Towards the Internet-based supply chain management for the ship repair industry

Abstract

Abstract A current trend of companies in the manufacturing industry is to operate globally in order to expand the limits of their business and integrate their operations with these of their business partners. The growth of the Internet and the software technologies that arise from it provides the means for this globalization. In this paper, we examine the problems arising from the integration of partners, who use heterogeneous information systems. The paper deals particularly with the ship repair industry as a case study of these problems and their solution. In this work, we demonstrate how modern information technology can support the communication of different partners and enable the information flow within the value added chain. Moreover, we describe how the performance of a supply chain can be improved by applying a generic hierarchical model though the appropriate planning of the critical manufacturing operations. Acknowledgements The work discussed in this paper was partially funded by the European Union MARVIN project (EP: 29049) and the SYRIOS project (EP: 26924). We would like to express our gratitude to the participating partners for the their input. Partners in the MARVIN project are: Det Norske Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd, Universitetet I Oslo—Institutt For Rettsinformatikk, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Saarland—Institute for Business Information Systems, Lisnave Estaleiros Navais, University of Patras—Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Marenostrum, Spectec/Xantic, Neorio—New Syros Shipyards. Partners in the SYRIOS project are: AWES Interyard Co-operation Group on Shiprepair, Cammell Laird, Dunston Ship Repairers, Intrasoft, Neorio—New Syros Shipyards, Newcastle University, Tribon Solutions, University of Patras—Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Viana do Castelo shipyard.