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What Is Advanced Outfitting in

Shipbuilding? POPULAR NOW
By Soumya Chakraborty | In: Naval Architecture | Last Updated on October 11, 2019

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In conventional shipbuilding, the ship’s hull structure is fabricated and erected on the berth or dock and More Than 20 Filipino Seafarers Tricked To Operate
And Maintain Ferries: ITF
the outfitting is started only after launching the hull from the berth. As a result, it has been found that the
process of first fabricating and completing the hull structure followed by outfitting the hull after launching
takes longer time. Hence, to reduce the cycle time and improve the productivity of the shipyards, the
concept of advanced outfitting has been developed.

All the modern day shipyards across the world have now identified that by adopting the concept of
advance outfitting the vessel building cycle time can be reduced and a substantial saving of costs, along Global Container Loss Doubles, Nearly 3000
with other benefits, depending on the availability of infrastructure in the yards can be achieved. Different Containers Lost At Sea Within 90 Days

concepts have been developed for the completion of outfitting in block stage to derive the benefits of this
methods. In case you might not understand what “block-stage” means, read on as we discuss the key
concepts of advanced outfitting technology.

Concept of Unitisation
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Even before the hull block is made, the outfit components (machinery, piping, seating structures, etc.) COVID Deaths On Ship
which are supposed to be located in a particular small area in the ship are fully assembled into a small
unit and when the hull block is made, this unit is then directly installed at the required position in the
block. Hence you see, in this process, the steel structure and the machinery outfit units are developed
simultaneously instead of a traditional process wherein the machinery and outfit are installed only after
complete erection of the ship’s hull. This process actually helps in reducing the cycle time required to
build the ship. Remember, in ship-building too, time is money.
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Installation Vessel

Block Outfitting Concept

Block outfitting involves erection of units of assembled components (a component may be a unit of a
pump with its seating and associated piping) and also heavy machinery (for example: boilers) on large

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blocks of the hull before the blocks are erected and welded to each other. However, consideration is
always given to the limitation of the total weight that can be handled by the carnage facilities of the yard.
The size of the hull blocks are accordingly pre-decided by the design department of the yard, keeping this
factor in mind.

By this process, the yards have managed to prefer down-hand welding because, the hull blocks can be
inverted and the outfit can be installed before erection of the blocks. As a result, the components
requiring overhead welding (for example: exhaust lines, ventilation trunks, etc.) can be welded by down-
hand welding. This is actually very fruitful because down-hand welding is not only easier than overhead
welding but also a safer option for the welders in the shipyard.

Also, open-sky access for erection of machinery, makes it easier for the production department to erect
larger machinery.

Group Technology / Concept of Workstations / Product – Work

Breakdown Structure
The terms above may sound new and complicated but they are one of the most fundamental and
interesting strategies used in the modern shipbuilding industry. The basic principle of Group Technology
is that it involves identifying the subdivisions of a product, which although may not be necessarily
identical are produced by the same process and set of operations.

Let’s make it clear for you with an example. In the engine room area of a ship, a unit can be considered
as a machinery component along with its seat and connected piping. The kind of work required to erect
such a unit, will be similar to that required to erect many similar units in the engine room area. Therefore,
Group Technology involves identification of the interim products or so called units, which can be handled
by the same type of processes.

The application of Group Technology to ship-building results in dividing entire ship into sub-divisions
based on the kind of work required to build and erect each division. Each division can now be assigned to
different manufacturing groups who are specialised to build those particular units effectively.

Such categorisation of the components required to build the ship is known as Product Work Breakdown
Structure (PWBS). Now, each type of component is to be manufactured in separate and specialised
locations in the shipyard called workstations.

The question arises as to why do we need such a grouping? The answer lies in the fact that this method
of grouping offers considerable potential for the improvement of the manufacturing efficiency of the
shipyard. Because each workstation is now specialized in efficiently manufacturing its designated units,
since it is equipped with the suitable tools, machinery and workforce required for the same. This not only
allows easier planning of work but also maintains a steady work load with increased performance of
operators.

