Technology value analysis of the ship contract design value stream

摘要

Value stream mapping and analysis has been successfully applied to many processes in order to identify areas for process improvement. This tool is especially important for processes that span multiple organizations, a relatively long time period, and have substantial impact on the overall profitability of the enterprise or the success of a specific project. The critical importance of design to productivity has been established in many industries. Industries that produce large, one-of-a-kind products are especially impacted by the design. Shipbuilding is a prime example of this situation. Each ship design project typically results in one or a small number of products. The ship design process, especially in the United States, spans multiple companies. The process steps include concept design, preliminary design, contract design and detail design. The first step of the process (concept design) is typically performed by independent naval architects, working for ship owners/operators. Preliminary design and contract design are commonly done by the shipbuilder. Detail design is often done by independent naval architects, working for the shipyard. Even in companies where all design stages are performed internally, the organization of the work is usually such that the tools used and the information generated are not easily transferred from one function to the other. Thus, value stream mapping and analysis offers the potential to greatly improve the ship design process. Evaluation of potential technology investments to improve a value stream has primarily been without a structured approach, and without correlation to an overall business plan. The technology value analysis methodology has been shown to offer the opportunity to align process improvement and technology investment decisions with the strategic goals of an organization. Value stream mapping provides an insightful view of the process steps, and identifies where value is created and how it is moved. Based on this map, metrics to monitor and evaluate various steps in the process can be developed. These metrics can also be correlated with business strategy and goals. Then, the technology investment analysis methodology can be employed to prioritize improvements that offer the best return in terms of improvement of the value stream and it's alignment with business strategy. The combination of these two tools adds robustness to evaluation of possible technological improvements to a process, by both considering the overall value stream and the alignment to company strategic goals. This concept is presented using a simplified model of the ship design process as a case study.