Shipbuilding: Oceanco's Digital Journey

Oceanco builds some of the most innovative and complex super yachts in the world, and increasingly its challenge is the efficient, streamlined trafficking and use of data. Jaap Kouwenhoven, director knowledge & innovation at Oceanco, is the executive at the center of making it all work.

“We are working with Shipbuilder in order to switch over from a document-driven to a data-driven approach and to have the right data at the right place and at the right time," said Kouwenhoven. "We are also adding knowledge to this data to stimulate colleagues to learn from each other.”

"Working together with Shipbuilder director Geert Schouten, we have optimized our ICT strategy. In the past we used Excel lists throughout the process and it worked well. However, after making the switch to the Shipbuilder derivative Yacht Builder, we were surprised that the software could identify inconsistencies in the information," said Kouwenhoven. "Add in the ever-increasing complexity of super yachts, I could only conclude that storing data in Excel was a potential risk. This is why we quickly took the step to a data-driven approach with Yacht Builder.”
 
Data for everyone, in real time
There are other benefits to taking a data-driven approach according to Kouwenhoven. 

“We work with partners in a so-called Co-Makers Alliance. In addition to the fact that Yacht Builder gives us real-time access to all data, our co-makers and suppliers will have soon permanent access to the information they need and can supply data themselves. The software provides a framework which streamlines and supports the process. This way, we can avoid working with outdated or inconsistent Excel files and increase efficiency right from the start.”

In addition to managing data, knowledge management is also an important subject at Oceanco. The company has two parallel knowledge bases. One to store build-related knowledge in order to adapt new insights and remove excess or outdated information and a second base (a Yacht Builder base) to store specific technical knowledge and provide it to the right people at the right time. This enables us to stimulate people to gain knowledge even before they start working at Oceanco, which obviously benefits the process. In the future, we will establish a smart link between the software and use the knowledge tool as an accelerator of our innovative strength through artificial intelligence.”
 
When evaluating software suppliers, Oceanco is particularly discerning. “We distinguish three levels: professional, expert and master,” Kouwenhoven explains. “A master is at home in complex situations and offers an easily understandable answer in challenging circumstances. This is where we find Shipbuilder. We had and have many complex software challenges to which Shipbuilder offers simple solutions. With the use of Yacht Builder we can keep pushing our own forward thinking mindset further.”

*Oceanco was recently featured as builders of one of the "Top 5 Yachts of the Year" as published in the January 2019 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News: https://www.marinelink.com/news/top-yachts-462080