitalization is not an end in itself, i.e., to make the internal shipping company & its vessels digital. The target has to be mainly the company’s charterers’ … (digital) satisfaction, from vessel’s services, i.e., those who pay!

The obvious advantage of the cloud is to have the required data on demand, in real time & updated, directly from their authenticated/responsible sources, to everybody, interested & entitled, in the vessel & in the company!

For shipping is essential the “diffusion of information”, as in the pre-cloud epoch information vital for someone was known by someone else & arrived to him/her, in great delay, if at all!

In management, one has to try to apply the rule: “whatever one does & whatever money one spends, as a manager, he/she has to achieve a higher efficiency & effectiveness” than hitherto! E.g., a perfect “digital organizing” is useless, if does not serve the above axiom. Moreover, digitalization may be remarkable in the eyes of both charterers & competitors, because this show-off surely brings external admiration, but it does not bring profits, but additional cost!

A manager understanding the digital philosophy, has clearly to go one step further than the stage of the “components’ accumulation”. à i.e., to apply lots of imagination… in using the components… as those are made suitable to build a lot of different solutions, as the case may be, in other words they are multi-purpose!

“Renting” the relevant K & I is like a manager, our metaphor, visiting an open market, where digital services are there, displayed, together with their hardware & software (& their rent). The shipping manager standing there is wondering: “if I let this service, I could know how & when & why one of my big charterers has been really satisfied, for sure (on data), from company’s ship’s services”! This is really something excellent!

The companies were, & are nowadays, in need of more & better data! The data thus became, without realizing it, a business coefficient of production! Managers need, however, specific services (Table 1), certain of which are provided.

The Russia-Ukraine_2022- war caused… indeed a positive result for the EU-28, i.e., to try not to depend on “Russian natural gas”, by 2030, by 45% on its total energy needs! Russia of course does not care, as long as large markets for its gas, like e.g., the Chinese, remain open, despite the EU-28 further_Nov.2023 sanctions.

The mobile phone, no doubt, greatly improved communications. The operators are the first people, being the middle managers, in a shipping company, to learn what is going on board & what is happening in the port-information which has to be stored at once in the Cloud. “The prompt knowledge means prompt action, and the prompt re-action, means a better satisfied charterer, as well increased efficiency & effectiveness to the company!”

The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Goulielmos, A. M. (2024). Suggestions from a Marine Economist to Make One’s (Shipping) Company… Digital! Modern Economy, 15, 361-384. https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2024.154019