2. Characteristics of Shipbuilding Industry

Shipbuilding industry has a very specific character as compared to that of any other manufacturing industry. Ship building involves usage of a wide range of equipment, materials and skills. The very size of ships makes it different from other industrial products. The huge size along with the required fittings and fixtures depending on the type of the vessel, it calls for a huge manhour requirement. It calls for a very wide variety of materials to be used in ship construction. As a very wide variety of materials are used it also calls for personnel with skills of various trades. It is not a mass production item, neither a show case item. It is a case of unit production. The ship builder gets only four inputs from the customer, i.e. the type of cargo, volume or weight of cargo to be carried, ship’s route of operation and ship’s cruising speed. Based on these, the builder needs to work out the entire design, build strategy, delivery schedule and cost of the ship. The ship builder also needs to guarantee that the vessel will deliver the required speed at the given loading condition.