WHAT IS PLANNING IN SHIP CONSTRUCTION

our vision on planning in ship construction

Planning is a form of risk management. Before starting to set up your shipbuilding project plan, look at what risks you want to mitigate with your planning. A good example is that people tend to plan the obvious, for example the main engine, while the risks are far more widespread. Minor parts with dependencies between departments can also have a huge impact. No one will forget the main engine, but an error in something small like a gangway might indirectly cause major delays.

What planning tools do shipbuilders use

Planning tools in shipbuilding

As the planning tools have the potential to significantly reduce the risks of the shipyard whatever the emphasize of the business model it is important to choose the right tool for the right purpose.

Tools for financial planning in shipbuilding

On average we come across a variety of tools like Enterprise Resource Planning tools like SAP, Sage, Deltek, Costpoint, IFS, JD Edwards and more locally ECI Software with Inventiv ERP, Trimergo ERP and Ridder ERP. Or even Microsoft Dynamics Navision ERP or AMS ERP. These systems are oftentimes the financial backbone of the shipyard making it a sound decision to accommodate all financial yard planning available from these systems. Also by connecting the ERP with the project plans to recognize financial impacts from the key milestones and consumption of materials and hours. It’s obviously crucial to have periodical pre- and post-calculation comparisons.

Project planning tools in shipbuilding

To accommodate the project planning needs we come across Open Plan, Microsoft Projects, Microsoft Excel, Oracle Primavera P5, Oracle Primavera P6 and obviously Floorganise with Floor2Plan. Setting up the project plan is obviously a crucial task as it has the potential to mitigate many of the risks that are recognized on the project level. Such as the critical chain for the project and the parts or components to buy early in time. But many of the challenges in shipbuilding are only materialized on the project level as they originate from operations.

Detail planning tools in shipbuilding

Issues, challenges and deviations are oftentimes only recognized when they are brought to production. The wrong specifications, drawings, materials or other difficulties. As the shipbuilding project is heavily dependent on the consumption of many hours of skilled craftsmen, the logistical chain of activities and other interdepencies from internal and external parties it is crucial to also control the process level of the yard. Detail planning activities are put in place to assure that the processes are streamlined and aligned with the project plan. Through the early recognition of deviations in the process (for scarce resources, insufficient progress or shifting timelines) the financial impact for the project can be limited greatly. Tools that are often used for this purpose are Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Projects or Floorganise with Floor2Plan.

Time tracking and resource planning tools in shipbuilding

To control the resources for the yard it is crucial to have insights in the availability of individuals (shifts, holidays, hours per week) their skills (i.e. certifications,licenses, trades), their department allocation and obviously the time they spent on the yard (shop time, clock times) as well as time spent on jobs (job time). A variety of tools are used for this purpose and since no other system than Floorganise with Floor2Plan can accommodate all these needs in one system a variety of systems are used on conjunction with each other. Examples are Kronos Autotime, Kronos Workforce Timekeeper, GPS Timetracking, Integritime, EpicFlow and B4ICT or Modest.

Progress tracking tools in shipbuilding

Since the number of departments and teams involved in your shipbuilding project is manifold it is crucial to receive periodical or ideally weekly feedback from them. On where they stand with their level of progress, tasks completed, hours to go, issues and so forth. In daily practice shipyards are oftentimes using Microsoft Excel, paper processes or Oracle Primavera Team member tools to accommodate these needs. To really integrate the planning with the control cycle Floorganise’ Floor2Plan is capable of providing the users with one platform accommodating all the various progress needs.

The daily operations at a shipyard are recognized through their intense dynamic. As the initial objective of the plan is to mitigate risks the proposed plan should be kept up to date by aligning the various perspectives from all the project participants at the shipyard. This translates into a IT-infrastructure that resembles this average example.

Shipbuilders planning tool from Floorganise

Planning at a shipyard is a very layered topic. Since it requires the recognition of norms based on past experience to have predictability and meaningful assessments on duration and budgets. But as the daily operations are putting forward a dynamic reality that is complex to understand and direct the necessity of having transparency on actuals (hours, issues, progress) is crucial. The Floor2Plan suite is exclusively focused on shipyards and is the result of many years of shipbuilding driven involvement and innovation.

The impact of having Floorganise on board for your shipyard is manifold. Transparency within running projects allows for early recognition of risks and potential deviations. But also the granular understanding of production norms and having the supporting processes in place to have supervisors take responsibility for the realization of tasks within those norms. The impact summarized into solid percentages of the operational budget of your shipbuilding project.

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Basic design

During this stage, the ship is described as a total system. An initial solution is specified through creating a preliminary general arrangement and selecting the materials and technologies to be used (hull form, propulsion systems, mission equipment, etc.). This stage is also referred to as conceptual or preliminary design.