Nauticus Construction has been in use for newbuilding projects in Poland, Japan and at several locations in China. The Norwegian shipowner Odfjell was the first to adopt the 'new' program.
This latest version is the result of collaboration between DNV and Odfjell using Odfjell's series of advanced chemical tankers under construction in Szczecin as the test case (a design awarded ship in 2003).
Odfjell's acute requirement for a distributed management tool as specified by Karsten Saevik, newbuilding manager, prompted a major re-design of the original program. Early adoption by Odfjell's site team and DNV's surveyors followed by several months of testing and improvement.
Based on a central database at DNV Software's Hovik data-centre and integrated with DNV Exchange, Odfjell's Szczecin site team is now able to collaborate in real-time with its newbuilding department in Bergen - increasing perspective and realising a considerable reduction in reporting.
Following closely on Odfjell's heels is the British company Graig Shipping whose Chinese branch has seen even greater benefits in the adoption of Nauticus Construction. John Coffin, Director of Graig China told Classification News: "We offer European shipowners an experienced and professional service in specification review, newbuilding design, plan approval, contract negotiations, newbuilding supervision, and most other shipbuilding related matters."
Graig's Chief Naval Architect and District Manager Wu Ye added: "We have designed and are supervising the construction of the Diamond series of bulk carriers at several yards in China; co-ordinating and balancing several site teams whilst keeping owners and financiers informed on progress in Hong Kong, UK, Norway, Greece and Turkey, is becoming a major callenge. With a contract for expanding into Vietnam in the near future, Nauticus Construction's centralised database allows all parties to access the same data at the same time and looks like the right solution at just the right time."
Commenting on implementing the programme, DNV Vice President Andy Westwood explained: "Nauticus Construction is used for all of Graig's Diamond newbuildings and we shall be looking at implementing the program for all other newbuildings in the region where practicable."
It is envisaged that the benefits of this new programme will be gleaned in emerging shipbuilding nations like China, the fastest expanding shipbuilding nation in the world and one of DNV's key target markets.