In our last article, the focus was on how to choose the right shipyard and the intricacies involved in the shipbuilding process. This time, we are going to take a look at another vital component in shipbuilding, namely the site team. The Site Team (ST) personnel are the ship owners’ representatives. They confirm that ships are built as per the signed contract and technical specifications. Preferably, the Site Team must have a diverse range of professional experiences and a set of responsibilities, as decided by the Site Manager.

The size of the Site Team should be a function of the ship’s size, speed of production and availability of these experts on the market. The “larger” ships require greater surface area’s coverage, hence more effort. If the production speed is “fast” then one ST specialist might not effectively cover what is expected of him/her and more persons of the specialty may be required. If adequate “trust” is assumed for the Shipyard, then the size of the ST can be reduced. On top of their professional skills Site Team members should posses soft Skills as well:

1. Be proactive and anticipate problems, as opposed to looking for after-the-fact solutions.
2. Work as a team player.
3. Cooperate with Shipyard, Equipment Suppliers and Class Surveyors.
4. Be good and patient communicators.

In addition, each Site Team member must be healthy / physically fit and be specifically insured by Ship Owners for traveling abroad, against all types of accidents, occupational hazards, health impairment, treatment of any illness. Here follows a typical list of necessary Site Team personnel, all reporting to site manager, each person described with the desired characteristics for the position:

Site Manager (SM)

Must be a trusted, articulate and experienced Naval Architect. His professional experience could be linked to the value of the project.  Preferably SM must be senior to everybody else involved in site team with “in-field” managerial experience. Strict Naval Architectural background is necessary so that the SM will cover the widest possible technical background on ships, a qualification, which cannot be earned or compensated by experience.

SM must:

1. Be a “wide-knowledge”, respected integrator
2. Be in charge of overall new buildings activity.
3. Act as a Ship Owner’s official representative to Shipyard.
4. Be the head of Site Team and the only link of Site Team with the Ship Owner.
5. Organize and supervise all Site Team activities.
6. Be responsible for Site Time safety and welfare.
7. Legally represent all Site Team members abroad.
8. Apply Contract terms and Specifications.
9. Maximise benefits for Ship Owner.
10. Give priorities for daily actions.
11. Provide all site office and personnel necessities.

Hull and Outfitting Supervisor  (HS)

The Hull Supervisor can be an ex-Shipyard production foreman, minimum fifteen  (15) years’ experience, or a Shipyard naval architect with minimum five (5) years production supervision experience. Must have:

1.  “Hands-on” Shipyard production experience.
2. Welding standards and methodology knowledge
3. Steel quality & metallurgical knowledge
4. Blocks assembly knowledge
5. Structural alignments knowledge.
6. Detailed knowledge of (local) outfitting’s standards and assembly practices.
7. Must understand non-destructive testing procedures / application.

Mechanical Supervisor (MS)

At least chief engineer’s qualifications and five (5) years ships repairs work experience is required. Alternatively, a university graduate in marine engineering with minimum ten (10) years practical ship operations / repairs experience. Must be:

1. Ability to check multiple interacting ship’s systems details.
2. Must feel confident and resourceful dealing with mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic systems
3. Wide ranging systems knowledge.
4. Patient in analytical quality control procedure.

Corrosion Protection Supervisor (CPS)

Can be ex-shipyard painting/Blasting foreman with minimum ten (10) years experience in new building process or Corrosion Engineer. Must be:

1. FROSIO (red) or NICE 2 certified.

2. Must have painting specifications knowledge and know where problems arise.
3. Ideally CPS must have been involved in ship’s structural repairs
4. Must know surface preparation standards and various means used for surface preparation by Shipyards.
5. CPS complements the steel work supervisor.
6. Knows corrosion mechanisms and means to combat them.
7. Intimately understands paint technology and its field application limitations.
8. Knows how to conduct practical field tests relating to paints coatings adhesion, thickness, damage repairs, dust/dirt control, humidity and temperature.

Electrical / Electronics / Automation / Communications (EEAC) Engineer

EEAC must be a University graduate Electrical engineer with minimum (5) years repairs & five (5) years new buildings experience, or a electrical field engineer of higher education who has minimum ten (10) years repairs experience in mixed electrical, electronic, automation & communications. Must be:

1. Must be able to read electrical installations and electronic circuitry drawings.
2. Refer to standards and appropriate practices as well as propose practical solutions.
3. Must understand subsystems functions and expert in components circuitry.
4. Must be able to integrate ship’s systems with automation.

HSE Supervisor

It is relatively new function in the newbuilding supervision Site team and even now there are projects where this position is missing. In line with HSE policy of the Ship Owning companies, there should be somebody who implements and follows-up these polices in the place where the vessel is being build. Often, there are clashes with Shipowners’ company policy and Shipayrd HSE Policy thus presence of HSE will be a plus in solving these issues.

Commissioning Engineers (Mechanical/Electrical)

It is not common for most of Site Teams to have this specialists, however when project have long series of vessels and though schedule presence of above-mentioned specialists on site is recommendable.

Secretary

The secretary is SM’s assistant and the heart of the Site Team. Ideally he/she must:

1. Local person, experienced in dealing with shipbuilding Site Teams working under pressure.
2. Not have any links with the Shipyard, so as to reduce chances of accidental project-specific information “leaks”.
3. Keep the site office surroundings & records in order.
4. Arrange for ST overalls routine cleaning, availability of office consumables and office good presentation.
5. Collect and distribute all incoming / outgoing correspondence, information, drawings, inspections etc.

