Damen: Digital Project Management
At a glance
Together with Damen, we provided project teams with simple, standardized tools that keep project data coherent and consistent across all disciplines, without heavy IT effort or development costs.
Challenge
The large and unique shipbuilding projects produce a great deal of project data, which ends up in various tools, making it difficult to maintain coherence and consistency.
Solution
Low-code project management tools that are standardized, compatible with Model-Based Systems Engineering, BIM, and based on open standards.
Results
Teams are quick to adopt tools, incur no development costs, and have consistent project data across all disciplines.
The challenge
One-of-a-kind projects, an abundance of data
Damen builds large-scale, one-of-a-kind vessels and equipment, the kind of projects that span many disciplines and demand enormous technical coherence, from naval frigates and dredgers to luxury yachts and offshore platforms.
Because there are so many stakeholders and such a large amount of project data, the data ends up getting spread across various tools. This makes it difficult for project managers to maintain coherence and consistency, increasing the risk of delays in completion and cost overruns.
The real problem is usually not a shortage of tools; rather, the most effective tools require IT knowledge, which project teams do not always possess, and there is often no support within the team to maintain those applications and adapt them quickly to the specific requirements of each project. We see this situation everywhere in the shipbuilding industry and in other sectors involving assets, and we know that it can be improved.
Our approach
Standardized tools, proven across projects big and small
We provided Damen with ready-made configurations of low-code applications that were standardized, easy to use, and proven in a number of projects. Here is the step-by-step way in which we carried it out together.
Standardized, simple tools
We first used ready-made low-code application configurations, presenting them in a standard, simple format so that project teams could use them every day without incurring any development costs.
Connected to the wider model
Then we combined those tools with Model-Based Systems Engineering and 3D Building Information Modeling to ensure the project remains a cohesive, cross-disciplinary effort.
Reuse, built on open standards
We then enabled the reuse of classification systems, standard requirements, and product catalogs, all exchanged via open standards to ensure reliable data delivery.
Products, people, and support
We didn’t just provide the products but also the consulting and training alongside them, and if Damen’s own resources become insufficient, we can take over the work involving application management.
Scattered project data was turned into a coherent way of working.
Standardized tools introduce an element of order to complex projects, and the value continues to increase.
Tools teams actually use
Since the tools are simple and highly standardized, project teams readily adopt them rather than work around them.
Proven at scale
There are no experiments; the tools have already been tested by thousands of people on both small and large projects.
No development costs
There is no need to justify the fact that development costs have been incurred. Damen is responsible for paying for application management, not for building tools from scratch.
