Influence of Ship Design Complexity on Ship Design Competitiveness

Complexity is discussed in design literature mainly through its negative and in some cases positive consequences. This article critically reviews and elaborates the effects of complexity on competitiveness in ship design, its directionality, and magnitude. The article introduces a model for the measurement of ship design complexity and ship design competitiveness based on predefined factors. Archival data of 100 ship design projects from eight different Norwegian designers are used as case study. Multivariate data analysis techniques are employed to study the research model. The results show a significant correlation between complexity and competitiveness in ship design, where the magnitude and directionality of influence vary among different complexity factors. Our findings provide a basis for enhancing complexity management in ship design. Continual technology improvements and market volatility with its associated uncertainties have a significant impact on and partly change ship design customers’ expectations. To be successful in such a market, not only does it require the development of competitive products but also the accompanying work processes and the organization or firm framing the development of the vessel solution are involved. Ulstein and Brett (2015) define ship design competitiveness in terms of doing the right thing (effectiveness), doing the right thing right (efficiency), and with the right resources (efficacy) to cover product, process, and firm aspects of competitiveness. To improve their success, ship design companies typically tend to focus on the introduction of new technologies, and, in some cases, extra functional capabilities, which have led to large and complex vessels over the years. To a lesser extent, ship designers have put emphasis on the overall needs of customers. Securing a higher overall performance yield of the ship design solution than peer vessels out in the market is not a common practice among ship designers; they rather focus on a typical and traditional subset of performances. The implications and the consequences of such strategies in ship design have led to a growing need for a new set of design tools and project-making skills, a more extensive design process with different disciplines involved, and many iterations in the design development process.