Case Study: Improving energy efficiency onboard vessels

Wärtsilä and Signol on utilising technology to operate vessels more efficiently

Finnish marine and energy technology company, Wärtsilä, was looking for a new way for them, their customers and crew members to work more efficiently together as they are supplying both equipment, technologies and software. It was key to find ways to share data and information and getting the people onboard vessels involved in the ecosystem.

The startup to match these specific challenges turned out to be software company, Signol, which uses behavioural economics and data science to improve communication and decision-making.

“Signol offers us an opportunity to get in direct contact with people onboard vessels.”

Steffen Knodt, Director – Digital Ventures at Wärtsilä

For Signol, partnering with Wärtsilä was a great opportunity as the two companies are aligned, not only in terms of matching problems with solutions, but, more importantly, also in terms of shared visions of driving sustainability in their industries.

Together, Wärtsilä and Signol work towards finding ways to improve industry operations to become more efficient and sustainable.

A key issue in this collaboration is getting crew members to start using this technology and, in turn, operate their vessels more efficiently. This was a key motivator for Signol:

“We can provide people with lots of dashboards, but (the question is) how to motivate them to use these dashboards and enjoy their work.”

Divya Sukumar, Behavioural Scientist at Signol

The combination of data sourced from Wärtsilä and the frameworks and methodology provided by Signol, enables this partnership to unlock better ways to reach crew members, explore behaviours that can be targeted and improved onboard vessels and find the incentives that work best.

Why partner with Rainmaking?

For Wärtsilä, Rainmaking has been a valuable partner in helping them find the right technology to improve their ways of working as well as the right partner that has matching visions and capabilities.

For Signol, the program provided a clear structure to accelerate the new collaborations:

“(The program) has given us a clear deadline to work towards, and it’s made both large and small companies work much faster to meet the launch day.”

Divya Sukumar, Behavioural Scientist at Signol