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Shipbuilding and
11-2009
Modular Production
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
NTNU
S.O. Erikstad
Technology Management
Responsible: Signature:
Annik Magerholm Fet
Summary:
1
MARINTEK REPORT
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P.O.Box 4125 Valentinlyst
NO-7450 Trondheim, NORWAY Stein Ove Erikstad, NTNU IMT
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Location:
Marine Technology Centre
IGLO-MP (Innovation in Global Maritime Production)
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The purpose of this document is to give a short overview of modularization related to shipbuilding. The
emphasis has been on modularization and platform technologies in the product development and tendering
phase of the process.
SELECTED BY AUTHOR
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 2
Abstract and Summary .................................................................................................................................. 3
Background.................................................................................................................................................... 4
What is Modularity and Modularization? ..................................................................................................... 5
Product Platform Technologies.................................................................................................................6
Product Architecture .................................................................................................................................7
Configuration‐Based Systems..................................................................................................................10
Lean Manufacturing Principles................................................................................................................13
Motivating Modularity ................................................................................................................................ 15
Reduced Lead Time and Rapid Response in Tendering...........................................................................15
Effects on the Ship Production Value Chain............................................................................................16
Modularization in a sustainability perspective .......................................................................................16
Modular structures...................................................................................................................................... 18
What is a modular structure?..................................................................................................................18
Modularity types .....................................................................................................................................19
Review of Modularization in the Maritime Industry................................................................................... 24
Overview .................................................................................................................................................24
Equipment, modularization and arrangement (1992) ........................................................................25
Rational construction (1993)...............................................................................................................27
Early Outfitting ....................................................................................................................................29
Sales Phase Procurement (1999).........................................................................................................30
Tendering and Specification Development .............................................................................................31
Modularization in Ship Equipment Design and Production ....................................................................42
Modularization in Ship Design Processes................................................................................................44
Modularization in Ship Production..........................................................................................................47
The Damen Schelde Sigma Modular Ship............................................................................................48
Modularization in Operation...................................................................................................................48
The Littoral Combat Ship.....................................................................................................................49
Future Prospects for Modularization in Shipbuilding – From a Norwegian Perspective ............................ 50
Reference List .............................................................................................................................................. 52
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................... 54
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Abstract and Summary
In Chapter 1, the background for the work is briefly reviewed. The report is a delivery within the KMB‐
project IGLO, with the purpose of giving a short overview of modularity within shipbuilding.
In Chapter 2, an attempt is made to define modularity. In addition to breaking a larger system up into
parts and components, modularity also involves a systematic approach to recombine the parts according
to certain rules and procedures. Chapter 2 continues with a brief discussion how modularity relates to
interfacing and partly overlapping concepts, such as product platforms and configuration based systems.
In Chapter 3, the motivation for pursuing modularization in the first place is discussed, covering aspects
such as product variety, design and production efficiency, global production chains, and product lead
times. At the end of the chapters, the relevance and applicability specifically for shipbuilding is
summarized.
In Chapter 4, different types of modular structures are briefly described, including slot modularity, bus
modularity, and sectional modularity.
In Chapter 5, different applications of modularity in the maritime industries are reviewed. In particular,
previous Norwegian projects directly or indirectly related to this topic are presented, such as Rational
Construction, Early Outfitting, and Sales Phase Procurement. These projects may provide valuable input
to future projects within this field. Further, additional examples of modular solutions are reviewed,
grouped by phases including Tendering, Design and Engineering, Production and Operation.
In Chapter 6, a short discussion of future prospects for modular solutions is given, pointing in particular
to configuration‐based tendering processes, the possibility for both outsourcing and insourcing of
production, and the potential of delivering innovative, flexible designs to meet future requirements to
energy efficiency and emissions in volatile transportation markets.
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Background
The purpose of this document is to give a short overview of modularization related to shipbuilding. The
report is a delivery within the KMB project IGLO. The report is based on a number of previously
published papers, including (Brathaug et al. 2008; Erikstad and Fathi 1999; Erikstad and Hagen 2006;
Hagen and Erikstad 2002), as well as a number of other sources.
The topics listed below were considered relevant for this study. However, due to a relatively restricted
time budget, only some of these topics have been covered in any detail. The emphasis has been on
modularization and platform technologies in the product development and tendering phase of the
process.
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What is Modularity and Modularization?
The terms Modularity and Modularization are used in widely different fields of study, such as biology,
computer science, languages, mathematics and engineering. Even though the meaning of this concept
varies somewhat between these different contexts, there are some basic commonalities such as:
1. The division of a larger system into smaller parts or components
2. The principle of (relative) self‐sufficiency of the individual parts
3. The recombination of the parts into multiple end products, according to a set of “rules” given by
an overall systems architecture
These aspects are also captured in (Schilling 2000), where modularity is defined as
“A general systems concept: it is a continuum describing the degree to which a system’s
components can be separated and recombined”.
The latter presumes that there is the possibility of a certain degree of “mixing and matching” of the
components. Thus, simply splitting up a product for later assembly is not necessarily termed a modular
approach, such as for instance in section and block oriented ship production strategies. There need to be
a certain level of flexibility in the way that the parts are recombined, such as for the Sigma Modular Ships
or the Littoral Combat Ship. We will return to the discussion about modular production strategies later in
this report.
However, this is quite a wide range of definitions for the term “modular”, and in several sources it is also
used for all types of assembly and packaging of systems and elements. In an early reference on this topic
from 1974, the following definition is used (Jolliff 1974):
“Pre‐Packaging a collection of equipment (systems or components) for the purpose of their
assembly and check‐out prior to delivery to the ship for installation and for ease of installation
and removal of the package (module)”
This definition also captures the division of the ship into blocks, sections and modules as part of the ship
production process. Here, the purpose is not “mass customization”, but rather a “divide‐and‐conquer”
strategy for a division into chunks that are fit for the production facilities (weight and size of crane,
docks, halls, ports, production equipment, etc.) and the production process (planning units, parallel
production, procurement units, material management, etc.). While this is an important topic, in
particular related to production optimization, it is outside the primary scope in the rest of this report,
where the focus is more on the use of modular architectures as a strategy towards increased
competitiveness.
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As a consequence of the high focus on modular architectures and product strategies in manufacturing
industries, there exists a large body of research. The basis can be traced back to Simon’s generic studies
for handling complexity in artificial systems in (Simon 1973; 1981) and the “function‐to‐form” catalogues
from Pahl and Beitz (Pahl 1984). (Ulrich and Tung 1991) identified the core principles of the modularity
concept.
• Product platform technologies
• Product architecture, which
denotes “the scheme by which the
functions of a product are
allocated to physical components”
(Ulrich and Tung 1991)
• Configuration‐based design
• Mass customization
• Lean Manufacturing Principles
In the following, each of these will be described in more detail.
Product Platform Technologies
During the last 20 years many industries have moved from designing individual, “one‐of‐a‐kind”
products, towards developing product platforms from which a large number of variants or customized
products can be configured. There are numerous cases from diverse industries on how this technology
has improved the product development process (Simpson 2003). For instance, Volkswagen has applied
platform technology across their Audi, Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda brands. Black & Decker has
developed a common platform with extensive component reuse both across different brands and across
different product types. Sony developed a platform on which they developed and delivered a stream of
Walkmans models over many years. The benefits reported are reduced cost, shorter development cycles
and the ability to maintain a broad product range while standardizing and reducing the number of
different components and configuration elements (Wuuren and Halman 2001).
There are numerous definitions for the term “product platform” found in literature. A definition we find
suitable for our purpose, is “a structured, coherent collection of resources, including systems and
template hierarchies, textual components, variants, rules and interface definitions, from which a range of
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customized product definitions can be derived”. In our context, the products to be derived from the
platform are ship specifications, often with a series length of only one.
