THE IMPACT OF
OPERATIONAL
EXCELLENCE ON
SHIPBUILDING
DENIS MORAIS
Contents
3INTRODUCTION
6 FUTURE OF SHIPBUILDING WITH AN UBER OF THE SEA
8 What does Conventional Wisdom and our Expertise Tell us?
8 The Realities
8 What If?
10 How does this affect Shipbuilding?
12 IN-SERVICE SUPPORT
13 How to Improve In-Service Support?
15 MANAGING VESSEL REPAIRS WITH A “DIGITAL TWIN”
16 Managing Vessel Repairs with a Digital Twin
18CONCLUSION
2
INTRODUCTION
3
Introduction
Shipbuilding has always been driven by the requirements of whoever has
commissioned the vessel. As vessel lifespans continue to increase, the importance
of getting those requirements right becomes increasingly more important. The
addition of new technologies that make it easier to continuously assess on-board
conditions, manage a ship’s data, and make repair and refit happen mean that
owners have more information than ever about their vessels.
Any changes to requirements will trickle down and impact shipbuilding. Either
from the outset, as new types of ships are required, or down the line, as ships
are continuously upgraded or repaired. For shipbuilding executives, understanding
what those changes will be, and how they can affect a shipbuilding in the future
will be key to staying ahead of the curve. This eBook, authored by SSI co-CEO Denis
Morais, aims to give readers an inside look into how the latest technologies will
impact both shipowners and shipbuilders throughout a vessel's operational life.
4
5
FUTURE OF
SHIPBUILDING WITH
AN UBER OF THE SEA
6
We know that many owner/operators are investing a lot of their
resources in improving the operations of their fleet. I have discussed
(and even predicted) how this trend is already affecting the shipbuilding
industry through the production of smarter more complex ships, but
also by leading owners to ask for more useable information about
their ship. This is the trend which is driving the request and eventual
requirement of a digital twin of their ship.
However, one potential outcome I have not discussed yet and am still
thinking through, is how this trend of Fleet Excellence will affect the
number of bespoke/tailored/custom types of ships we build. We all
know, no two ships are the same, even in a series; however, we may see
an increased trend towards series ships.
This may be noteworthy for anyone in the shipbuilding industry as we
are currently going through an industry wide digital transformation and
looking at how we can prepare ourselves for the future. Our future largely
depends on the needs of our customers, and if there is something that
will change our customers’ needs, then we need to be aware of it.
7
What does Conventional Wisdom
and our Expertise Tell us?
Traditionally in shipbuilding, each ship is purpose built and therefore unique from
any other ship. There are several reasons for this. For example, each owner/
company thinks they are unique and wants something exclusive that satisfies their
unique needs. These unique needs can be the route it takes, its specific contents,
the clients it serves, duration of the journey, ports, etc.
To build a ship that is unique does cost more obviously. How much more? Well that
depends on how different it is from previous designs, where you are building it, your
timeline of when you need it, etc.
Even with the additional cost of building one of a kind ships, because the cost of
building a ship is only a portion of the total cost of ownership of the ship, it will
make financial sense. If you can design a ship to be optimized for the cargo, route,
ports, duration, etc. this can significantly reduce the operating costs of the ship,
therefore reducing your total cost of ownership.
So, investing an additional 10%-30% on your ship will pay off in the 30+ year life
span of your ship…. assuming your needs do not change.
The Realities
Our industry, as well as others, never really runs as smoothly as we plan. It is
common that a ship, that was designed for a certain function, is soon being used
for a different function: different cargo, different route, different ports, etc. This
means that the savings which would have been gained from the design uniquely
tailored for your initial needs will not really materialize.
What If?
What if there was a company that focuses on Operational Excellence over
anything else. This company would optimize and even abstract away many of the
complexities for the customers who need to transport anything via water. They
would need a flexible fleet that can perform multiple functions ‘well enough’ and not
a fleet that would be comprised of many unique and custom ships.Having a fleet
with several general-purpose ships will allow the company to have:
• Easier scheduling of resources: If more of the fleet are similar in capabilities
and constraints the ability to schedule trips will be easier as there will be more
ships that can meet the needs of the trip.
8
• More predicable maintenance: If you have many of the same type of ships you
will be able to collect better insight on how that ship class performs as well as
better predictability of its unpredictable maintenance.
• A streamlined crew and maintenance team: The fleet management team
would not need to have specialists for every single type of ship. If you have
more similar ships you will require less specialists or at least have specialists
that can operate and service multiple ships. This is similar to why airlines and
trucking companies try to minimize the number of different types of planes and
truck they own. Having multiple crew that can maintain and operate multiple
assets has a lot of value and reduces operating costs.
