Japanese shipbuilders are known worldwide for the high-quality ships they deliver and a tradition of excellence. However, as foreign competitors begin to catch up, it is important for Japanese shipbuilders to build upon this reputation to maintain their advantage. Overcoming the most important challenges – changing customer requirements, managing outsourcing, and an increasingly global industry – by achieving control and reliability over your organization’s engineering ecosystem is the key to future success.
With over 30 years of experience developing shipbuilding-specific solutions and over 20 years of experience working with Japanese shipbuilders, SSI is a partner your organization can rely on for the long-term to help overcome those challenges. Our understanding of the unique aspects of shipbuilding in Japan allows for even better engineering to occur, without sacrificing the expertise or efficiencies behind current practices.
Key Strategies
Incremental Innovation
Transitioning to an integrated environment, or integrated engineering model, must be done without losing any of the current advantages or expertise built up within your organization. Choosing a solution that can add the advantages of 3D and continue to work with the existing processes that rely on engineering information is the most seamless way to accomplish this.
Existing processes that need to be maintained include:
- BOMs
- Spreadsheets
- Cutting machinery
- Sub-contractor arrangements
Maintaining an Ongoing Relationship
The key to long-term success in any transition is maintaining an ongoing relationship. This approach has resulted in clients that have been with us for many of our over 30-year history. SSI’s commitment to our client’s success begins with SSI Learning, a comprehensive training curriculum that allows for teams of any skill level to quickly gain proficiency up to a high standard. The standardized approach of the training helps guarantee that any sub-contractor or subsidiary is compliant with your organization’s methods and standards.
As the industry evolves, we continuously listen to our clients to evolve with them. Through a wish list on our community portal Nexus, we take suggestions on features that should be implemented in our solutions, provide long-term technical support, and further training documentation. If local support is required, we have a technical support team located in Japan, ready to provide assistance in Japanese. We attribute this long-term partnership mentality as a significant reason for our success.
Maintaining a Single Source of Truth
Some Japanese shipbuilders, like Miura Shipbuilding, Fukuoka Shipbuilding, and Inamasu Shipbuilding, have understood the future direction of the industry, and are actively working to achieve the next level of control and reliability over their engineering activities.
Through a fully integrated engineering environment based around the 3D model, the right information can always find the right people in the right format – without changes to your existing processes or infrastructure. Engineering can maintain the reliability of data, without the need for extensive expert knowledge.
Partnership Highlight
Since 2010, Miho Shipyard has used ShipConstructor as their primary hull production design solution. They were able to start using 3D parametric design without disrupting certain processes that still relied on 2D drawings. For example, nesting information could still be passed along from the 3D model, and 2D design drawings and yard plans were now generated automatically from the 3D model via MarineDrafting.
Read the Case StudyKey Challenges
Managing Outsourcing
It can be difficult to work with contractors and sub-contractors in a way that ensures your organization’s engineering department has control and reliability over every aspect of the project. By including company-specific standards directly in shared projects, and easily being able to verify received work on-the-fly, any work done by contractors can be seamlessly integrated into the existing environment. In this way, disruption to your processes is minimized.
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Changing Customer Requirements
Ship owners are increasingly looking for mission-specific vessels that most closely meet their needs. One of the factors that allows for other yards to introduce flexibility in their designs and meet this demand is the use of 3D models as the center of their engineering information. This approach allows them to take advantage of, for example: easily being able to control standards, share projects, estimate CG, and visualize how blocks will fit together.
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An Increasingly Global Industry
Each year, Japanese shipyards are becoming more global, but as more hiring and contractors come from abroad, it is important to maintain consistency and quality that is up to Japanese standards. Through an extensive training curriculum and the ability to easily share work packages -complete with company-specific standards – your organization can ensure that every vessel will be delivered according to your requirements.
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Our Shipbuilding Partners
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For an opportunity to trial SSI’s solutions directly within your shipyard, please continue to our trial page. We will work with you to ensure that all the features you require are included and that training material, software set-up help, and technical assistance are available to your organization. Following the trial, there is no further obligation.
Get a TrialAdditional Resources
Shipbuilding Innovation Assessment
The 2-minute assessment allows your organization to quickly see where your organization stands compared to others in shipbuilding, reveal how digitally mature your shipyard is, see a customized report, and access exclusive information on each of the focus areas.
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Resource Center
Explore videos, case studies, papers, diagrams, and more that demonstrate strategies for the future of Japanese shipbuilding. There are hundreds of searchable resources available to you, each offering unique insights.
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2D in a 3D World
Generating required 2D drawings directly from the 3D model allows shipbuilders to use 3D for basic and detailed design without impacting how they approach the rest of the project. This paper outlines what is required to do so automatically and how shipbuilders can get started.
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Japanese Shipbuilding: Moving Forward?
SSI co-CEO Darren Larkins has visited shipyards around the world and worked closely with Japanese shipbuilders to understand their unique challenges. This blog post outlines his observations of Japanese shipbuilding in a global context.
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The Japanese shipbuilding market is at a crossroads
After many trips to Japan, SSI co-CEO Darren Larkins suggests a possible roadmap for Japan to maintain all the quality and value they have invested in extensive 2D production output while incrementally introducing the most valuable benefits of 3D technology.
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If you would like to learn more about the techniques, strategies, or technology mentioned above, please do not hesitate to reach out to us using the form below.