Modularization is related to product platforms in terms of being the building blocks from which the
product platform is built. By adding, removing, replacing or scaling modules, the product platform can be
targeted towards specific markets or customer requirements. Core research challenges include efficient
strategies and methods for determining the sub‐division into modules and the number of variants of
each, the recombination of these modules into product families of products, and how these are
leveraged to target specific market segments and niches. The primary tradeoff in the platform design
process is between commonality and distinctiveness (Simpson 2003), or between cost‐cutting and
increasing market shares (Ericsson and Erixon 1999).
Product Architecture
The product architecture describes the structure of a system, in defining the main function and entities
of the system and how these are related to each other. Thus, the product architecture can be thought of
as the more abstract skeleton in which the concrete modules can be placed according to given rules.
Actual representations of product architectures sometimes focus on the functional structure of the
product, and sometimes on the physical breakdown – and quite often combining these two. To the
extent we can consider the SFI system as a generic product architecture for a ship (for which there are
many arguments against), we can see that it contains a mix between ship functions (e.g. cargo handling)
and ship components (e.g. 601 – Main Engine).
The main objective when constructing these system breakdown structures (SBSs), which often are
function‐ or system‐oriented hierarchies, is that they should be wide enough to include all functions or
systems that are relevant in the specific product family. For instance, it would be expected that an SBS
for naval ships would highly focus functions related to weapons systems, which will not be the case in
commercial ships. Typically, companies use one or more SBS that are customized to adequately describe
the products they produce or their way of designing, engineering, procuring or producing.
In practical applications, a group system like SFI is often the natural backbone for the product
architecture in the specification and early design phases. It defines the boundaries for the total scope of
the derived platforms, identifying a set of building blocks as well as the relations (typically kind‐of or
part‐of) between these building blocks in a hierarchical structure.
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Figure 1: The SFI breakdown structure
SFI is a hierarchical breakdown structure. The drawback with a hierarchal structure is that one single
dimensions need to (or should) be selected for subdividing the system ‐ in this case being a “part‐of”
function breakdown. Alternatively, a heterarchical model can be used, making it possible to capture a
more complex, multi‐dimensional system structure.
The product architecture is typically based on a functional model of the product. One example is the VDI
model. This model is the foundation for a systematic method for design that has been developed by the
German design community. The method was originally developed by Pahl and Beitz (Pahl 1984), and has
later been adopted as part of the German national standard for the design of technical products.
Figure 2: In the VDI model, the basic function in all technical systems involves the conversion of energy,
material, and/or signals (Pahl 1984)
The VDI model offers a problem oriented design strategy, where the emphasis is placed on a detailed
problem analysis and a structured procedure to identify a solution. The first step is to identify the main
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function of the design object from the problem description. The main function is then broken down into
a hierarchy of sub‐function. All functions are seen as a conversion of energy, material, and/or signal
(information), as illustrated in Figure 2. The transformation from a hierarchy of function to a hierarchy of
solution elements is by means of design catalogues, relating elementary functions with alternative
physical effect solutions. These solutions are then synthesised into a complete design, and further
improved in the embodiment design phase.
Thus, the definition of a product architecture based on a functional model of the product is an important
first step in a modularization strategy. There has been some work related to this in Norway some ten
years ago, related to the MARINTEK lead project “Procurement in the Sales Phase” (“Innkjøp I
salgsfasen”). In this project, several diagrams were developed for the main systems of the vessel. One
example of this can be seen in Figure 3
1 2 5
3 15
7 11 12 13 19
18 17 16
Figure 3: System diagram for the main propulsion system, from (Marintek 1998)
Though these systems diagram was primarily developed to serve as a basis for the specification of
procurement packages, they may be used as the architectural backbone for defining modular product
platforms for ships. This process would involve the grouping of a set of functional entities as a modular
“chunk”, and the definition of the interface towards other modules based on the various relations
between functional units depicted as different types of arrows in the diagram. A more detailed
description of this project is given later in this report.
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Configuration‐Based Systems
We may define a ship design configuration system as: “A (software) system that enables a structured
definition of a valid design solution from a given set of customer requirements, by applying pre‐defined
rules and templates to select, scale and synthesize a collection of modules” (Brathaug et al. 2008).
Configuration may be described as a particular class of routine design, in which the major design
elements – modules – are known, and that these can be combined into a solution that meets the
customer requirements without involving the development of new solution elements. Configuration is in
many aspects the opposite of the more common “copy‐and‐edit” approach taken in projects with short
lead times and only a limited set of changes from existing projects.
Figure 4: Configuration of a module‐based platform as a specific class of short lead time, routine design
process
A product configuration system will comprise three main elements:
1. A design (object) representation. The primary representation will be a collection of modules,
combined with parameter sets both on a vessel and on a module level. The parameters will
further be divided into those representing customer and functional requirements, and those
representing a description of the design solution. The secondary representation contains a 3D
model, a textual specification and performance documentation, all which can be derived from
the primary representation.
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2. A configuration process representation. It is preferable to base the process implementation on a
workflow management system. This enables a “plug‐in” type of external application integration,
as well as a declarative, configurable process logic definition.
3. A configuration knowledge representation that captures the rules and constraints required for
defining legal, meaningful product variants from the module platform.
Figure 5: The three main elements of a product configuration system (Brathaug et al. 2008)
There exist a number of options for the characteristics and features to be implemented in a configurator.
The approach taken should pay attention to the specific aspects of the tendering phase for highly
complex vessels, such as offshore support vessels. Figure 6 shows a schematic classification structure
from (Blecker et al. 2004) that can be used to characterize a given configuration system.
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Figure 6: Characteristics and features of configurators (Blecker et al. 2004)
First, a configurator may be classified according to the type of configuration knowledge applied. For ship
tender package development, it is likely that a rule‐based framework applying “condition‐consequence‐
action” types of rules is useful. This enables the continuous maintenance of the design knowledge by
domain experts independently from the application that handles the design object and design process
representation. Further, it enables this knowledge to be relatively easily made available to the “hosting”
application through a rule engine. A rule‐based approach has been used extensively in the DNV Nauticus
software suite, primarily for structural design, but also for modelling task automation in Nauticus Early
Design. Applications in the conceptual ship design/tendering phase is still limited.
Even if the knowledge in a rule‐based approach may be maintained independently, it will presuppose a
certain structure of the product, i.e. what parameters and modelling elements are the rules allowed to
operate on. Thus, from a more pragmatic implementation point of view, there will always be a choice
when representing a certain unit of knowledge; should it be defined as an explicit rule, or as part of the
underlying behaviour of the design model. In many cases the latter is preferable for both simplicity and
performance, but may induce a long term maintainability cost as well as rendering the complete
knowledge base intractable.
Case‐based knowledge will still be important, but less for the direct configuration knowledge per se.
Rather; it will be important for the evaluation and benchmarking of the emerging solution, as well as a
basis for deriving the function‐to‐form type of relations from an existing design database.
For the configuration strategy, assemble‐to‐order is likely to be the dominant approach, assuming that
the design solution can be built by assembling design modules in a select‐scale‐arrange cycle. This has
many parallels to building block design as described by (Andrews and Pawling 2007), and to arrangement
optimization (Daniels and Parsons 2007) (Oers et al. 2007). Still, the current level of maturity in
modularization is far from a point where it is possible to avoid a considerable engineering content in the
process.
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Further, the initial focus will be a configurator for a non‐distributed design team for the internal use by
the sales or design department (though the future possibility of external use has been voiced, for the
tender invitation development by customers, enabling a better understanding of design opportunities
and consequences of requirements ‐ “requirements elucidation”).
