Digitalisation in the UK maritime sector: a stakeholders' pulse check

Several digitalisation technologies have recently emerged, reshaping organisations across various industries and sectors. Such technologies, commonly placed under the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) umbrella term, include Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). They aim to enable data collection, exchange, processing, and automation to support a system to make decisions autonomously. This paper presents the Intelligent Naval 4.0 project (IN 4.0), aiming to ease the adaptation and adoption of I4.0 practices and technologies in maritime sector companies in order to improve their competitiveness. This will be achieved through a four-pronged approach aiming to: analyse the current state-of-art as applied to other industries; define a protocol for the redefinition of workers’ tasks; investigate cost-reduction methods for the implementation of 4.0 technologies; and counsel businesses for the transformation of maritime SMEs to the 4.0 era. Special focus will be given to the training required to get workers acquainted with new technologies and remain competitive in this changing labour market. Recent progress and advances of the IN 4.0 project along with future plans are presented and discussed, thus revealing the expected future transformation of the maritime industry.