Reducing the Cost of Ship Maintenance and Repair Available to Purchase

In July 2011, the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP)awarded the project entitled “Reduction of Total Ownership Costs Through Application of Design For Maintenance (DFM) and Repair Methodologies Project” a collaborative shipyard-led research project, supported by Bollinger Shipyards(Prime), BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards, Vigor Shipyards, the Trident Refit Facility in Kingsbay, GA, General Dynamics Electric Boat, General Dynamics NASSCO, and the Naval Center for Cost Analysis at NSWC-Carderock. Through this customer-centric project, nearly 40 DFM workshops were held with the deck-plate repairers at public and private shipyards across the US to identify major maintenance cost drivers, maintenance cost reduction opportunities, and deliver design rules to reduce total ownership costs to ship owners based on Design for Maintainability (DFM) principles. This paper will provide an understanding of the process used to develop the DFM information and will discuss the DFM principles applied and highlight the “good practice” design rules that resulted from this effort. The paper will also describe the Cost Benefit Analysis process and templates developed through the project, along with provide an appreciation of the potential cost benefits associated with the implementation of DFM principles. The DFM database, also developed through the project, with over 1000+ repair-based cost reduction strategies will also be highlighted.