The complexity level of a configurator can be classified as primitive, interactive or automatic. A primitive
configurator will mainly provide a pre‐defined structure in which the designer fills out the blanks,
resembling a pure template‐based approach. It is useful for providing a structured and quality assured
process, but will be too limited in achieving the required level of decision support. In an interactive
configurator the human still has a significant role, but with added capacity of checking the validity of
decisions, and guiding the configuration process. Automatic configurators further extend this into
actually driving the configuration process forward in terms of adding parts and determining parameter
values. While this may be applicable for certain sub‐processes, it is likely that the general approach still
need to be that the human designer will have a central and decisive role also in a configuration‐based
design process.
Integration level is an important issue in determining the most efficient path towards a full scale
implementation. While it is required that a configurator will need to be tightly integrated towards
existing PDM, CAD and TDM applications, previous implementation projects have showed that having to
take into account the full complexity level of such solutions will impede the development of the
underlying processes, structures (modules) and knowledge base required for a long‐term, robust
solution. Thus, we believe a stand‐alone front‐end is currently a better approach, alternatively an
application where the end result is a collection of production type rules that can be imported into
existing engineering systems to produce the tendering documentation at an appropriate level of detail.
To summarize, modularization and product configuration go hand‐in‐hand, in terms of configuration
defining a process in which the modules defined in the product platform development process are
recombined specific product variants customized towards the end customer.
Lean Manufacturing Principles
The underlying principle in Lean Manufacturing is to “shorten the production flow by eliminating waste”
(Liker and Lamb 2000). This paradigm grew out of the mass production philosophy, that by economies of
scale had lead to substantial productivity increases, the most prominent being the car industry with Ford
as a frontrunner. The traditional mass production concept thrived in a situation where the industry was
able to sell whatever they produced, despite involving batch production that tended to pile up as
inventories in the production chain. However, the problems with this approach became more apparent
as more models and variants were being produced to serve the individual needs of different customers.
As a response to this, Toyota started to develop the Lean Manufacturing principles in the 1950’s, with
the goal of simultaneously achieving” high quality, low cost, short lead time and flexibility” (Liker and
Lamb 2000). This approach was further migrated to the Toyota suppliers, and then to the US in the late
70’s. In parallel to this, Japanese shipbuilders adopted lean principles, that together with other similar
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initiatives such as TQM, JIT and 5S1, helped them have an impressive productivity increase in the whole
period from 1960 to 1995.
The connection between Lean Manufacturing and Modularization is not obvious, but is likely to comprise
some of the following elements:
• The relation between short lead time/JIT value chains, and the procurement strategies enabled
by a proper modularized approach
• Modularization strategy – sizes to synch production?
• Modularization opens up for outsourcing – having impact on JIT and product quality
• Modularity related to product management, while lean thinking is a process management
principle
1
TQM – Total Quality Management, JIT – Just In Time
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Motivating Modularity
Different stakeholders have different motivation for modularization. Key drivers can be summarized as:
• Product variety and customization
• Production efficiency
• Reduced lead time
• Product development and design
• Reduced risk
• Outsourcing and globalization of supply chain
The drawbacks can be summarized as:
• Less optimized physical architecture, increased weight and size
• Less optimized performance, excessive capability
• Risk of product similarity
Reduced Lead Time and Rapid Response in Tendering
An important motivation for a modular product platform is reduced lead time in responding to tender
invitations. Today, even for routine designs, it is quite common that the tender response is started form
a previous tender, possibly for another customer with slightly different requirements. This is then
“cleaned” for project specific content, and the particular requirements for the current customer are
incorporated. Typically, the tender documents need to be checked with the different disciplines, such as
structures, machinery and electrical. Obviously, both quality and response time are under pressure. With
a modular product platform, with a well‐structured configuration system on top, this process may be
considerably improved both in terms of efficiency, quality, and reduced risk, as well as indirectly through
increased likelihood of winning the contract.
Figure 7: A modular product platform may improve the efficiency and quality of tender project
development, and possibly leading to both increased handling capacity and higher hit rate
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Effects on the Ship Production Value Chain
The core question here is to what extent there is a connection between the shipyard’s modularization
strategy and the supply chain structure. And given that this connection exists, which one is the “cause”
and which one the “effect”? Historically, the research and development related to two different subjects
of modularization and outsourcing, respectively, has taken place in different communities, the former as
a design and manufacturing principle in engineering communities, while outsourcing has been discussed
within the realms of economics, management and strategy (Fixson et al. 2005).
Obviously, the product’s architecture determines the opportunities for manufacturers outside the
company boundaries to produce individual components to be part of the final product. A classic example
referred to in many papers is the modular structure introduced with IBM’s 360 system. This opened up
for individual manufacturers to provide components to this platform, eventually driving prices down and
making components such as hard drives and memory chips commodities.
The impact that modularization has on the production value chain may also lead to changed power
balances between the different actors in the value chain. One example is the shift in control over the
specification. In a more “traditional” process the shipyard to some extent play the role of a sub‐
contractor designing and developing a solution constrained by the requirements in the outline
specification. With a modular, product platform‐based design, this is shifted towards a situation where
the owner is, at least in principle, selecting from a set of possible designs derived from a platform. Thus,
the yard has to some extent regained the control of the specification.
Modularization in a sustainability perspective
Given the current focus on both global warming and environmental issues, both in shipping and in
society as such, the following question becomes pertinent: “To what extent can modularization
contribute to sustainable shipping?”
There is no obvious direct relation between modularization and emissions, and for most practical
purposes they should be considered separate issues. Sustainability and environmental efficiency is
primarily related to the functional performance of the technical solution. Whether a modular or an
integral solution is used to realize this solution is of lesser importance.
Still, there are indirect effects of modularization that may influence the environmental footprint of the
solution, both in a positive and negative direction. This includes:
• Modularity comes at a price in terms of size and weight. An integral architecture with the same
technical performance will typically be more energy efficient. Thus, from this perspective
modularity has a negative environmental impact.
• Modularity may contribute to a higher degree of customized solutions, thus improving the
mission‐specific efficiency of the solution, with a corresponding positive environmental effect.
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For ships, this effect is likely to be small, since the design is typically highly customized regardless
of the chosen product architecture.
• Modular concepts aimed at providing operational flexibility, such as the Littoral Combat Ship,
may contribute to a cost‐efficient modernization of obsolete equipment, upgrades, and
adaptation to changed external conditions (new markets, trades, regulatory regimes, etc.). This
may both contribute to increasing the operational efficiency of the vessel, as well as extending
the vessel’s operational life.
• Modularity may contribute to a more efficient recycling of the vessel along the interfaces
defined by the modular architecture, and possibly also to the reuse of those components for
which the economic life time is longer than for the ship itself.
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Modular structures
In this chapter, a number of approaches to defining modular structures are briefly reviewed, with some
generic examples from various industries. In the next chapter, some more marine specific examples
based on modular structures are discussed in more detail.
What is a modular structure?
Recalling the previous chapter covering product architecture, we may define a product both from the
perspective of function and form. In the product design process, we assign the physical building blocks –
“chunks” – to the different functional elements.
This can be illustrated in a very simple example. Consider two basic functions for seaborne transport
vessel:
F1: Provide cargo support
F2: Provide thrust through water
In a traditional design, these two functions are, at a high level, allocated to a single ship “chunk”. To the
extent that this overall chunk can be
separated into a hull module and a
machinery & propulsion module, the
interaction between these modules are
complex and not well defined. For
instance, an increase in speed would
typically require a larger and heavier
propulsion system that in the next step
would require an increase in hull
displacement. Thus, these two modules
have a high degree of dependency, which
is a typical characteristic for integral
architectures. In general, integral
Figure 8: The high level architecture of a ship can be
architectures are characterized by the characterized as a typical integral architecture
following properties (Ulrich 2008):
• A single chunk or module implements many product functions
• There is a high degree of (complex) interaction between the product modules
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The opposite of an integral architecture is a modular architecture. Here, the different functions of the
product are, to the extent possible, allocated to separate product modules, and the interaction between
these modules is small or non‐
existent. For the seaborne
transport example, a more modu‐
lar architecture could be achieved
by separating the system into a
cargo unit, such as a barge, and a
propulsion unit, such as a tug. In
this case, an increase in speed
would only require a change in the
“tug module”, and not per se
influence the “barge module”. Figure 9: Assigning the cargo support and thrust provision function
(However, this functional inde‐ to separate modules provide a more modular architecture
pendence does not hold the
opposite way).
