Industry 4.0 for the maritime economy of the Baltic States

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rima Mickevičienė

The goal of establishing Industry 4.0 expertise for the Baltic maritime industry based on the model of the German SME Digital Centers of the BMWK in the Baltic states in order to improve the holistic understanding of digital transformation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the maritime industry and to support the implementation of future-proof digital applications was partially achieved. Based on the experience of the Baltic Chamber of Foreign Trade (AHK), the indirect target group was initially limited to Lithuanian companies, as according to the AHK, the willingness of SMEs from the other Baltic states in particular to travel was considered too low. This limitation meant that only the Lithuanian part of the maritime industry could be addressed and analyzed. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of digitization opportunities for SMEs were presented, discussed and further developed together with the AHK at a joint kick-off at the TH Wildau.
The qualitative analysis was carried out in ten structured interviews with SME decision-makers at Balttechnika in Vilnius in cooperation with the AHK from May 15 to 17, 2024. Three of the interviews could be converted into pre-check Industry 4.0 reports for the SMEs due to their comprehensiveness as innovation assessments. The structured interviews were continued at another public event at the KU in Klaipeda on September 11th and 12th. At the Mobile Factory Lab at Th Wildau, quantitative analyses were carried out on site using interviews.
A common understanding of Industry 4.0 and its implementation as well as the challenges faced by Lithuanian SMEs was established for the direct target group: Through detailed qualitative and quantitative analyses with the employees of a houseboat shipyard from Klaipeda, initial approaches for maritime-specific technology concepts were identified. The development and implementation of the concepts, which relate to both product development and the production process, is to be continued in currently planned research projects. To this end, the company is planning on site both in Klaipeda and in Wildau.
The results of the SWOT analysis were presented and discussed in a public online closing event in cooperation with the AHK KMU. A general finding is that the experiences and expectations of SMEs from Germany cannot be transferred to Lithuanian SMEs. This is also evidenced by the general weaknesses found in the SWOT analysis for Baltic SMEs, which generally block and in many cases even prevent the introduction of Industry 4.0 and the necessary digitalization:
• Few financial resources for implementation
• Few to no IT specialists
• Low awareness of the risks of digitalization, including cloud services and AI
In summary, it can be said that solutions must first be found for the aforementioned weaknesses of SMEs before a holistic understanding and implementation of Industry 4.0 can be tackled.

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.