Efficient Retrofitting - How planning tools and reverse engineering methodologies can improve repair shipyards' performance

Many old ships do not fulfil the economical and environmental modern standards. By retrofitting these ships with new technologies, the efficiency and the environmental footprint could be effectively improved. At the same time, a ship’s downtime – for whatever reason – should be as short as necessary from a profitability point of view. Thus, shipyard stays for retrofitting should not take longer than absolutely necessary. Shipyards doing retrofitting need powerful customised methodologies and tools to remain competitive. To this aim, a simulation tool dedicated to support planning and scheduling activities is being developed and assessed in the ongoing European projects RETROFIT and GRIP. In addition, reverse engineering methodologies are being made available to support the retrieval of required product information like geometry or product breakdown.