A similar concept have been developed as part of the EU project CREATE3S. Here, a common vessel
platform has been developed, that can be mated with several different types of cargo modules.
Figure 10: Vessel platform with cargo modules, CREATE3S project
Thus, a modular architecture can be defined by the following properties (Ulrich 2008):
• A single chunk or module implement one or a few product functions
• The interaction between the module is limited and well defined
Modularity types
There is some disagreement in literature on how many basic types of modularity there is. In (Ulrich
2008), three types are identified:
• Slot modularity, where the interface is specific to the module type. An example can
be seen in Figure 10, showing a US Navy concept that allows for different
configuration and rapid refit, but with a predefined location for each equipment
type where the appropriate interface slot is available.
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Figure 11: Slot modularity in US Navy TES concept (Jolliff 1974)
• Bus modularity, where the interface is standardized across several module types.
This type of modularity is required when different selections and combinations of
(equipment) modules are used to customize the product towards different purposes.
One example
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Figure 12: Example bus modularity interface for US Navy SEAMOD vessel, where different equipment
packages can be connected to a standard interface (steel frame, power, water, signals, …). The purpose
was primarily to increase the ability to meet different mission requirements (Jolliff 1974)
Figure 13: The Littoral Combat Ship is another example of bus modularity, where different mission
modules, packaged as containers, can be plugged into a standard interface to provide a wide array of
different mission capabilities
• Sectional modularity, where there is no “platform” module in which the other
modules attach. Rather, all modules have one or a few common interfaces, which
typically allow a larger variety in the physical layout of the product. On a ship, piping
and HVAC systems typically exhibit sectional modularity.
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Figure 14: Ship piping system, illustrating sectional modularity
Figure 15: The SIGMA Modular Ship, combing standardized hull sections to customize vessels with respect
to mission and size
In the figure on the next page, a more detailed division into different modularity types is given, from
(Christiansen et al. 2003).
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Figure 16: A more detailed division into different modularity types, from (Christiansen et al. 2003)
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Review of Modularization in the Maritime Industry
As have been discussed earlier in this report, the extent of modularization in shipbuilding is relatively
limited. The dominant tradition has been based on “built‐to‐order”, “one‐of‐a‐kind” solutions. Still,
there have been numerous initiatives and projects that in part have contributed to a body of knowledge
that may serve as a platform for the further development and more extensive use of modularization in
this industry. In this chapter, I will try to give a brief overview over some of these initiatives, both from
Norway and from abroad. The list is by no means exhaustive, but may serve as a first starting point for
further elaboration and investigations.
Overview
The table below lists a number of Norwegian projects that are either directly or indirectly linked to
modularization. A number of these projects were managed by the Shipyard Group at Marintek. This
activity at Marintek was terminated in 2001, and part of the shipyard activity was continued in the
Marintek spin‐off company proNavis.
Norwegian projects and initiatives
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Utvikler og tester ut nye metoder for
forretningsutvikling, prosjektering,
produksjon, drift og salg av modulbaserte
skipsløsninger fra globalt samvirkende
industrielle ressursnettverk – MODNET
konseptet
Equipment, modularization and arrangement (1992)
The project “Equipment, modularization and arrangement” (Utstyr, modularisering og arrangement) was
a pre‐project with participation from MARINTEK, together with Anders Utkilens Rederi, Aukra Industrier,
Barber Ship Management, Wilhelm Wilhelmsen Lines, Kværner Warnow Werft, Det Norske Veritas, and
UNI Storebrand. The purpose of this pre‐project was to identify those factors being most important for
selecting and designing module‐based arrangement solutions. Life cycle cost factors for a chemical
tanker and a RORO vessel was used as a basis.
The conclusions from this project can be summarized as follows:
• “There is no free lunch” – the benefits of module‐based solutions will need to offset cost
increases in other areas
• The life‐cycle cost distribution among various types of vessels was fairly similar, indicating that
the potential savings as well can be found in the same areas
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• From a ship owners perspective, there are substantial potential benefits if the correct decisions
are made already at the design stage
• The most important cost driver in a life cycle perspective are the machinery systems, and the
systems for cargo handling
• The recommended focus for a larger main project should be on developing an LCC‐based
modularization framework for the machinery and cargo handling system, and to develop robust
and efficient interfaces for foundations, piping and cabling.
As we can see in the figure below, the incentives are different for the various stakeholders with respect
to modularization. While the ship owner is inclined to focus on solutions that are efficient in operation,
the yard will give preference to those solutions that will lead to decreased time or cost in production. As
a consequence, the solutions specified from the ship owner in the outline specification, being considered
preferable from a pure operations point‐of‐view, may show up to have a higher life‐cycle cost than
alternative solutions due to a high realization cost for the yard. Thus, care should be given in the
specification process in order to strike a good balance between the multiple stakeholders interest.
Alternatively, the yard and ship owner, as well as main systems suppliers, should jointly develop the
overall design and general arrangement.
Figure 17: Different stakeholders have different incentives for modularization (Hagen 1998)
The project report also summarizes some of the mechanisms that may impede or hinder modularization
in shipbuilding. This includes:
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• Technical factors, such as reduced freedom to exactly specify exact performances (but rather
select from a limited set of predefined or configurable variants), and reduced freedom to
optimize arrangement such as placement and minimization of piping length.
• Techno‐economical factors, such as increased weight because of standardized foundations,
increased area and volume requirements.
• Price competition vs. collaboration, i.e. the degree of interaction required to define and develop
good modularized solutions may be in conflict with a competitive tendering/souring policy to
keep prices down
• Procurement, capital binding, larger system modules may require a larger share of the
equipment to be installed at an early stage in the production process (say, complete cabins with
furniture). This may increase the finance cost of the vessel. However, this is likely to be the same
as for an alternative early outfitting strategy.
• Production, in terms of requiring an increased capability in handling larger modules, and for
maintaining openings and passageways for access and transport.
Rational construction (1993)
The purpose of the project was to develop methods and tools for increasing the flexibility of product
configuration. This resulted in a QFD‐based method for improving the product structure and design
based on the grouping of requirements and the corresponding mapping to components and modules.
The method was based on subdivision of the product into functional elements, for which the interfaces
were defined for power, mass and signal transfers and interactions. This is illustrated in Figure 17.
Transferring these elements and interactions into a diagram (Figure 18), a mapping to physical
component can be made. Based on the interactions identfied here, an appropriate modular architecture
can be found, as illustrated in Figure 19.
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Figure 18: Block diagram for a thruster unit (Buhaug and Langset 1999)
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Figure 19: Connecting functional and physical elements for a thruster system (Buhaug and Langset 1999)
Figure 20: Identifying possible modular architectures by using the diagram to identify opportunities for
splitting, grouping, redesign and using adapters(Buhaug and Langset 1999)
Early Outfitting
The focus of this project was primarily on the splitting of the vessel into zones that to a certain extent
can be outfitted independently of other zones. The topics covered were mainly Zone oriented
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“Design for production” – core principles
1. Standardisation
2. Interface minimization
3. Aggregation
4. Integration
5. Modularization
6. Flexibility
7. CAD systems supporting early outfitting and modularization (topological “black box” modeling)
Sales Phase Procurement (1999)
The aim of this project was to develop a rational methodology supporting the procurement process in
shipyards. This was a collaboration project between Ulstein Yard and MARINTEK. A core topic was the
procurement of project critical equipment, where a coherent framework for performance‐based
specifications was developed.
