Offshore and Marine projects are generally large scale and their production is spread over several years. The planning of these projects is therefore diverse, and covers a wide range of activities. The cost implication is also very huge and risky and critical of management control over the overall design and construction phase. Cost, material, logistic and resources control are going to be very dynamic in such kind of projects.
Several levels of planning are usually identified.
Corporate Planning, which looks at the long term future of the whole company. A corporate plan may look five years ahead, and include major investment plans, product changes and other important issues. It is usual for the planning of a marine project to be done within the framework set by the Corporate Plan. In some cases, where small ships are built in a generally shorter timescale or in the case of repair and conversion companies, the Corporate Plan may have a shorter timescale. But there should be some idea of where the company is heading
For a company engaged in a number of offshore marine projects, the corporate plan may need to correspond to some recognisable programme management. Selection of the most appropriate projects and their co-ordination is important.
Strategic Planning, covering the duration of a project :
The strategic plan for a project has a timescale determined by the timescale of the project. For a typical ship this is about two years as the time between contract and delivery. Again the plan may have a longer or shorter duration depending on the project size.
Strategic planning is essentially a network plan for the construction of the ship (which may be likened to a civil engineering project in that it takes place usually on a fixed site to which the parts of the ship are moved.
Tactical Planning, covering the next few months in a department :
At this level the focus moves from a network plan to departments, which may be organised on batch or flow production lines. The tactical plan is a response to the demands set by the strategic plan. The tactical plan often includes work for several projects which are running in parallel.
Detailed Planning, covering the next few weeks for a work station :
The detailed plan is essentially a schedule for the individual work stations. This attempts to strike a balance between the internal efficiency of the work station activities and the need to produce parts and other items to a timetable which will allow the overall project timescale to be maintained.
The project plan is not limited to the production activities, but must also include technical elements, curement and other pre-production functions.
In order for a offshore or marine vessel to be produced, a number of key questions need to be answered.
What is to be produced?
When is it to be produced?
Where is it to be produced?
With what resources?
How will it be produced?
The production of a marine or offshore vessel depends on the generation of a large set of information. Historically, technical departments were concerned primarily with function, and other information was developed within the production departments.
Now most of the information is developed within technical and other departments,and must be included in the project planning and management process. The Korea and China yards are now applying Mega blocks concept to speeding up their construction processes and thus shortening the project lead time compared to other developing countries yards.
MAR8102 Marine Proj Mgt Post School
No comments:
Post a Comment