Developing a Configure‐to‐Order Product in the Subsea Oil and Gas Domain

Abstract

AbstractThis paper explores a configure‐to‐order strategy in the subsea oil and gas industry. A major supplier in the industry is investigating standardization and modularization of their systems and products to shorten delivery times and reduce cost. Consequently, changing from an “engineer‐to‐order” to a “configure‐to‐order” strategy.We have studied part of the Subsea Production System, namely the subsea hydraulic control system and a new product development project as a basis for our research. The new product development project was our case for developing a standardized and modularized design that meets various customer needs. Applying the systems engineering framework together with lean product development principles helped us define a process to decide product specific variants of the new product through a configurator.Results from our research show that we could configure the product based on functional requirements if the engineers consider modularity during product design. The research gives strong indications that the subsea oil and gas industry can achieve significant reduction in cost and time associated with design, documentation and production of the new product by using a Configure‐to‐Order strategy.