Development of an ERP Model for Modularly Designed Ships for Medium Scale Shipyards – I: Manufacturing Management

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has become something of a magic wand for largemanufacturing industries because of its capability to integrate different manufacturingmodules via online networks and hence providing one window access thereby makingthe whole manufacturing process integrated with a reduction in inventory. Ship productionis not a manufacturing process in a strict sense because of high customisation,widely varying scales of operations and less compatibility between various productionprocesses. Ship production is planned in an activity driven network scheduling system ingeneraland is assumed more as a construction process or assembling process ratherthan a manufacturing process. An ERP principle is based upon information managementand process integration and hence is effective in all manufacturing processes that needto integrate the processes for streamlined, lean and synergised manufacturing. A modularapproach to design has been regarded as the new logic for product design and itsorganisation, as it helps design and manufacturing firms to cope with the present volatileand turbulent environment. This combines the ERP principle and modular approach todesign. The ERP principle is used to design the manufacturing management system forthe modularly designed ships. In this series of two papers, we discuss development of anERP model for a medium scale shipyard. Part I, discusses a methodology for manufacturingmanagement: planning and integration of ship manufacturing processes for themodularly designed ships in a medium size shipyard. The manufacturing management isintegration driven and is based upon activity based network scheduling. In this work, it isshown that by combining network scheduling, ERP and modular approach to design, theship manufacturing process will be more streamlined, better planned and executed.