At worldwide scale 95% of the commercial transportation is maintained by merchant and industrial ships. In other words a big majority of all goods that we use in our daily life and that are exchanged every day in the World are transported by ships. If we look at the ships which are the most efficient vehicles when carrying objects of big size and/or amount from this point of view, it would be easier to understand their importance for World community. And if we consider the luxury yachts and naval ships of different types and built for different purposes are added into this picture even a broader perspective can be achieved.
In a simplified definition a ship is an end product created as a result of a big process starting with a design idea that becomes meaningful after engineering studies, continuing with a massive building period and finalizing by different tests before the delivery to her Owner. Various engineering disciplines such as naval, mechanical, electrical, electronic, industrial, chemical, textile, etc. are involved into the shipbuilding project. During the studies millions of data and information are generated and utilized. Additionally, different actors like ship owner, shipyard, designer, classification society, supplier, subcontractor, national and international authorities get together for a common purpose. If building of a standard merchant ship is considered thousands of activities are carried out by spending hundreds of thousands of man*hour and creating tens of thousands of documents. This work results with a cost and purchase price with many zeros.
A very important aspect of the ship building sector is that there is no understanding of prototype production. It is out of discussion to test a product on which a very big investment is made by trial-error method. In brief the tests that will be carried out after the building period must be successful. Therefore the quality and accuracy of the design and engineering work done before the building is of utmost importance. In the meantime the selection of business model should be considered carefully to maintain success and sustainability in ship building projects.
Two main categories can be cited when investigating the business models in the shipbuilding world. First one is the Continuous Production System that is mostly followed by Asia-Pacific countries and especially in S. Korea, Japan and China which are in total occupying approximately 80% of market share. In this system the number of designs and engineering modifications are kept at lowest possible level while the number of ships built is very high and that allows the relevant corporations to benefit the advantages of economy of scale. The other system is called Boutique Production System also known as tailor made style and it is a most common method especially in Europe. In this system the number of designs and the engineering modifications suggested to the owner is considerably high when compared with the first system. Consequently the number of ships built with this system is less. The advantage of this system is to provide the flexibility for responding precisely the needs of the customer and tendency to build special purpose and more expensive ships. In each model the shipbuilding is realized based on the order given by the customer.
Based on previous information the shipbuilding project can be described as a structure formed by the interaction and integration of works of design-to-order nature and activities of build-to-order nature. These two working nature have some aspects in common and some other in opposition. In design-to-order type Works the unique design development process is group of work where a lot of design alternatives are experienced, trial-error activities are very common and which can be symbolized by a spiral to define the progress. The increasing number of spiral cycles increases the possibility of mistakes, consequently increases the costs and diminishes the motivation for work. Therefore the aim is to reach the wanted result in a minimum number of cycles. In opposition build-to-order type activities have no room for trial-errors. This results the obligation to remove and manage many uncertainties during the building period. The key to success in building is to decrease the possible risks at a minimum level and finalize the process without problem. The common point of two working styles is that previous experiences of design and building would provide many advantages and thus the use of time, money and information would be used in a most efficient way.
As a result to finalize the ship design and building processes which are very rich in terms of labor spent and information produced, with success and precise adaptation of customer needs, the use of good engineering calculations or powerful design tools are not sufficient. The Management of design and building processes are of at least equal importance. Delta Marine has a great experience on managing success factors such as planning and executing the design project, verifying the design by engineering analysis, using the time and other resources very efficiently by scheduling every step at the beginning of the project, providing all potential savings for a profitable product and finally accomplishes customer’s requirements.
In each and every ship design Project, Delta Marine is capable to provide optimum solutions and integrated services by considering the criteria and restrictions coming from the customer, shipyard, suppliers, rules of national and international authorities. Having the ability to resolve the interaction of ship design and building processes in detail thanks to wide experience of engineering and consultancy in many different ship design and building projects, Delta Marine not only provides ship design but also presents services of project management, procurement consultancy, building supervision and feasibility analysis of high quality and in a result-oriented manner. It would be very easy to understand the importance of engineering management services if it is well understood that the faith of the ship to be built is decided at the design stage.