Back to search

MAROFF-2-Maritim virksomhet og offsh-2

SUSPRO; decision support for SUstainable Ship PROduction in global fluctuating markets

Awarded: NOK 8.0 mill.

Fierce global competition in shipbuilding requires excellence in innovation, design and manufacturing. Strong market fluctuations and operations in a high cost environment increase these challenges. For customized and capital-intensive products such as ships, companies must develop their ability to provide unique sustainable solutions at acceptable cost. SUSPRO project aimed to exploit innovations from mass production, such as automation, modularization, lean production and ICT integration, to achieve sustainable and life-cycle-oriented ship production. The overall objective of SUSPRO was therefore to develop knowledge, methodology and life-cycle decision support for sustainable production of highly specialized and capital-intensive offshore ships in an uncertain, fluctuating market. This was realized by means of the following sub-objectives: (1) Continually monitor and analyze market trends and fluctuations and their impact on design, manufacturing, the supply chain and network. (2) Realize next generation, sustainable ship production that ensure both high environmental and financial performance. (3) Analyze and guide the route to sustainable shipbuilding by applying analytical tools and life cycle management practices. The SUSPRO project brought together industry partners from all phases of ship production and experts within the scientific fields of production management and life cycle management in order to ensure the Norwegian offshore industry's worldwide leading position in the future in a sustainable manner. In December 2017, an open seminar was held in Ålesund where both academic and industrial partners presented the results of the SUSPRO project, and where the booklet with the final research results was presented. The project results include: (1) Development of statistical multivariate models in order to study the effect of different building strategies on performance at Norwegian yards. Understanding the different strategies and their consequences and implications is important in order for Norwegian yards to compete in a highly competitive, global shipbuilding market. (2) Development of stochastic multi-criteria decision models to analyze green technology investments in maritime transportation. These models are useful for appraising alternative ship design and technology installations in a life cycle perspective with regards to economic, environmental and technological performance. Considering the recent adoption of financial and regulatory mechanisms to motivate sustainable maritime transportation globally and in Norway, this research provides an important tool for the industry to evaluate alternative compliance strategies taking both short and long term uncertainties into account. (3) Analysis of a longitudinal dataset from 380 companies focusing the interface between R&D levels and how firms handle market fluctuations. Our results are published in the Journal of High Tech Management Research, and a major finding is that the effect of R&D on firm performance increases when market demand decreases. Considering the maritime sector, these results underline the importance of research activities in the current situation with reduced demand in important market segments for Norwegian firms.

Fierce global competition in shipbuilding requires excellence in innovation, design and manufacturing. Strong market fluctuations and operations in a high cost environment increase these challenges. For customized and capital-intensive products such as of fshore ships, companies must develop their ability to provide unique sustainable solutions at acceptable cost. This project aims to exploit innovations from mass production, such as automation, modularization, lean production and ICT integration, to ach ieve sustainable and life-cycle-oriented ship production. The overall objective of SURF is therefore to develop knowledge, methodology and life-cycle decision support for sustainable production of highly specialized and capital-intensive offshore ships in an uncertain, fluctuating market. This will be realized by means of the following sub-objectives: (1) Continually monitor and analyze market trends and fluctuations and their impact on design, manufacturing, the supply chain and network. (2) Realize nex t generation, sustainable ship production that ensure both high environmental and economical performance. (3) Analyze and guide the route to sustainable shipbuilding by applying analytical tools and life cycle management practices. The SURF project brin gs together industry partners from all phases of ship production and experts within the scientific fields of production management and life cycle management in order to ensure the Norwegian offshore industry's worldwide leading position in the future in a sustainable manner.

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

No publications found

Funding scheme:

MAROFF-2-Maritim virksomhet og offsh-2