Practical implementation of configuration management in the context of concept ship design – first lessons

Abstract

The implementation of configuration management (CM) in support of concept design activities at the Products and Proposals department of Damen Naval has put forward a number of challenges that seem to be unique to the shipbuilding industry and the process of concept development therein, that traditional enterprise-level product lifecycle management software and processes are unable to tackle. Information fluidity, an uneven and fast evolving tooling landscape and limited team sizes have driven us to pursue dedicated software implementations in support of CM during concept design. From the first attempts of doing so, we have seen that a number of performance requirements for the software that were completely under the radar are now driving factors for further selection (mostly related to speed and agility of the tool), while some others even impact our way of working and organizational structure as a whole, requiring us to carry system responsibility per discipline, instead of only functional responsibility.