Columbia Group unveils ambitious new digital platform

Columbia Group, which includes Columbia Shipmanagement a world-class ship manager and maritime service provider with over 40 years of experience, recently unveiled ambitious plans for ground-breaking new digital platform to boost vessel performance.

As noted by the company, the operational performance of a vessel is set to be boosted with an innovative new digital solution designed to provide a holistic ship management system that brings together the fragmented capabilities of data collection and analysis under one platform.

The project, which is a collaboration between Columbia Shipmanagement (CSM), Blue Dynamics (BD) and the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), has been two years in the making and is due to be launched in July 2023. The project is co-funded by the European Union, and the Republic of Cyprus via the Research and Innovation Foundation.

Columbia’s PANGIA consortium focuses on what Pankaj Sharma, Columbia Group Director Digital Performance Optimisation, refers to as “the user of the future” and banks on their growing up immersed in technologies that will play a critical role in the industry’s evolution. The PANGIA vision creates something for that future that includes holo-lenses and virtual reality synaptic technology offers a “hands-on” experience, not only for training but also extending to onboard maintenance, connecting shoreside expertise with personnel at sea.

Through advanced data analytics and expert human input, the platform plans to boost vessel performance, reduce fuel consumption, and, through machine learning, offer proactive maintenance planning and the early detection of health hazards to protect the health and safety of crews and passengers onboard the ships.

The PANGIA tool offers a range of services to ship managers, operators, owners and banks, among others. The services include data management, standardisation, and advanced data analytics and machine learning application to identify trends and help with maintenance planning. Through PANGIA, Columbia’s clients benefit from improved digitalisation driven by AI. The POCR can collate and interpret an array of industry intelligence that allows its clients to optimise their decision-making processes regardless of where any vessel in their fleet is located.

Mark O’Neil, Columbia Group CEO, said: “The PANGIA project has been the result of a productive collaboration between CSM, BD and CMMI, looking to produce a revolutionary new platform for ship managers and operators that integrates the currently fragmented capabilities of data collection and analysis.

“Columbia is proud to be working with our partners on this pioneering development of our Performance Optimisation Control Room (POCR) and to be leading the way in ground-breaking projects to promote sustainability, while utilising the very best of technological advancements to protect the environment and deliver cost efficiencies to ship managers and operators.”

PANGIA is the evolution of the POCR services that Columbia has developed over the past three years, and Columbia now seeks to pave the way for leading technological advancements to enhance sustainability and deliver cost-cutting solutions. One of the objectives of Columbia’s POCR is to set the company apart from its competition with a more proactive approach to ship management, effectively initiating oversight of a vessel’s transit voyage before it even starts. A relatively new aspect of this approach is the monitoring of sanction areas and other areas of increased risk.