THE IMPACT OF ENGINEERING CHANGES IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN ON SHIP CONVERSION

摘要

Managing engineering changes in ship conversion is a topic of considerable importance. Before a change is authorized, its aim, degree and the impact of the change should be analysed to determine the likely impact for the project objectives of the customer and other significant stakeholders. Thus, Supply Chain Management gives advantage to the shipyard over its competitors and increases its stability. The process of managing engineering changes together with an intelligent supply chain will spark the evolution of better management tools in a comprehensive and integrated way, consolidating the separate and uncoordinated existent activities. The paper reviews the ship design and conversion processes, identifies the key stakeholders in the process and looks at the inherent risks of starting work on incomplete information against overall project delay. Finally, it presents guidelines based on the development of a specific information delivery schedule, breaking down the total information into specific sets, emphasizing the recognition of the change and transfer of lessons learned as key issues in the good practice of the engineering change management process. In addition, consideration should be given to instituting formal design reviews and validation testing when the magnitude, complexity or risk associated with the change warrants such actions.