The Cost and Value of Automation at Sea

Abstract

Some degree of automation is a necessary part of commercial shipping because it can reduce labour requirements, permit some redeployment of crew and help improve ship efficiency. It has sometimes, however, been applied indiscriminately.

The ship must be considered in its entirety and navigational requirements, for example, are only a sub-system. The value of an investment in automation cannot be measured solely in terms of labour saved, since some of the cost may be recouped in improved performance, saved time, enhanced safety and widened knowledge. It is particularly difficult to place a true value upon the latter two. Training, expensive specialist maintenance and the cost of spending money have to be added to first costs.

Whilst the contribution of each sub-system and its component units can be evaluated to see whether investment is justified, a measure of automatic control in the modern ship is not only desirable but inevitable. As manufacturing techniques and scientific knowledge advance, the shipowner can also expect to be able to equip his ships with cheaper, better and more compact equipment, and this will be a further encouragement to reconsider his operational methods from time to time.