The choice of selecting a shipyard is probably one of the most important decisions a shipowner could make. This crucial choice could potentially have an impact on your long-term vessel quality and the operational expenses during the ship’s lifecycle. Therefore, you have to take a careful and measured approach to choosing the right shipyard to build your vessel.

The process of choosing a shipyard

One of the best places to start is to find a proven independent scheme, such as Manufacturer Product Quality Assessment, or MPQA. This service is delivered, normally by Classification Societies and gives you quite a good understanding of the shipyard’s quality and capabilities. From 2008 to 2011, Lloyd’s used a similar scheme to evaluate Chinese shipyards. From roughly 1100 registered shipyards, only around 150 covered the majority of the criteria outlined by Lloyds. Of those, only 50 were announced as first-class builders.

Next, you’ll want to work with an experienced new building supervision company. This is an opportunity for requesting an audit of any shortlisted shipyard. For instance, Risk Design International has experience in shipyard evaluation and our specialists are ready to help you with choosing the right shipyard and successful delivery of the vessel or series of vessels. As a result, we have put together a shipyard assessment document that covers the following areas:

• Assessment of shipyard facilities and building strategy 
• Assessment of production capacity and manpower qualification 
• Data performance from already built vessels in the same shipyard

Assessing the environment and current conditions of above-mentioned areas is an indicator for the planning, management and resource control of the shipyard. A well-constructed shipyard displays a logical production flow throughout its layout and space.

Assessment of shipyard facilities and building strategy

This process can be subdivided into smaller sectors that have a significant impact on the shipbuilding process, including:

1. Warehouse and storage areas: Housekeeping and traceability are important for the building process.
2. Shop primer line: The shop primer, steel profile and applied thickness are critical for corrosion protection. To ensure efficiency, steel plates should be treated with a shop primer coating to reduce work during secondary treatment.
3. Gas/Plasma Cutting workshop: Proper nesting maximizes the utilization of steel material. Modern gas and plasma units with cutting and marking heads help to shorten sub-assembly and assembly processes. Machine steel beveling increases the quality of butt and filled welding, where available.
4. Subassembly workshop: Protection from severe environmental conditions is a must during the sub-assembly process. This process should only be carried out in a dedicated indoor location, by an experienced team. This is vital to pre-heating and temperature preservation for thick and high-tensile plates.
5. Block assembly workshop: The requirements for the protection of environmental conditions are the same. There should, however, be an emphasis made on the quality of block inspection. The following standards are all of importance:
   1. Steel plate material and thickness
   2. Weld quality
   3. Alignment of plates and profiles
   4. NDT Reports
   5. Dimensional Report
6. Blasting hall: These are designated indoor workshops for separate blasting work, equipped with a centralized compressor, ventilation, dust collector and heating system.
7. Painting hall: An enclosed working environment guarantees that there will no dust during the painting process. This makes painting easier and more reliable. The painting hall itself is also equipped with a centralized compressor, ventilation, and heating system as well. Workers should have a thorough understanding of IMO PSPC requirements. This is crucial to Ballast tank coating performance through the years.
8. Pre-erection area: In recent years, pre-erection has become standard shipyard practice, in order to reduce a newbuilding’s time in the actual dock. You’ll need a shipyard ready to facilitate the transport of large blocks, but it can greatly improve your overall efficiency.
9. A dry dock area: Dry dock erection is the most expensive part of newbuilding, taking place in the highest cost part of a shipyard. There needs to be a correctly chosen building strategy that in turn can save a lot of time and money to shipyard and owners. 
10. Machinery workshop: Type and capacity of machines need to be carefully inspected to ensure that the whole production process is covered.
11. Outfitting berth: There needs to be enough crane capacity at the berth to cover outstanding jobs, once the ship is launched from the dry dock.
12. Design/Engineering offices: The engineers involved in the shipbuilding process needs to be certified and competent with the use of design software (eg. ShipConstructor, Aveva, NAPA, etc.)

Assessment of production capacity and manpower qualification 

Of course, even the best facility in the world won’t mean much if they just don’t have the resources available to work with you. The production capacity of the shipyard and the number of new buildings in progress gives a percentage capacity that is left available for your project. Meanwhile, the ratio of shipyard workers to contractors is an indication of the flexibility and the overall power of the shipyard.

It is important to inquire about the availability (as planned) of the Dry dock slot for your newbuilding project. This information would be a good measure of the shipyard’s production flow and whether it suits your schedule, as planned. It’s also imperative that you evaluate the team’s strength, from management down to shipyard employees. The ratios of employees in production, quality control and design are all indicators of efficacy for your shipyard.

Review of production plans, Gant charts, and schedules comes first. Next, comparing these with your real production needs will help to gauge whether the shipyard can carry out the workload. Can they compensate delays, overcome bottlenecks and, most importantly, complete the project? Will they do it on time, to budget, and according to standards? You can learn all of that during this phase.

Data performance from already built vessels in the same shipyard

Throughout our network of captains and chief engineers, Risk Design International has been able to collect data for the operational phase of vessels. The past performance and vessel delivery of any shipyard could be used as a guide for any future new building. Equipment underperformance, guarantee claims, unexpected repair works are always clear indicators of a poor quality job during the building process in the subjected shipyard. Therefore, visiting the shipyard and inspecting vessels that are at the final stage of the building process is always an excellent approach to verifying the professionalism of the shipyard.

Choosing the right shipyard: Let a professional help you

Want to learn more about our shipyard selection services? Get in touch with us, today, and we’d be happy to answer your questions and get you started with choosing the right shipyard for your needs.