Open AccessDecision Support System for Production Planning in the Ship Repair Industry
Author(s) -
Rohini Ahluwalia,
Denis C. Pinha
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
industrial and systems engineering review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2329-0188
DOI - 10.37266/iser.2014v2i1.pp52-61
Subject(s) - bidding , throughput , scope (computer science) , decision support system , shipbuilding , operations management , process (computing) , resource (disambiguation) , production (economics) , risk analysis (engineering) , operations research , business , engineering , computer science , marketing , telecommunications , computer network , macroeconomics , archaeology , artificial intelligence , economics , wireless , history , programming language , operating system
All ships and offshore platforms, however large or small, undergo scheduled or unscheduled repair and maintenance. The bidding process for ship repair jobs is highly competitive and global in scope. The ship repair industry is also prone to significant risks due to high level of capital investment in skilled labor, specialized equipment, and facilities such as dry docks. Several decision support tools have been utilized by the ship repair and maintenance industry with limited success. The focus of these tools is on mid or long-term planning. They view the system as various cost centers and attempt to minimize cost at each center. This paper proposes a decision support system for short term planning. It is oriented towards day to day decision making by ship yard personnel. Its focus is on enhancing system throughput and minimizing total cost. It utilizes a common corporate database to store and retrieve information and to generate timely reports for the management. By focusing on system throughput and overall cost, unnecessary internal completion between cost centers can be avoided, resulting in fewer delays and resource overloading.