263
FOUNDATION
These specifications were based on a functional modeling of core ship systems. These are used as a
backbone for the procurement plan, and for identifying the scope, content and interfaces of the
individual specification packages. Thus, this project may provide valuable input to the process of defining
the required modular architecture to serve a global sourcing strategy.
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*‐*‐*
The next section contains a brief review of modularization strategies applied to specific phases of the
ship development process.
Tendering and Specification Development2
One of the potential benefits of modular architectures is the combination of short lead time, rapid
configuration combined with customization. These features are highly relevant in the ship tendering
process. For shipyards and designers, a key competitive factor is their ability to efficiently respond to a
tender invitation with a high quality tender that meets the customer’s needs.
The main final delivery from the tendering process is a specification. This specification is frequently
developed through stages, starting from a purely functional (often termed brief) specification, through a
more performance oriented (often termed outline) specification, and potentially ending up as a detailed
technical specification (often termed full). The typical full specification that exists at contract signing may
have an extent of 150 to 300 pages covering 150‐400 system groups, describing in relative detail the
product to be delivered.
The specification is accompanied by a number of supporting documents, among them arrangement
drawings, system drawings, and makers list. In addition, an internal cost calculation is developed in
parallel to determine the bid price. The current typical approach to developing new specification
document is to copy an existing specification from similar designs in previous projects. This document is
then modified to accommodate the specific requirements of the new customer.
In (Hagen and Erikstad 2002) and (Erikstad and Hagen 2003) the quality costs related to this approach is
discussed. For instance, specification errors are typically and repeatedly copied into new specifications,
as are customer‐specific requirements that were valid in the previous projects. Also, this approach will
tend to hinder development as new projects frequently are based on old solutions. The results may be
higher cost, higher uncertainty, outdated designs and reduced competitiveness with respect to winning
the bid.
One example of a tender development support tool based on modularization principles is DNV
Software’s TenderSuite. TenderSuite is a web‐based tool for handling the concurrent, distributed
2
This chapter is partly based on excerpts from (Year). "IMDC 2009: the Thent International Marine Design
Conference : May 26-29, 2009." IMDC, IMDC09 ; Tapir, Trondheim, 2 b, Erikstad, S. O., and Hagen, A. (2003).
"Web-based tendering collaboration in project-centric industries." In: COMPIT - 2nd International Conference on
Computer and IT Applications in the Maritime Industries, Hamburg, Germany, Erikstad, S. O., and Hagen, A.
(2006a). "Applying Product Platform Technologies in Ship Specification Development." In: International Marine
Design Conference (IMDC), Ann Arbor, MI, Hagen, A., and Erikstad, S. O. (2002). "Collaborative Ship
Specification Development - From MS Word to Argus." In: International Conference on Computer Applications in
Shipbuilding (ICCAS), Malmö, Sweden.
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configuration and development of the specification document and the accompanying internal project
calculation in project‐oriented industries.
TenderSuite is based on a module oriented, product platform approach. One of the main differences is
that while in a traditional approach (close to) all tendering‐related resources are spent in the
development of individual projects, a platform approach will require two separate processes:
• Product platform development, comprising all activities related to the establishment and
maintenance of the platform from which the individual projects will be generated in the
different families of products. This process can be further divided into two phases. The first
phase is the initial establishment of the product platform. Important decisions in this phase are
the structure and scope of the platform, the number of product types, and the classifying
dimensions of the type hierarchy. In the subsequent, these types will be referred to as product
templates. The second phase is the continuous maintenance of the platform. In this phase, input
is both received from design‐related activities independent from specific projects, and from the
technology developments within concrete projects
• Product platform exploitation, comprising the customer‐specific delivery projects, based on the
configuration and further refinement of the product platforms with the intent to adopt
customer‐ or project‐specific requirements. The efficient exploitation of the product platform is
as much a matter of process know‐how as of product know‐how.
The platform development and exploitation process is illustrated in Figure 20.
Figure 21: A platform‐based approach consists of a modularization and platform development process,
and a platform exploitation process (Erikstad and Hagen 2006a)
One important question that arises in a platform‐based approach is the allocation of resources between
development and exploitation. Allocating more resources for the modularization and platform
development process is expected to reduce the effort and improve the quality for each specification
project. However, for a given resource, each additional resource unit spent in the platform development
phase will imply one resource unit less spent in the exploitation process. Thus, we should continue
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spending resources in platform development as long as the net productivity and quality profit for the
remaining projects in the exploitation phase is positive.
The correct trade‐off is difficult to determine in project centric industries like shipbuilding, partly due to
lack of efficient indicators, and partly due to the fact that it is often difficult to a priori assess how many
projects that can be expected to share the initial development cost. Methods to support the negotiation
of these trade‐offs include identifying (a) what parts of the total product portfolio may be most cost‐
efficient to invest resources in developing sound product platforms and (b) where it may be most
feasible to create few flexibly configurable and general platforms as opposed to several more specific
ones. This is a matter of clustering and analyzing historic projects to identify commonalities and
differences, and will be a matter of further research.
In TenderSuite, a “template” corresponding to the product type forms the starting point for the product
configuration process. A template is a selection of nodes in the system breakdown structure that are
relevant for a particular type of vessel. For each of these nodes there exists either a boilerplate text for
the system specification, or an enumeration of variant descriptions to be selected from.
Vessel
Chemical Offshore
RoRo
tanker vessel
Anchor
PSV Supply
handler
UT745
Figure 22: The product types in a tendering context, represented as an inheritance hierarchy of templates
The different templates within a platform each form a unique starting point for a new specification,
which will be further configured and developed to adhere to each customer’s requirements. Still, there
will be a high degree of commonality among the templates, in particular for those systems that are not
ship‐type specific. If all templates were to be developed and maintained in parallel, without efficient
means to handle common resources, the efficiency of using the platform would decrease dramatically.
Since each product platform may contain between 150 and 400 various system groups, many of which
share properties across templates, it is important that the system can handle commonalities efficiently.
A company that introduces a product platform approach “… without concern to the underlying product
structure risks (a) to create a situation where [it] gradually looses … oversight and (b) [the ability to]
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exploit the real potentials that resides in a well‐prepared and ‐founded [product platform] strategy.”
(Hagen 1999)
Thus, templates are organized into template hierarchies, where each template only defines what is
different from a parent template. All other resources, including system existence and content, are
inherited.
In (DRM 2005), a product family is defined as “a set of individual products that share common
technology and address a related set of market applications”. In the template structure defined above,
each parent node will thus define a product family, each family recursively being part of a larger family,
with broader scope but less specialization, as we go upwards in the inheritance hierarchy.
Figure 23: Core components of a specification product platform. Here, the variants corresponds to
modules, and the System Breakdown structure combined with the Template Library define how these
modules can be combined into “valid” specifications
The development of a specification product platform follows a stepwise process that to some extent will
be similar to developing a modularized product architecture and platform. A typical starting point is a
situation where accumulated knowledge and experience is primarily stored implicitly as archived
projects and tacit human capital. The goal is to reach a situation where this knowledge and experience is
made explicit and becomes operationally available as part of a platform. The initial development of the
platforms may be divided into 5 major steps, as follows (Erikstad and Hagen 2006b):
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1. Identify product families and corresponding platforms
Divide the current product portfolio into families. The
grouping should preferably be based on system structure
and/or content commonality, but may be influenced by
market segmentation and organization structure. These
families may each correspond to a separate product
platform, or they may be grouped together to form larger
platforms.
2. Determine System Breakdown Structure
Determine a system breakdown structure (SBS) for each
product platform defined in Step 1. The SBS captures the
scope of each platform, and is the main organising
hierarchy across projects and templates (or types), as well
as for the variant library. The SBS may be seen as the
system library with which to construct all possible
platforms for all foreseen templates within that overall
product family. This corresponds to defining the functional
schematic in a modular architecture development process.
