Shipbuilding

We have two leading systems,” explains Sven Hendrik Vorwerk, Head of IT at Becker Marine Systems GmbH: “In our ERP system Dynamics NAV, we manage processes after the order, PRO.FILE contains all information up to the order confirmation. Master data is also managed there and automatically transferred to NAV.” All departments work with the PLM software, which has now been rolled out throughout the company. It is also connected to the project planning tool and exchanges information multidirectionally with the connected systems.

Tim Eggers is PRO.FILE administrator at the long-established Hamburg-based company. “PRO.FILE is the data backbone of our company and bundles all product-related information,” he explains. From the very beginning, the application manager has come to appreciate the ease of configuration as one of the key benefits of the PLM system. “You can create masks, fields and reference lists yourself based on your own needs, completely without support from the manufacturer or a partner.” Currently, the company is preparing automated invoice receipt processing with PRO.FILE. This will allow commercial employees to continue this process from the home office without interruption, as if they were sitting in the office.

The fact that PROCAD partner 3mobility solutions GmbH is involved in the development and provision of PLM functions via app made the company’s quality management department sit up and take notice in 2018. This is because Becker Marine Systems primarily works like an engineering firm: While the company acts as a manufacturer, it outsources the physical production, welding together of its rudders and energy-saving systems to external fabricators around the globe. To South Korea and China as well as to Spain, Slovenia, or Germany. These fabricators then deliver the products to the shipyard to the end customer, where they are assembled onto the ships.

“We are subject to strict international quality standards and have to constantly monitor compliance with them,” says Sven Hendrik Vorwerk. In regular on-site appointments, specialists from Becker’s field offices therefore carry out acceptance tests at various stages of production at the manufacturers. In the process, they check off extensive checklists, which until now have been exclusively in paper form. The completed checklists were then scanned again and sent to Hamburg, where the documents were manually entered into PRO.FILE. At the same time, the scheduling department at headquarters received an e-mail stating “Check successfully completed”. So it always took a while before the next production step could be started from the PLM system.

The wish of the quality management: In the future, these checklists should be able to be checked off directly in the tablet. 3mobility solutions GmbH then developed an app for the engineering firm with various checklist document types. They serve as a template and search criterion at the same time and can be supplemented within PRO.FILE as desired or existing fields can be removed. The previous paper form was adapted by 3mobility solutions and electronically replicated in the app. “Filling out a PDF on a tablet would have meant just replacing one type of input – paper – with another – digital,” says Sven Vorwerk. “But we wanted to add value and get at the metadata.”

That’s why hundreds of sub-items in the checklist make manufacturing details from PLM visible. After the inspector has checked off the individual boxes, the app transfers the completed check data, along with the photos taken on site, back to the PLM platform. As a result, the quality assurance department in Hamburg has immediate knowledge of the progress of the work. And, just as importantly, the company can read off important trends and proactively intervene if a sufficient number of reports are available. For example, “There are always problems with weld seams at production stage xy at manufacturer A.”

Eggers: “The decisive advantage of the solution from 3mobility solutions GmbH for us was the offline functionality. After all, there is not always Internet access on the factory floor or in the dock. The inspector can therefore check out the checklist from PRO.FILE beforehand, fill it out and synchronize it with the PLM system again in the evening at the hotel.”

Whether on- or offline: All real data from the inspection is available in the PLM system after a very short time thanks to app use. This means that the process can be continued more quickly, as there are no longer any media breaks or waiting times. In a further stage, the PLM is to additionally transfer its status information (“production is completed/accepted”) to NAV. In this way, the scheduling department knows immediately that it can place the transfer order and no longer has to wait until the external quality manager informs it of this by e-mail.

A checklist would not be a checklist if there were not usually any defects recorded on it. Until now, inspectors first had to manually transfer the items to be reworked from the internal checklist to a new list and then send it to the paver. In the future, they can have them exported automatically to the so-called correction slip – at Becker “Rectification Sheet”. The finisher will receive this PDF on the spot by e-mail. “For our inspectors on site, this is an enormous reduction in workload” explains Sven Hendrik Vorwerk, “it has massively boosted acceptance of the app.”

Following the trial use of the app on three tablets in China, South Korea and Germany, all 20 mobile devices used for quality management are to be equipped in this way quickly. “It is foreseeable that the use of the app will bring us a great advantage in the handling of technical processes,” says Henning Kuhlmann, Managing Director at Becker. “We are currently examining whether the system can also be extended to other departments, e.g. in Sales, or our Service&Conversion department, where complex repairs and conversions are organized.” Checklists are also used there. Sales, in turn, could still use a mobile app to create visit reports while on the road – assuming external sales activities according to Corona. Thus, Becker Marine Systems is advancing digitization in the company with PLM via app. And the quality management app will certainly not be the last of its kind.