One very notable aspect that we must take note of is that this method can now be applicable to develop
and manufacture the interim products of units for all types of ships that the yard will be building in the
future. Thus, the advantage of repeated work can be obtained in utilising the workstation concept in
shipbuilding industry.

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Concept of Zone-Outfitting
Before we start understanding this concept of advanced outfitting, it is necessary to understand what a
“Zone” is when we are speaking in terms of shipbuilding. A zone may correspond to a compartment or
even any integral part of a compartment of a ship, such as a cargo hold or a machinery space and
its sub-divisions. It completely depends on the yard as to how they define the zones in a ship to be built.
Even an entire superstructure or just one level (deck) of a superstructure could be considered to be a
zone. Hence, in a nutshell, a zone is a sub-division of a ship that is selected for the convenience of
outfitting either on units of hull block or on larger hull blocks or directly on-board the whole ship after all
the blocks are joined.

There are three types of zone outfitting practices, mainly dependent on the scale on which it is applied.

On-Unit: Outfitting on unit is the assembly of a unit of machinery or component or an already

manufactured product (which can also be purchased by the shipyard). But this unit is not a part of
the steel structure of the hull. For example: a unit can be a boiler mounted on its seat, along with its
connected piping, flanges, valves. This unit is first completely assembled, and then transported to
the site where the hull block is previously erected. The unit is then erected on the hull block as a
single unit. This is again similar to the application of the Unitisation Concept that we discussed
previously. But the point to be noted is that in zone outfitting, we are focussing on the zone of the
ship where the unit is erected.

On-Block Installation: Outfitting on block is the installation of outfit components (machinery with
seats, piping, electrical cables, ventilation trunks, etc.) after an entire hull block is completed. The
units are installed either as separate components or after unitising them (similar to what is
described above)

However, the concept of unitisation provides an advantage of fabricating hull blocks and unitising the
components to go on parallelly in the shipyard. On the other hand, the process of fabrication and erection
of hull blocks and then erecting the components would only consume more time, since in this case, they
are a series of activities.

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It is important to note that the decision of sequencing the outfit process according to the size of the outfit
components, machinery and the associated zone of the hull structure is a very crucial aspect of the
decision making process of the production planning department of the yard.

Other zones of outfitting include accommodation blocks, stern blocks, etc. which are separately
manufactured in specialised areas of the yard (or by contractors) and then erected onto the hull structure
as single units.

By now, you must have had a clear image and idea of what advanced outfitting actually is, what are the
concepts applied behind this production strategy, the reasons behind each, and how each and every
concept is carried out practically in any shipyard. Each of these concepts have been developed after
years of experience from success and failures over a range of shipbuilding projects undertaken by major
and minor shipyards across the globe.

But the deeper story behind this technology is more than what has been discussed in this article. We
must understand what advantages have the shipyards benefitted from, on implementing this strategy in
shipbuilding. Why are newer shipyards slowly adopting advanced outfitting and changing tracks from
traditional shipbuilding methods? Moreover, another vital question that can be raised is what kind of
infrastructure is required by shipyards to enable the proper functioning of advanced outfitting? It is these
issues that we will be dealing with, in the coming two parts of this series of articles on advanced outfitting.

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About Soumya Chakraborty

Soumya is pursuing Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at IMU,
Visakhapatnam, India. Passionate about marine design, he believes in the importance
of sharing maritime technical knowhow among industry personnel and students. He is also the Co-
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Learn Ship Design- A Student Initiative.

Comments

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What Is Advanced Outfitting in Shipbuilding? https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/advanced-o...

Ahmed Helmy says

APRIL 16, 2015 AT 1:08 AM

i Trained in this field in HZ ship yard (Hudong_Zhonghua shipbuilding group Co.) in china and i
read last letter is very good view knowledge in modern ship building mode ( zone – aria mode)
and i have more knowledge about this object sent me message if want anything related this
object

saleemdj says
OCTOBER 26, 2015 AT 8:47 AM

thank you so much, i get all information i needed. you helping me to finish my assay

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