3. Determine major templates
Within each platform, capture the set of distinct types to be
supported by defining templates. Each template defines a
particular (product) type upon which new project instances
may be based, and will be increasingly specific with the
depth in the (specialization) hierarchy. System groups from
the overall SBS may be eliminated for each level of detail.
Template (or type) formation may be internally driven by
system and content commonalities, or externally driven by
markets and models.
4. Populate the template structure
Once the template configuration (structure) is defined,
populate the content in system groups in the templates
using knowledge embedded in existing projects. Exploit
vertical type commonalities by using a (type‐subtype)
inheritance mechanism, wherein content with relevance
across several templates are defined at a more general
level – above these “relevant” templates.
The result from step 3 and 4 is a defined product platform
upon which to base new project (specification) instances.
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5. Capture cross‐type similarities as variants
When the template (or product type) specific definitions
are established identify standard options and
commonalities across types (horizontal) by defining sets of
variants for specific systems. Such variants constitute
project‐ and template independent libraries of system
descriptions for reuse. These descriptions may be relevant
across several templates, for instance as different options
pertaining to different product types.
Step 1: The identification of product families and corresponding platforms
At the outset of the platform definition process, a core question is how many platforms should be
supported within the organization. One possible assumption is that one such platform corresponds to
one system breakdown structure that defines the ”dictionary of all possible systems” in that family, as
well as a valid hierarchical structure. In other words, the SBS contains all possible system groups that are
considered sufficient to describe all possible products in the product family.
One single platform, or product architecture, has the benefit of being less costly to establish and
maintain, and makes it possible to exploit common resources across all projects, and product variants, in
the company. Such resources may, in addition to templates and variants, be libraries of rules of thumb,
system interfaces, list of suppliers organized according to the SBS, and so forth. However, maintaining
only one SBS is of course contingent that there in fact are sufficient commonalities to exploit. If not, a
single platform will provide a poor “signal‐to‐noise” ratio, defining a common basic structure that is too
general to be useful in concrete projects. This may be the case for a company both building merchant
and naval vessels, where an SBS that fits both purposes equally may rather be equally poor than equally
good.
What has been common in the Norwegian maritime industry is a single platform is suitable for most ship
consultants and shipyards that develop designs and projects in a small to medium‐sized product range.
To some extent, this is due to the fact that there is already a well‐established system breakdown
structure, the SFI3 system, which is used across most types of shipbuilding projects. These projects range
from small offshore supply and fishing vessels, to larger passenger ships. Even for yards and ship
consultants having a relatively wide product range, the fraction of system groups reoccurring across
projects is fairly high. As discussed before, this is not a pure functional breakdown that would have been
preferable when developing a modular product architecture, but is useful for a specification platform
since it represents a de facto common structure across projects.
3
A system developed by the Norwegian Shipping Research Institute (SFI)
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Multiple platforms are particularly useful when the company is targeting relatively different market
segments. One case is a design and engineering company that develops designs both for ships, offshore
and land‐based process industry. There is little overlap in the systems specification between these
markets, and the projects are structured fundamentally different. This is an obvious case for multiple
platforms.
Different structures based on the same information content can also be maintained as views or
mappings from a common base structure. However, this would require a predominantly one‐to‐one
mapping between the individual systems description. Experience from developing mappings between
four of the most common group systems used in North European shipbuilding indicate that the
percentage of many‐to‐many mappings is too high to render a mapping‐based approach viable.
The key aspects to consider when evaluating how to divide into top‐level product families are:
• To what degree projects may be divided into distinct clusters, in which the fraction of functions
or systems relevant only for each cluster is high. A high such fraction points to the establishment
of different product families.
• To what degree there is value in reuse of information across the clusters, or to what degree
equivalent systems vary in description. A low reuse value points to the establishment of different
product families.
For the first of these criteria it is possible to establish a quite tangible metrics, focusing on the set of
functions relevant only to the cluster of projects versus the set of functions relevant to both. The second
is less obvious and difficult to measure, and may require some measure of semantic similarity in the
textual descriptions.
Step 2: Determining the system breakdown structure in each product platform
The main objective when constructing these SBS, which often are function‐ or system‐oriented
hierarchies, is that they should be wide enough to include all functions or systems that are relevant in
the specific product family. For instance, it would be expected that an SBS for naval ships would highly
focus functions related to weapons systems, which will not be the case in commercial ships. Typically,
companies use one or more SBS that are customized to adequately describe the products they produce
or their way of designing, engineering, procuring or producing.
As stated before, we consider a group system to be the natural backbone for the information content in
a specification‐oriented product setting. It defines the boundaries for the total scope of the derived
platforms, identifying a set of building blocks as well as the relations (typically kind‐of or part‐of)
between these building blocks in a hierarchical structure.
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Figure 24: Example from the SFI group structure
The SFI group system used extensively in the Norwegian maritime industry has been mentioned
previously. It contains about 550 nodes arranged in a hierarchical structure comprising most systems
found on commercial ships.4 A partly expanded view of SFI is shown in Figure 23. SFI is mostly a kind‐of
(classification) hierarchy, but partly also a part‐of (composition) hierarchy.
The degree to which the SBS is suitable for the purposes depends upon several factors. One important
such is how well product platforms within the product family may be described in the same manner, or
in the same detail. If some products in the product family contain a large fraction of systems being very
widely described (through few system groups) while others are very detailed described (through many
system groups), this is an indication of an imbalanced system. This is found in SFI, where for instance the
huge “LNG Plant” is only defined by one system group while the significantly smaller loading/unloading
of liquid cargo has several. Thus, SFI is significantly more adjusted to product tankers than to LNG
carriers.
The role of the group system is crucial in the platform definition process. SFI is for instance relatively
limited in scope and has a narrow target, being originally constructed to suit the purposes of describing
ship types like tankers, bulk carriers and RORO vessels. The contrast is the Norwegian standard for the
offshore sector, NORSOK, which is very broad and designed to span several different kinds of products.
The advantage with the prior is its simplicity, the disadvantage its lack of flexibility in defining any kind of
ship. NORSOK, on the other hand, has the opposite characteristics. This is the obvious reason why yards
4
SFI also has a component-level detail code, expanding the number of groups to about 4.500, but this is not used to a
large extent.
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and design companies typically either will have developed their own group system or will have
customized a standard one.
Having been a de facto standard for the Norwegian shipbuilding community for decades, the SFI system
has been an important backbone for collaboration and integration that has contributed to the
competitive position of this industry today. To play the same role in the future, however, SFI needs to be
updated to accommodate the changes in the structure and processes in shipbuilding, as well as provide a
foundations on which emerging technologies, such as modularity and product platform technologies, can
be based.
Step 3: Identifying types to be supported in each platform
Once the choice has been made as to how many product families to organize products into, and thus
also how many and which system breakdown structures to use, the next step is to define the product
type, or variant, hierarchy. In TenderSuite, this is called a template hierarchy. Each template represents
in essence a particular product type, with its individual configuration based upon the product platform.
However, the product becomes gradually more defined the further down in the hierarchy the template is
defined, inheriting characteristics from its parent template. The “product” at the top level is simply
“Ship”, while at the bottom level it may be a particular type‐designated design.
For a ship consultant in the Norwegian specialized ship market, a natural choice might be to create a
single SBS (and thus treat all products as belonging to one large product family). Further, this can be
segmented into markets. Logical in this case is to split into two directions in the template; offshore
vessels and fishing vessels. These clearly meet different market segments, and are in this case
specializations of the template “ship” in the overall product family.