• Lower cost of ships: Purchasing many of the same ship reduces the cost per
ship.
• Higher quality: Having similar ships will usually result in higher quality ships,
even at a lower price. Most ships with sister ships (multiple ships in the
class) will usually have less issues with the ones built at the end of the series,
especially compared to if they had been uniquely designed.
• More resilience to unpredictable events: There is always going to be an event
that you cannot predict: an accident, faulty equipment, etc. If an unfortunate
event happens, you can leverage another ship. This may still affect schedules
but provides the option to the company to decide what will have the least
negative impact.
• A rolling repair cycle: Can have a rolling repair/maintenance cycle where one
ship is being maintained and repaired without affecting any schedules.
• Many more…
There will be some inefficiencies with some of the operations of the ship as they
may not be best suited for the cargo, route, duration, etc.; however, this may be
overcome by other operational improvements and business flexibility that they will
gain from having a move streamlined fleet.
9
How does this affect Shipbuilding?
If this trend is what we will see in the future, it will affect shipbuilding. We will see
more multiple ship contracts than we see now. Every shipyard loves it when they
get a series of ships as it guarantees predictable work for a longer duration and the
risk of losing money on the series is usually lower with every additional ship that is
built in the same class.
However, it is not all good news. There will be many other shipyards trying to land
the same contract. So, who will be the winners of these contracts? It will be the
shipyards that can:
1. Provide a Digital Ship (Digital Twin): As mentioned before, the companies that
are focused on Operational Excellence will require a digital replica of their asset
(ship) as it is imperative for their digital business.
2. Have a streamlined sister ship process/strategy: As mentioned in my blog
post Hardest Problem in Shipbuilding: Sister Ships, the hardest problem we
have is to efficiently handle changes across sister ships. Companies that can
provide a high value for a low cost will be the ones which win these lucrative
contracts.
3. Provide additional value: The ability to provide additional value to the owner/
operator after the ships are delivered will make a difference. These companies
are focused on getting the most out of their ships and if there is a service or
additional value you can provide that will align with their needs, you will be in a
better position to win.
It is important for us to look at the direction that our clients are moving so we
can attempt to predict what their needs will be in the future. It is hard, but it is a
necessity if we want to be the best at what we do. Changing any portion of our
business takes time and cannot happen in weeks or even months. To have time to
adjust, it is important for us to look far enough in the future.
I am not sure if the future will start to have less bespoke ships and more series
ships, but it is definitely a possibility if we look at the current trends. Many owner/
operators are investing a lot of their money to operate their fleet more optimally. It
makes sense for them to do so. The question is how this will affect the requirements
and needs for future ships?
Currently a tailored ship can make sense with their current business model; however,
if they change their business model, which we are seeing signs they are, this will
change what they need and therefore the type of ship they invest in. A tailored ship
may be a better if the ship will always function in only the role it was designed for,
but in many cases, ships change functions several time in their 30+ years of life.
10
11
IN-SERVICE
SUPPORT
12
In-Service support
Usually, there are two different directions that people take when speaking about
Digital Twins. Some come from a design perspective where the Digital Twin will
improve engineering, design, and manufacturing of the ship. Others come from the
perspective of In-Service/Operations where IoT and smart shipping is the focus.
I do think that in most of the presentations I have attended and discussions I had,
the Digital Twin is talked about too narrowly (too small of a subset of the potential
capabilities of a digital twin). Our understanding will expand as we continue the
conversations and discussions.
One area that’s missing, and I think the conversation will evolve, is talking more about
a digital/business transformation than just the Digital Twin. Our organizations and
industry need to evolve our culture, workflows, tools, mindset, and even strategies
before anything like a Digital Twin can be achieved. These requirements do not get
the attention they deserve.
How to Improve In-Service Support?
With operating costs of a ship being much more than the initial purchase, it makes
sense that in-service support is being talked about.
Companies are increasingly providing significant mid-life retrofits for some of
their fleet, but surprisingly, many of the solutions used do not combine many of
the implemented technologies. For example, one presentation I’ve seen mentioned
that they needed to laser scan the ship to get the “as-is” structure. They used that
laser scanning to help remodel the area that was being retrofitted. After which they
pulled information (manually) to get material data, and then managed supplier
information for the assets/material that was purchased. All this was done digitally
but was never combined and linked together. There were over 5 different silos of
new digital information that is not connected and most likely will not be used again.
I see this as a huge missed opportunity.
For all owner/operators of ships there is a desperate need to better support the
vessels that are already deployed. Even ships that have just been deployed this year
already have documentation, usually 2D PDFs, that are out of date. This is a huge
challenge that needs to be addressed as these ships will be in service for 30+ years.
