This thesis examined how Design for Production (DfP) principles could be applied during the early design stages of one-off steel superyacht hull structures to identify key production cost drivers and support the reduction of hull construction costs by approximately 10–15%. Building on literature on Design for Production, cost assessment, and shipyard production processes, a structured methodology was developed to identify production-oriented Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relevant to early-stage superyacht hull design and to support cost-informed structural decision-making.
To address the research objectives, a mixed-methods research approach was adopted, consisting of a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase. The qualitative phase focused on the evaluation, elimination, and prioritisation of DfP guidelines identified in the literature. This was achieved through an expertbased multi-criteria analysis, in which guidelines were assessed with respect to their importance, applicability, and expected cost reduction (IAR). This step enabled a context-specific filtering of broadly formulated DfP knowledge, reducing fragmentation and focusing the analysis on guidelines considered most relevant for one-off superyacht hull construction.

Production cost reduction was found to be primarily governed by a limited number of dominant production-oriented KPIs, of which part count emerged as the most influential due to its direct effect on welding effort, assembly time, and with that labour intensity, and production lead time. Coordinated increases in plate thickness and stiffener spacing reduced part count and resulted in panel-level production cost reductions of up to 23%, which translate to estimated overall production cost reductions of approximately 10–15% for hull stiffening. These reductions were achieved without compromising structural integrity or quality, confirming that the primary value of Design for Production lies in supporting informed early-stage design decision-making rather than identifying a single optimal solution.