In this process, the functions or systems in the product family SBS that are not relevant are removed, or
“pruned away” and excluded from being used as resources in more detailed product templates. For
instance, in the class “Offshore vessels” it is unlikely that the function “trawl winches” ever will be
relevant, while in the class “Fishing vessels” the function “seismic systems” is not likely to be seen. The
respective system groups exist as general resources, but are not visible as part of the product definitions
neither on the product template fishing vessels nor any derived from this, such as lower level templates
like “trawler” or “seiner”.
A central issue in this process is how to classify project into different levels in the classification hierarchy.
The pragmatic and common approach will be to classify according to markets or trades, an externally
driven approach. This may be efficient, but will not necessarily capture the commonalities where they
exist across this division. For instance, if there is a class of products called “merchant” that distinguish
itself from both fishing and offshore vessels (as also is the case in Rolls‐Royce, having a separate market
segment for this trade), while fishing and offshore vessels have several commonalities, it may be most
feasible to make this segregation at one level for then to further distinguish “fishing” and “offshore” at
the next level.
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The other approach is internally driven, related more to characteristics of the products than of the
markets they serve. We propose that it is possible to develop indicators – “similarity indices” – to
address this issue. One such indicator may be the set of common systems across products in a cluster
versus the set of systems distinct to one particular cluster of projects. Set theory, binary clustering,
semantic analysis and statistical methods used on historic projects are all techniques that may be used
for this purpose.
Notwithstanding the methodological foundation: At the bottom line the trade‐off will be based on a
pragmatic decision, though in time upon sound (and objective) decision parameters. If there are many
templates in several levels, this will enable and efficient exploitation since the projects will initially be
well‐defined from detailed product definitions. The downside is that as the levels increase, so does the
number of bottom‐level templates (and thus product definitions), also increasing the cost of
development and maintenance. This also influences when to stop addressing specializations as individual
product types (as templates) and rather specialize further through the concept of variants.
Step 4: Developing the type inheritance hierarchy
After the definition of the configuration of the product families and platforms in the template
hierarchies, the next step is to develop their content. Typical for specifications is that some parts are
relevant for most, if not all, specifications. For most ship design companies, this applies to parts of the
specification dealing with general terms, standards and guidelines, terminology, and the like. These
descriptions will be defined at a high level, to be inherited to all dependent templates. This is similar to a
(selective) class‐subclass inheritance mechanism.
If the descriptions of certain common ship systems are very similar across product templates it will be
relevant to describe the system at a higher level, and inherit the description in the subclasses, and thus
avoid the maintenance burden of multiple, similar instances. It is probable that, for instance, the value of
reuse of descriptions of, for instance, ship‐general functions like “Anchor winches” or “Windlasses” may
be reused across more product templates than “Trawler winches.” Through this mechanism, a
specification generated at the bottom level in a template hierarchy (that is, a very specific product type)
will be a result from extracting text fragments from the up‐most to the lowest level.
It is not a trivial task determining the proper level where the content, being a textual description, is to be
defined. The overall intention is to exploit the commonalities, both to support efficient development and
efficient maintenance. It is an area for future research to develop the necessary metrics for this, based
upon semantic similarity across projects, both parametric similarity and textually descriptive similarity.
The challenge of finding out when to perform specialization of the description at a low level rather than
inheriting from a higher level is a demanding one.
Step 5: Developing a library of crosstype variants
The template hierarchy developed in Step 4 is useful for handling large‐scale, systematic variations
between different types of products (ships). However, the different options on a system level that a
customer typically may choose from, is not efficiently handled by the template structure. Examples of
this are different systems solutions (e.g. stabilizing fins vs. liquid stabilizers, hydraulic vs. electrical
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mooring winches), different systems configurations (e.g. 2‐engine vs. 4‐engine main propulsion
arrangement) or different makes (e.g. Sulzer vs. MAN BW).
Thus, to handle system level options that are predominantly ship type independent, a collection of
system variants can be made available through a library, as complete systems descriptions connected to
a specific node in the breakdown structure. Variants are typically selected as part of the configuration
process immediately after a new specification project is instantiated from a template, but are also
available as a resource in the further refinement process.
Propulsion
System
System
Direct Diesel
AziPod Variant
Drive Electric
Engine
Figure 25: Modular approach to handling complex variants
A parametric system description would be preferable. However, the main challenge would be to
maintain the parameter model and the textual model of the system in parallel, and to embed the
parameter values into the text without putting constraints on how the systems are described.
Another development area is complex variants, i.e. variants that impact more than one system group. To
handle this, a combination of parametric variants and rules must be used. Again, the core challenge is to
handle this in a text‐producing context, without increasing the perceived complexity of the system from
a user perspective. In effect, this will imply a move towards a gradually more modular approach such as
that illustrated in Figure 24.
While the system breakdown structure and the template hierarchy should be developed to a high degree
of completeness in the platform definition phase, the variant library will typically be a target for
continuous change also during the exploitation phase. Technology development, changes in rules and
regulations as well as new system solutions will typically incite changes in the library. These changes may
originate either from sources internally in the company, or it may come from external sources such as
suppliers or consultants.
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Summary
The walkthrough of a specification platform development process may seem slightly on the side with
respect to the core topic of this report, being modularization. Nevertheless, it has been included since it
involves many of the same steps and fundamental considerations as we find in a modular product
platform/architecture development process, as well as it points to some of the special considerations
that are related to the shipbuilding domain. Thus, it might serve as a useful starting point.
Generally, the use of platform thinking in the tender development phase of the ship lifecycle requires a
shift in focus, away from an individual project focus, and towards a platform resource base from which
individual tendering projects can be derived. It involves a step‐by‐step process that will bring a
specification‐producing company from a situation where accumulated knowledge and experience is
primarily stored implicitly as archived projects and tacit human capital, into a situation where this
knowledge and experience is made explicitly and operationally available as part of a platform.
For this approach to be viable, a presumption is that the upfront investment in developing the platform
will be offset by an increased total efficiency in the development of the individual tendering projects
downstream. This presumption can by no means be taken for granted, and it is our experience that many
companies fail in this effort. Often there is a lack of leadership, discipline, patience, organizational
motivation and/or competence to overcome the initial hurdles and gain the required momentum to be
productive in a platform setting. Sometimes the reason is as simple as a lack of time and dedicated
resources to do the initial investment in the platform – the project to be delivered nest week is always
more important than investing in long term benefits. The result is a downward pointing spiral, where the
latest project (with all its mistakes) is a better starting point than one derived from the platform, with
the consequence that the platform suffers a slow starvation and eventually dies.
However, for those companies that are able to pass this level of “critical mass”, the main benefits have
been a more structured process leading to higher quality specifications, and a shorter response time
from the initial request for tender to a final tender specification.
Modularization in Ship Equipment Design and Production
In the maritime industries, the product platform concept has been employed first and foremost with
equipment manufactures. One example is Wärtsilä which has developed sales configuration principles
and software. Their vision is that a significant part of the engineering and production planning, as well as
price quotes, should be a direct result of the enactment of different configuration rules (Sortland 2001).
Another example from the maritime industry is Rolls‐Royce Deck Machinery. They have performed
extensive work in using modularization and product platform principles. This has caused a complete
redesign of some product lines, significantly reducing the number of configuration elements. This is
illustrated in Figure 25. The result is both in a significant increase in the range of possible product
configurations offered to customers, a substantial shortening of development time for new products and
both reduced costs and throughput time in the sales projects (Andreassen 2005).
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Figure 26: The number of configuration elements before and after PDM project at Rolls‐Royce Deck
Machinery. Source: (Andreassen 2005)
Similar to the tender specification platform described earlier, primarily covering the needs of yards and
ship consultants, modularization may be used for efficiently generating custom‐specific product manuals
for ship equipment suppliers. One example of this is illustrated in Figure 26.
