Meyer Group: Intelligent IT systems are key to green shipbuilding

March 8, 2022, by Naida Hakirevic Prevljak

With its startup Alfred Maritime, German shipbuilder Meyer Group wants to speed up the digitalization of the shipbuilding industry and use data in a smart way to contribute to the sector’s decarbonization.

“Meyer Group’s goal is green shipping and green shipbuilding. Digitalization and Industry 4.0 are also part of these initiatives,” the group said.

In 2019, Meyer Group founded the startup Alfred Maritime as a think tank for the digitalization topics of the group. Now the young company is embarking on a growth course.

As explained, Alfred Maritime’s mission is to ensure that ships are not only built as energy-efficient as possible but also operated as sustainable as possible.

“Three years ago we founded Alfred Maritime to drive digitalization onboard of our ships. Our team of specialists … combines the capabilities in the fields of the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence with the shipyard’s domain knowledge on cruise ships. In that sense it is a very unique team that is developing data-driven solutions for CO2 reduction on the ship,” Paul Meyer, CEO of Alfred Maritime and Chief Information Officer of Meyer Group, commented.

Based in Hamburg, Alfred Maritime operates as an agile team within MEYER Group with its three shipyards in Germany and Finland.

Meyer Group’s goal is to develop shipbuilding and ship operations with innovative solutions towards climate neutrality. An important building block is the benefits of digitalization — thanks to Alfred Maritime, data can be made usable for the reduction of energy consumption as well as decarbonization of ship operations and even improve the customer experience of passengers, according to the company.

In this mission, Alfred Maritime works as a team of “Data Butlers” to support shipyards and ship owners.

“The future of shipbuilding is green. This also requires intelligent IT systems to continuously improve the overall ship product on our pathway to carbon free shipping,” Malte Poelmann, Chief Technology Officer of Meyer Group, pointed out.