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Guest Editorial: Shipyard Project Management

by | Jan 24, 2020 | Archive

By Fernando Remolina, Director, Projects and Planning in Astivik Shipyard,Colombia, and previously staff at DAMEN Shiprepair & Conversion. Fernando is the author of the book “Shipyard Project Management”. He also
manages the Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Project Management LinkedIn group.

Ship Repair projects are well known by these 3 simple truths:
1. It is impossible to gather all the requirements at the beginning of the project
2. Even if there is a well-done technical specs, changes will appear during execution.
3. There will always be more to do than time and money allowed by ship owners
The communication is critical in this kind of projects and that is why I recommend these basic meetings to be held during the execution of a ship repair project.

TEAM MEETING AT PROJECT SITE

  • Frequency: daily
  • Duration: 30 min. max
  • Participants: team or contractor supervisors, fire guard, project manager and others if considered.
  • Location: at project site
  • Agenda: Safety and Environmental / per team member: what was done yesterday? what will be done today? and roadblocks / Guidance of the Project Manager to the team by expressing the priorities and the critical path
  • Benefits: Integration of the team the team at the same place and everybody is listening what the other is doing or will do, and priorities of the project given by the PM.

MEETING WITH CLIENT ONBOARD ​

  • Frequency: daily
  • Duration: 30 min. max
  • Participants: Project Manager and his team / Superintendent and his crew
  • Location: normally held onboard
  • Agenda: Safety and Environmental / Activities from crew side: yesterday and today / Activities from yard: yesterday and today / Roadblocks / Guidance from Project Manager and Superintendent for the project.
  • Benefits: Clients understand what yard is doing and will do and the yard get important information from client to avoid interferences during the execution of the project.

YARD’S PROJECTS MEETING

  • Frequency: daily
  • Duration: 30 – 45min. max
  • Participants: Project Managers, Head of the Project Managers (or the boss of PMs) and a representative of other departments (safety, production, purchasing, maintenance and security)
  • Location: at yard’s offices
  • Agenda: Each Project Manager will report their projects about Safety and Environmental / Project status (% progress, arrival, docking, undocking, departure) / Critical Path and it’s roadblocks ONLY / Coordination among other projects. Apart, the representatives of the other departments will mention internal projects that could affect the operations of the yard to keep it in consideration.
  • Benefits: each PM can emphasize the inconveniences or priorities he has in the project that need to be addressed. The head of project managers can take decision on which project has the priority for the yard and take actions, interferences between. This meeting brings to the table a master plan and a master coordination for the whole yard.
  1. MEETING WITH MANAGEMENT: this meeting is based on the projects KPIs (Schedule, Contribution Margin, Quality, HSE, Client Satisfaction, incomes per day), where the Head of Project Management sends a one page report where Management can see the KPIs of each project and if some of them are in red, then a meeting is called to identify the deviation and management to help the project if needed.