Opportunities such as when the ship is being rehauled/retrofitted are important to
take advantage of.
For the ships that have not been built yet, the challenge is a bit “easier,” but still
out of reach with today’s way of working. There were discussions of requesting
as-builts with 3D models from the shipyards. This is a step in the right direction, but
the reality is the owner/operator are not able or structured to leverage the as-built
today. Both the shipyards and the navy would need to adapt their businesses for
this strategy to work.
13
14
MANAGING VESSEL
REPAIRS WITH A
“DIGITAL TWIN”
15
Managing Vessel Repairs with a
Digital Twin
Vessel lifespans average between 30 and 50 years, thanks to ongoing maintenance,
repair, and refit. Those consistent changes result in a ship that deviates significantly over
its lifespan, making it difficult to maintain up-to-date design & build records of the ship
that is currently being operated. Maintaining this “digital model” over a ship’s lifespan, with
so many changes, requires working with information that comes from different sources,
time periods, and technologies. Integrating these different sources of information can
increase your understanding of your ship and dramatically reduce the overall cost of
ownership.
As-built and as-maintained digital twins solve a large part of these problems but are still
not being delivered to ship owners. With older vessels, information might only exist in
legacy formats or on paper. This results in shipyards that don’t have the information they
need to effectively plan for repair or refit, significantly increasing both time and monetary
costs.
Today, one of the ways we see legacy data (2D PDFs) being managed is through a
combination of additional new technologies that require the complex integration of
platforms. For example, extracting toolpaths from 2D PDFs can put together a view of
the general geometry and combining those views with laser scanned data directly from
the ship allows you to explore those views in 3D space. The result is parts that can be
created using this 2D PDF and laser scan hybrid as reference.
Increasingly, working with data and information to make it useful is absolutely necessary
for shipyards to maintain competitive costs related to lifecycle management. But the
reality is that over the lifespan of a ship, requirements, technologies, and information
change. It’s unlikely that one system or subcontractor will have been responsible for
every change made to the vessel, introducing opportunities for lost information or added
costs associated with ensuring compatibility. Core to the solution is a single platform
that can extract, curate, collate and share information across and between disparate
sources.
Going forward, the solution that everyone is moving towards is an open platform of
platforms ecosystem. With each platform in an enterprise architecture connected with
another, you lower the risk of information being unusable when different software is
used, or a hand-off occurs. The key is to avoid being locked in and optimize your ability to
use the tools best suited for the job and use their outputs in every other part of a process
or workflow. In reality, this can happen through available APIs, an open Architecture,
leveraging commercial out-of-box tools (ex. SQL), or through a community of platform
partners. This is the only way to ensure that your operation is flexible enough to adapt to
future unknowns.
Nobody knows exactly the way their business, industry, or vision will evolve. Choosing
a platform that you can build on, customize, connect with as needed, and update
consistently allows you to make decisions with the confidence of future compatibility
while still leveraging the ship information you already have.
16
The question of how to better integrate
information throughout the lifecycle of
a ship is increasingly brought up at the
conferences we attend and by the ship
owners we talk to around the world. That
speaks to just how important achieving a
solution is for our industry going forward.
17
CONCLUSION
18
Conclusion
The constant reality facing owners and shipbuilders alike is that new technologies
bring new ways to accomplish tasks. Thanks to the value that owners can
experience from Digital Twins, there is going to be a flood in demand to see those
technologies delivered with new vessels. Shipbuilders will begin to see those kinds
of requirements included from the outset.
That external demand for Digital Twins will be what feeds the development of a
cross-enterprise digital twin. With a clear requirement to implement the technology,
suddenly the return on investment becomes clear for shipbuilders. Iteration on
finished designs becomes more effective, maintenance is easier to perform, and
repair and refit are more efficient as soon as a Digital Twin is demanded by ship
owners alongside delivery of the vessel.
While I'm not a fan of making predictions, these educated assumptions are based
on where I see our industry as a whole moving towards in the future. I hope this
eBook gave you some insight into what you can expect the future of a ship in
operation will look like. And if you're a shipbuilder, what you can look out for on the
order horizon.
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About the Author
Denis Morais, SSI's co-CEO, has been internationally
recognized for his published blogs, articles and papers
and continues to provide insights on innovative
solutions for the marine industry. He has worked hand
in hand with industry partners and SSI’s clients around
the world to solve their most difficult business and
technological challenges. This depth of understanding
of both the current and future state of technology and
the business of shipbuilding serve Denis well as he
leads SSI towards the delivery of innovative products
and services.
20
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