European shipyards continue to decrease in size and become more specialized. Focusing on technologically complex vessels, like cruise ships, ferries, and naval vessels, and incorporating innovation into processes has allowed niche shipbuilders to remain competitive despite tough global competition. A key characteristic that has emerged is increased cooperation across shipyards – through sub-contracting and industry partnerships. The future success of this strategy depends on maintaining close working links to other shipyards and sharing information within a network without adding business and IT risk.
This paper, originally created for ICCAS 2024, demonstrates the state of cross-organizational collaboration today, how shipbuilding-specific PLM technology further enables the specialized approach through the interoperability of digital twins, and how adopting technology mitigates the risks of specialization and cooperation.