Moving to systems-as-a-service

The MIDAS (Modularity In Design for Asset Servitization) project looks at how DNV can support an industry shift toward ‘power-by-the-hour’ or ‘servitization’ over traditional models of equipment supply. This will have implications for safety and maintenance, but also benefits for shipowners, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), and class.

Condition based maintenance holds much potential for reduced operational costs, but only if the data produced is comprehended and acted upon. With ground-up understanding of their own equipment, OEMs are better-placed to take this action, yet current ownership models place this responsibility on the end-user.

This approach rarely gets the best results from the available technology, either in terms of maintenance outcomes or incremental performance adjustments. Shifting to a servitization model allows OEMs and integrators to take responsibility for monitoring the health of their assets, and making incremental improvements as they better understand the hardware they have designed themselves.

Modular integrated systems

MIDAS proposes to leverage the different disciplines of class to support the design of a modular template for integrated systems, suitable for reuse in many ships and by various OEMs. Developed in close collaboration with industry partners, these modular layouts would enable servitization of the systems a ship relies on - propulsion, navigation, communication or other functions – providing an architecture in which degrading components can be swapped or overhauled at an increasingly optimal time.

This transition by OEMs - from a product to an advanced-service portfolio – requires advanced understanding of failure mechanisms, maintenance intervals, and the ability to monitor and harvest data from a global fleet of systems. MIDAS explores how DNV classification, too, could utilize this data, to enable new ways of checking compliance to classification rules and improving maritime safety.

The benefits

MIDAS aims to realize benefits for all three stakeholders in a servitization setup - shipowner, OEM and DNV classification. It will be in OEMs’ interests to maximise contract returns, by leveraging R&D expertise to improve systems continuously – not just at the point of purchase, as in the traditional model. Greater control over integration and operation will enable improved reliability, longer maintenance intervals, and faster efficiency gains for ship equipment. This can reduce lifetime costs for the shipowner and, in the long term, enable the requisite high reliability for unmanned vessels. For DNV classification, data can be used to improve assurance work, remote surveys, and condition-based surveys.

The market potential for the solutions proposed is in theory the entire ship systems market, although it is not anticipated that all shipowners or OEMs will move to a servitized offering. Therefore, DNV estimates the market potential is perhaps towards 50% of selected ship systems over the next 20 years.