Future-Ready Vessel Design: How EBDG Uses SSI To Innovate with Cloud Collaboration

The marine industry is experiencing a rapid digital transformation. Shipowners and shipyards must balance sustainability mandates, hybrid propulsion adoption, and digital shipyard requirements while controlling costs and delivery schedules. For Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG), meeting these demands means rethinking not just how vessels are designed, but how collaboration happens.

By adopting cloud-enabled workflows powered by SSI’s shipbuilding software, EBDG has created a future-ready approach to naval architecture. Remote teams, clients, and shipyards now collaborate in real time on the same 3D models, enabling earlier system integration, faster fabrication, and long-term maintainability through digital twin workflows.

“The number one challenge is having to adapt to every shipyard’s unique needs, and that’s one of the strongest benefits of ShipConstructor.” 

Mike Complita, Principal and VP of Strategic Expansion, EBDG

The Role of Cloud In Modern Marine Engineering

EBDG is one of the only fully remote companies in its sector. Cloud integration with SSI solutions allows distributed teams to work concurrently on live models, supported by version control and centralized project files. This ensures accuracy across design offices and seamless engagement with shipyard partners.

Unlike traditional methods that rely on email chains or static screenshots, EBDG’s model-based reviews give stakeholders a live, interactive experience. Clients and engineers can rotate the 3D design together on a call, ask questions, and resolve issues instantly — creating alignment faster and with greater transparency.
At the same time, EBDG emphasizes careful planning for cloud workflows, especially under ITAR and federal compliance. Early agreements on where the “parent model” lives, how it is split into work packages, and who accesses it directly eliminate bottlenecks and support secure, efficient collaboration.

Challenge: Navigating A Changing Industry

The demands on modern vessel design are immense:

• Integrating zero-emission and hybrid propulsion systems while maintaining operational feasibility
• Meeting client sustainability goals with unconventional technologies like hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol
• Coordinating remote teams and external stakeholders across multiple locations
• Delivering fabrication-ready models with accuracy and efficiency
• Preparing designs that support long-term maintainability and future retrofits

For EBDG, this means combining advanced engineering expertise with digital-first collaboration methods to minimize risk and maximize value.

Solution: Leveraging SSI Tools for Cloud-first Design

EBDG relies on SSI’s purpose-built shipbuilding software to integrate propulsion systems early, automate fabrication, and support collaborative, digital shipyard-ready workflows.

Cloud-Enabled Remote Collaboration

The backbone of EBDG’s strategy is its ability to unite distributed teams in a single, live model. Cloud workflows provide version control, security, and real-time visibility for clients and shipyards alike, creating shared accountability and measurable project value.

Early System Integration

With SSI, EBDG embeds advanced propulsion and electrical systems at the start of the design process, ensuring complex zero-emission technologies are properly integrated and reducing downstream risks. Stephanie Gullickson, EBDG’s Director of Business Development, explains: “A lot of times the client comes to us and says, I need zero emissions. I have an emissions target that I want to meet and how do I get there? And a lot of times it’s not always an easy answer.”

Streamlined Fabrication and Automation

Automation eliminates repetitive manual work. Automated nesting and beveling save material, reduce weld prep errors, and accelerate production. Marine Designer Kristen Martel highlights the difference: “ShipConstructor is a big time save over other competitors. With other programs, mark lines are a very manual process. In ShipConstructor, if a structure is connected, the line will be there. That’s great when we create nest files and when the yard goes to assemble the vessel.”

Digital Twin Workflows

Digital twin deliverables extend the value of design into operations. Crews access accurate 3D models for retrofits, repairs, and upgrades, ensuring long-term reliability and maintainability.

“ShipConstructor is a big time save over other competitors”

Kristen Martel, Marine Designer, EBDG

Impact: Benefits for Clients and Shipyards

The partnership between EBDG and SSI has produced measurable results that ripple across the entire project lifecycle — from the design desk to the fabrication floor and, ultimately, into long-term vessel operations. By combining EBDG’s deep engineering expertise with SSI’s shipbuilding software, clients and shipyards gain clear advantages in efficiency, cost management, and confidence.

Faster fabrication: Automated detailing and early system integration enables shipyard teams to move from design to steel-cutting faster. This acceleration not only shortens delivery schedules but also helps EBDG’s clients maximize throughput and win more competitive bids.

Lower material costs: Efficient plate nesting minimizes waste and lowers steel costs. Optimized use of materials translates directly into budget savings, reducing financial risk for owners while boosting margins for shipyards.

Smarter beveling and nesting: Using ShipConstructor’s beveling library, EBDG can add custom bevel information directly onto marked plates. This automates what was once a manual shop-floor process, saving significant time and reducing errors. The same data flows from the DXF cut files into the nesting software for cutting facilities with manual or NC bevel cutting capabilities, ensuring better material use and cost savings.

Better maintainability: Deliverables created with 3D models and digital twins improve long-term vessel performance. Maintenance crews can access accurate, visualized data that supports smoother retrofits, quicker repairs, and more informed upgrades over the vessel’s lifecycle.

Higher client confidence: Transparent, precise deliverables backed by real data in real time empower clients to make better decisions earlier. This clarity strengthens trust and fosters stronger relationships, as owners see exactly how their sustainability and performance goals are being met.

Automation: Automation features within ShipConstructor align with broader shipyard automation initiatives, helping EBDG clients prepare for the concept of a fully automated shipyard.

These results highlight how purpose-built shipbuilding projects software supports both engineering efficiency and long-term vessel reliability.

“Clients are very interested in building more effectively, more efficiently, faster, less man hours on the shop floor. And with ShipConstructor, we are able to quickly change the design and replicate it in various areas of the vessel.”

Kristen Martel, Marine Designer, EBDG

Who Is EBDG?

Founded in 1988, Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) is a leader in naval architecture and marine engineering. The firm specializes in ferries, tugs, barges, and workboats, serving clients such as Washington State Ferries and Staten Island Ferries. Known for balancing innovation with practicality, EBDG combines engineering expertise with advanced shipbuilding design software to deliver sustainable, reliable, and efficient vessels.

Leading the Future of Marine Design

EBDG continues to refine its digital transformation strategy, exploring how hybrid propulsion, AI-driven modeling, and predictive analytics can further improve vessel design and operations. Anchored by cloud-enabled collaboration with SSI solutions, they are not only meeting today’s toughest engineering challenges but also shaping how the next generation of vessels will be designed, built, and maintained.