Investigating the standardization of ASD Tugs and developing an exterior concept design proposal for future ASD Tug(s)

Abstract

Damen has grown to a worldwide market leader in tugs with their formula of designing and manufacturing standardized ships. One of the current developments is the change process from conventional product development with a project-oriented approach to a more configuration oriented development with a product oriented approach. From a demand to further improve the standardization concept, a graduation assignment was offered for the standardization of specifications of Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) propelled tugs. A design part was added to fit the interests of both the company and the student, which lead to the following assignment: “Investigating the standardization of ASD Tugs and developing an exterior concept design proposal for future ASD Tug(s).” An introduction stage in the subject was started, where literature and specifications were reviewed and Design&Proposal (D&P) engineers consulted to gain general info on tugs, activities and its components. The environment of standardization within the company and the role of the different departments (stakeholders) was identified. Different levels of standardization were identified (ships, systems, components and process(es)), where the fourth level is the design process of the first three levels. First, it was decided to focus on standardization of the content, before the specifications could be standardized. The specification of a ship type is the description of components and systems. Therefore, an overview was made in order to compare the systems and components of the different ASD tugs. Since experience and naval knowledge were needed to identify which systems and components could be further standardized, it was decided to further focus on the fourth level of the process and leave the results with the D&P department. The stakeholders were interviewed to get an overview of the visions and opinions of the different departments. These visions and opinions were clustered in order to identify improvements for the optimization of standardization and a midreport was made that showed all the results so far. The conclusions showed that the current process of standardization was under exposed (among employees) and therefore not working to its full extent. To complete the overall picture on standardization, different (design) processes and standardization initiatives were mapped to create a communication tool for the standardization process within Damen. The map of the current standardization was be linked to the literature, in order to conclude with points of interest. This finalized the first part of the complete assignment. For the second part, the design part, a qualitative research was executed on the stakeholders preferences on exterior styling characteristics and a research paper was written. The results showed that the future tugs should look powerful, fearless, muscular, proud and rigid. The mast should look solid, strong, not be too hefty, but emit more composure than the current mast, which is too slim. These results were used as a basis for the ideation phase. Partly based on a current demand for a new redesign of the mast, it was decided to design within the current production possibilities of the different Damen Shipyards around the world. One of the points of interest of the first part of this thesis was an improvement cooperation and knowledge transfer between departments. Therefore, different people from different departments where involved to design in the style of the current and the most recent designed Damen ships. Ideas were clustered and three mast concepts were elaborated into 3D-models in order to evaluate the concepts on the most important/influentual requirements. For the wheel- & deckhouse one concept was elaborated to show the influence of more pronounced exterior styling conform the stakeholders. The best rated concept was optimized during extra iteration steps. The final wheel- & deckhouse and mast were modelled in the 3D-model of an ASD 3212 tug. Styling characteristics found in the literature and in recently designed Damen vessels are applied to the future tug. The styling redesign can be described as less chaotic, have body, look rigid, powerful and fearless. The thesis was finalized with an evaluation on the project and product and with conclusions and recommendations.