Strategic organizing of piping supplies for ship construction

摘要

Shipbuilding implies an engineering challenge dependent on well-coordinated supplies of goods and services. A case study of supplies of piping materials to shipbuilding reveals how piping supplies are carried out through business relationships involving variation, both in product design as well as logistics. The case concerns three customer relationships in varying stages of development. This offers comparative descriptions on strategic organizing the logistics of ship construction supplies. Engineering represents a key factor in this supply variation. Over time simpler make-to-stock supply types may become developed into vender managed inventory solutions. The case reveals that engineering-to-order products are dependent on well-developed relationships. The studied supply involves accordingly features of engineering both product design and logistics. The importance of geographical proximity is vital in relation to logistics. Proximity is, however, of lesser importance to engineering.