Anticipating the maintenance of equipment on board ships in order to increase fuel efficiency could be a “real game changer in the future,” said Andreas Zito, chief technical officer of the V.Ships group of companies. Condition-based maintenance, through remote monitoring, is usually considered a way to prolong intervals between maintenance. Now engineers are discovering a correlation between maintenance and fuel efficiency. The idea is to anticipate maintenance in a way that will increase fuel efficiency. “It’s a pretty novel concept,” said Zito, whose company is working with universities and manufacturers in this area. “We are doing some trials and testing, developing some systems. It’s all still at the research and development stage because it’s quite a novelty.