Changes pose a significant challenge for the entire yacht-building industry. The construction of a yacht can easily take 4.5 years, during which much can happen, including changes in the desires of clients who order a yacht from Oceanco. The Alblasserdam yacht builder smartly employs data for this purpose. Hans Bink, project manager of business innovation at Oceanco, says, “Technological developments do not stand still during those 4.5 years. There are customers who, in the meantime, impose new requirements on their yacht.” So how does Oceanco maintain control over these changes?
Within this article, let us delve into the insights shared by Hans during his engaging presentation at the 2023 Maritime Innovation Platform conference.
Subjective and requiring perfection
Oceanco builds the perfect yacht for its clients – that is their promise. However, ‘perfect’ is subjective. Therefore, Oceanco sits down with the client to define ‘perfect,’ resulting in an extensive list of requirements and specifications. Hans explains, “Until recently, we recorded this in plain text. We would then share these Word or PDF files with each other.” This is how Hans begins his presentation during the Maritime Innovation Platform 2023.
New technology = new desire
Over those four years, time literally does not stand still. Technological innovations follow each other rapidly. As a result, the requirements are regularly adjusted. Hans adds, “Naturally, these requests are granted, but they do impact the requirements. It is essential that we ensure these are thoroughly checked and that we continuously go through this cycle. It is crucial that we make sure nothing is forgotten.”
Forgetting nothing? Not a human task
Hans continues with the key question that concerns many yacht builders when it comes to changes: “How can we be certain that all these requirements are still accurate?” From our experience, we know that this is an impossible task for a human, given the many connections involved. So, how can we be sure as humans that everything has been neatly updated? We cannot! That’s where technology is a must.
Yacht Builder: All changes perfectly implemented? Check!
Oceanco uses Shipbuilder solutions for this purpose, like Yacht Builder. During the presentation, he states, “We use a tool that places plain text requirements in the database and establishes connections between different requirements.” In this way, Oceanco intelligently uses data to deliver the perfect yacht, even with all the changes.
-With thanks to Schuttevaer and NMT
-This text was created based on an article in Schuttevaer, click here
