Industry 4.0 for the maritime economy of the Baltic States

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rima Mickevičienė

Klaipėda University (KU), while fulfilling the 4 missions of a modern university (education, research, innovation, service to society), aims to strengthen the transfer of knowledge to local SMEs. In the context of digitalization, the topic of Industry 4.0 has been driving companies for several years. Although KU, led by prof. Volker Wittpahl, who initiated information events on this topic with the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce (AHK) in the past, there are no laboratories where it would be possible to demonstrate Industry 4.0 solutions for system testing and implementation directly to companies. Currently, digitalization under Industry 4.0 essentially serves sustainability by saving energy and materials as well as process optimization. Practice-oriented Industry 4.0 research projects in Klaipeda could strengthens the Baltic maritime economy and benefit the manufacturing players in the Klaipeda Free Economy Zone (FEZ).

The idea for the project arose during the Roadshow Industry 4.0 demonstration at the Technical University of Wildau (TH Wildau) in July 2023. Prof. Wittpahl, Lithuanian commercial attaché in Berlin Inga Rovbutas and Prof. Dr. Reiff-Stephan noticed that TH Wildau’s laboratory equipment and competences would be useful in demonstrating Industry 4.0 solutions to participants in the Baltic blue economy.

The aim of this project is to establish an Industry 4.0 competence for the Baltic maritime industry, following the example of the German SME Digital Centers from BMWK in the Baltic States, in order to improve the holistic understanding of digital transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the field of maritime economy and to support the implementation of future-proof digital applications.

This can be achieved by:

• Conducting a quantitative and qualitative analysis of digitalization opportunities for SME for the maritime manufacturing sector; and by
• Creating maritime-specific technology concepts and evaluating them based on the above analysis and previous research.

Direct:

1. Department of Marine Engineering, Klaipeda University, Lithuania,
   persons: 2
2. Engineering Department, Klaipeda University, Lithuania,
   persons: 2
3. Department of Informatics and Statistics, Klaipeda University, Lithuania,
   persons: 2
4. Faculty of Marine Engineering and Natural Sciences, Klaipeda University, Lithuania
   persons: 1
5. TH Wildau | Technical University of Applied Sciences, Germany,
   persons: 3

Indirect:

• Institutions of maritime economy: the Klaipeda city municipality, LMC and FEZ;
• Baltic SMEs of the maritime economy and their employees.