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Summary
To investigate the production process at IHC Krimpen Shipyard, IHC Merwede and the Delft Univerity of Technology started the joint project “Analysis of production scenarios for Krimpen Shipyard”. The final goal is to create a generic model which is capable of forecasting the capacity of a shipyard. As a part of the joint project, the primary goal of this research project is improving the automated generation of a section building schedule during the pre-contract phase. The model can be used as a decision support tool. Various scenarios regarding different outsourcing policies, resource leveling, surface area utilization and workforce distribution can be assessed in a very early stage. The research project is divided into two separate parts.
Part 1: Section lead time calculation
The input for the section lead time calculation model consists of historical data and several practical conditions. The assumption is made that every single section type has a characterizing relation between the section’s mass and lead time. In order to categorize a section, eleven different section types are districted.
It is possible to calculate the lead time of a specific section based solely on the section’s mass and typing. For seven of the total of eleven section types, a linear relation between the section’s mass and lead time is assumed. Among the remaining four section types, two types are not populated enough and two types contain to wide spread data in order to accurately estimate the section’s lead time. The model has been validated by comparing calculated lead times with those of a revision-0 schedule for two vessels (yard no. 7715 and 1252), built by IHC Merwede.
Part 2: Section building schedule generation
The input for the ‘section building’-scheduling model consists of the erection schedule, the lead times calculated in part 1, the outsourcing policy of the shipyard and several boundary conditions. The assumption is made that the model can generate a schedule for the section building activities based on this data.
The model is capable of generating a schedule for section building activities and is suitable to evaluate different aspects of the section building schedule. The model has been validated by comparing the generated schedule to the revision-0 schedule of the yard number 7715, built by IHC Merwede.
Using the automated scheduling model, the planner is able to assess different outsourcing scenarios within only one day. Normally, this process takes about two weeks full time for the planner at IHC Krimpen Shipyard.