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Figure 27: A modularized ship equipment catalogue for deriving customized manual from a common
platform of manual elements (DNVP, 2003)
Modularization in Ship Design Processes
In ship design and engineering, the application of product platform technologies has been more limited,
particularly in segments other than standardized tonnage. Some of the important factors explaining this
situation may be the complexity resulting from highly customized requirements and extensive inter‐
relationships between different systems. Further, shipbuilding has a culture for handicraft and less
tradition for long‐term thinking, with an inherent focus on the individual projects rather than process
improvements. And, compared to many other industries facing a similar complexity level (say,
automotive and aviation), the typical length of a series in particularly European shipbuilding is short. This
implies fewer projects to share the costs of developing a configurable product platform.
One of the forerunners in Norway in this technology area has been Ulstein Design. Ulstein Design has
developed a product platform for offshore supply and service vessels, and uses this platform to configure
individual vessels based on customer requirements. Their vision is that the design reflected in the very
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early specification phase shall be as consistent as possible with the downstream detail engineering, and
in the end production, with as little (re)work as possible.
Figure 28: Selected products in the Ulstein Design portfolio. Source: Ulstein Design
Andrews (Andrews 2003; Andrews and Pawling 2007; 2009) have during the last twenty years published
numerous papers on early ship design methodology, advocating the importance of establishing a model
that can be configured in different ways to support the exploration of alternative solutions, as well as
providing a basis for understanding the impact of the initial requirements.
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Figure 29: Configuration of a vessel from building blocks from a library, for rapid evaluation and
requirements elucidation in early design stages, from (Andrews and Pawling 2009)
Figure 30: Large, general purpose warship broken down into construction megablocks (Andrews and
Pawling 2009)
A modular approach for arrangement optimization has been developed by both (Oers et al. 2007). Here,
a set of modules to be contained in the ship is defined, and an optimization routine finds the solutions
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that best balance a set of criteria. This requires the definition of a set of distinct modules, and their
corresponding interfaces both with the ship platform and towards other modules.
Figure 31: Module‐based approach used in the arrangement optimization in the early design of a
warship, in (Oers et al. 2007)
Modularization in Ship Production
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The Damen Schelde Sigma Modular Ship
The Sigma class is a corvette that is designed and built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding. “Sigma” is
an abbreviation for “Ship Integrated Geometrical Modularity Approach”. In this design, the hull segments
are modularized, and can be assembled in different numbers and sequences, thus using a sectional
modular approach. Off‐the‐shelves equipment is used to the extent possible. The modular approach
allows the client to configure a vessel out of these standard blocks, and different versions with 12, 13
and 14 sections have been sold to three different navies.
Figure 32: The SIGMA modular naval vessel from Damen Schelde
Modularization in Operation
The incentives for modularization from an operational point‐of‐view may be:
• Later modifications, for instance because of new regulations, technical development, or changed
operating profile/mission
• Easy component/system replacement because of failures or breakdown
• A “service‐oriented” operating regime involving remote monitoring and operation, typically by
the system supplier
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The Littoral Combat Ship
The goal with the Littoral Combat Ship program in the US Navy was to develop a near‐shore combat ship
that could be developed at a low cost, and with a flexibility that made it possible to rapidly shift from
one type of warfare to another. It consists of a base module – sea frame – that is the warship platform.
In addition, a range of different modules may be plugged in, providing capabilities such as Anti‐surface
warfare, Mine Counter Measures, Anti‐Submarine Warfare, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaiss‐
ance, Special Operation Forces support and Logistic support. These mission modules integrate to the
extent possible, into the sea frame’s command and control architecture.
Figure 33: The Littoral Combat Ship providing operational flexibility through replaceable mission modules
in a bus modular architecture
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Future Prospects for Modularization in Shipbuilding – From a Norwegian
Perspective
Previously in this report, we have seen that the process from a tender invitation is received to the
complete tendering documentation is completed typically involve a large number of parties both within
and outside the company. In this process, we have made an argument for a modular approach, with
potential gains in areas such as lead time, efficiency, quality and product variety. PDM/PLM systems
offer a technology platform to support the necessary communication and integration, both from a
product, a process and a systems perspective. However, there is currently little knowledge and
experience in linking the theoretical models to practical industrial solutions within this field. The
acquisition of a PDM system will by itself offer little or nothing to amend this situation.
Thus, there is a need to better understand how the complete tendering documentation, including the
building specification, arrangement drawings, ship performance analyses and 3D visualization, can be
consistently derived from a disparate set of models, and how the different activities, systems and parties
can be integrated into a common process that can be subsequently handled in a workflow support
system. Based on this, further research should focus on how modularization and product platform
technologies can enable a transition from designing new solutions from scratch with a large engineering
content in each project, into a situation where customized solutions are increasingly configured from a
product platform consisting of standard components and parametric modules. Based on published
results from other industries, there seem to be a potential for significantly reducing the time and
resource effort required to develop a new design, while maintaining the ability to provide customized
solutions.
Examples of specific issues that will require further research and technology development are:
• Improved product modeling of ships, in particular from a systems perspective, to identify and
define modules suitable for parameterization, and with minimal, well‐defined interfaces to be
used as building blocks in the product platform
• The identification of the significant set of parameters for each type of component or module,
and the relation between those parameters and the performance of both the containing system
and the complete design
• The structuring and classification of components and modules into libraries, for efficient access
in the configuration of individual design solutions. The definition of standard component and
module types, variants and instances, and how these can be grouped together to form standard
templates for different ship types
• The development of process models and Best Engineering Practices for configuration‐based
design process support from request to tender delivery
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In the ship production phase, a modular approach offers a number of opportunities for improvements.
First, it is an enabling technology for more flexible, and increasingly, global production chains. A clear
modular structure, with well defined interfaces between the modular “chunks”, opens up for the
outsourcing of a larger share of the total production. Alternatively, by enabling the reuse of standardized
components across multiple design variants, it may provide a basis for a higher degree of automated
production of longer component series. This may result in an insourcing of production, enabled by
automated production that possibly is competitive in high‐cost countries like Norway.
In the operations phase, a modular product structure may be a strategic platform for offering ships with
a higher degree of operational flexibility in the future. This might be an instrument towards meeting
some of the most imperative challenges we face today, in terms of higher demands for reduced
emissions and energy efficient transport, volatile markets and an increased pace of technology changes
and the emergence of new market opportunities. A key research challenge related to this is a better
understanding of real options related to design: To what extent should the ship owner invest in future
operational flexibility already at the newbuilding stage. Examples of such investments ranges from
providing sufficient structural and powering support for upgrading cranes, to investing in hybrid
powering systems and additional power reserves beyond what is required for the vessel’s first contract.
A proper modular architecture may provide a more competitive cost‐benefit ratio for this.
Also related to the operations phase, a
higher degree of flexibility for handling
multiple cargo types and integration
into increasingly complex logistic
transportation chains, a modular
approach offers potential oppor‐
tunities in the future, as illustrated by
the figure on the right from the
CREATE3S project. This will require the
current competence of Norwegian
ship designers in developing innovative ship solutions, but also require research and development into a
better understanding of how the requirements for future transport provide the ramifications for the next
generation specifications in the first place.
A final question to be asked is, to what extent is a modular approach applicable to the typical Norwegian
shipbuilding domain, where the focus is primarily on highly complex, highly customized vessels? A final
answer to this has not been given in this report. It is likely that the high complexity may increase the
level of difficulty in developing a modular platform in the first place. However, it is likely that the
potential benefit is also higher for complex vessels. A recommended strategy for handling complexity in
general is “divide and conquer”, thus hiding the inner complexity of the parts so that a comprehensible
system with well‐defined interfaces emerge. This was put forward by Herbert Simon already in 1962 by
his seminal paper “The Architecture of Complexity”, and the current application of modular strategies in
multiple high‐complexity domains, such as aviation and automotive, should serve as an argument for its
relevance in the maritime field as well.
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Appendix
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