Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) has installed an 'Optimum Weather Routing System' developed by engineering technology group Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) to manage 120 vessels in its fleet by 2021.
The system will supply vessels belonging to the Japanese carrier, ranked the 15th largest container shipping company by vessel capacity, with information on the route that will use the minimum amount fuel and ensure navigational safety.
K Line’s collaboration with KHI group will see it use part of the Kawasaki Integrated Maritime Solution ‘K-IMS’ for the Optimum Weather Routing System.
K-IMS focuses on using big data to manage a cloud system in the shore server that can check the operating condition of vessels and analyze their performance to decide the safest and lowest cost course based on weather information.
K Line can share this data among operation teams, ship management companies and vessels.
The carrier developed the system by doing onboard tests for various types of vessels.
In a company announcement, K Line said: “As the result of onboard testing, the estimated value of rolling, pitching and fuel consumption on the route selected by the system matched with in-service results… that led us to the decision of installing the system to vessels in our fleet.”
Diagram of the K-IMS system capabilities:
