Professor: prof.ir. S. Hengst

Shipyard production technology deals with:

The description of a number of products manufactured in the shipbuilding and offshore industry.

A number of characteristic features of these products.

• The analysis of products, insofar as they are of interest to the production process.

• Possibilities to come to product development of one's own.

The production process is usually characterized by a more or less established approach to hull construction. The description of this process includes the various operations and the way they are interrelated. The product's characteristics affecting the production process are discussed. Some extreme examples:

A product that is entirely designed and drawn by the company, which also buys all of the materials. In doing so, the company bears full responsibility for the quality, time of delivery and compliance with the specified requirements as to dimensions, cargo capacity, speed, fuel consumption, etc.

A product for which the customer supplies the design and all of the materials (steel included) and the company's responsibility restricts itself to the supplying of the right quality and time of delivery as specified at the moment of signing the contract.

There are differences in the handling of the production process.

Some examples:

• Operating procedure in production rooms.

• Manpower and working methods of the purchasing departments.

• Handling the flow of materials.

• Working methods during production planning.

• Materials storage and sorting.

• Controlling the manufacturing procedures.

• Commercial settlement, etc., etc.

All this implies the building up of knowledge on the interrelations between product, means of production, manufacturing process, methods for controlling the manufacturing process, social relations, planning, strategy, marketing & sales, management techniques; all this specifically geared to activities in the shipbuilding and offshore industry.

When setting up the research programmes, their contents are geared to the anticipated developments in het shipbuilding and offshore industry. In doing so, it is necessary to be correlated with other sections, also with sections from outside the faculty. For the greater part, this research is aimed at improving the Dutch shipbuilding industry=s competitive position by means of, among other things:

• Developing products of one's own.

• Possibilities for improving motivation within companies.

• Improvements in planning and organization.

• Possibilities for improving productivity.

• CAM.

Within the framework of the above, specific courses are held in a number of subsectors and research in these fields is initiated in cooperation with third parties.

The significance of subjects, such as inland waterway shipping, repairs, salvage and offshore needs no further explanation. In the manufacturing technology of heavy constructions CAM and robotics go hand in hand. The following subjects are discussed:

• Inland waterway shipping.

• Launching.

• Repairs and salvage.

• Offshore manufacturing and installation at sea.

• Robotics.

• CAD/CAM.

During the completion of one's studies, it is sensible to include a number of courses in the following fields. The definitive selection takes place in consultation with one's supervisor.

• Industrial and organizational psychology*

• Industrial organization (bb3, bb4 or bb5)*

• Transport, routing and scheduling*

• Planning techniques

• Project management

• Financial management*

• Operations research*

• Robotics

• Materials science

• Plastics

• Processing techniques and welding*

• Data systems*

• Data-base management

Because of the great supply at the faculties, a carefully considered course programme is drawn up allowing for a smooth progress in one's studies.
Subjects with an * are more or less compulsory.
Students with a specific interest can draw up a course programme geared to their particular field of interest.