Maarit Lappalainen: Digitization and green transition in shipbuilding industry

Marine industry across the Baltic Sea Region is under pressure to adjust their operations to become greener and more sustainable. Carinafour has developed digital material management processes and tools to support decision making, to create transparency, to reduce working hours, and most importantly, to decrease waste, emissions, and energy consumption in the region.

The Carina Assembly & Logistics System (CALS) is a system that promotes sustainable development and has a positive impact on the environment in many ways. CALS 3 system provides a digital solution that enhances supply chain management and field logistics and improves asset lifecycle management. Software helps companies to optimize the use of materials, reduce material waste and utilize more environmentally friendly materials. CALS 3 supports improving resource efficiency and environmental friendliness in accordance with Agenda 2030 and the goals of sustainable development.

Efficient material management in shipyard ecosystem

A shipyard ecosystem includes several turnkey suppliers, all with their own supply chains and various subcontractors, not all these always operating at the same place where the ship is assembled. Properly functioning material management system is therefore a premise for a well-functioning shipyard ecosystem. What has been challenging for shipyards, is that not all turnkey suppliers and their subcontractors have had proper material management systems in use, and the existing systems have not necessarily been linked to each other nor to the shipyard system. The material information has thus been scattered and possibly inaccurate along the pipeline, making it difficult to get a total picture of the supply chain situation. This has led to full warehouses where excess materials have been stored, since all parties try to buffer to secure the project execution. Unnecessary re-ordering of parts has occurred, due to missing information regarding the material availability. Also, there have been production interruptions due to the material shortages.

CALS 3 tackles the above-mentioned challenges by facilitating the usage of the same system by several turnkey suppliers. All of them can create and schedule their own delivery plans, which the shipbuilding project and central logistics operator can see and follow up. Thus, transparency and control over the material pipeline is improved. CALS 3 can flexibly support turnkey supplier’s material planning, supply chain management, deliveries, warehousing, logistics and safety in many different setups.

CALS 3 is a digital material management system, meant for controlling the material and supply chain planning and logistics flow. CALS 3 system has been developed to enhance the material management and to serve effectively the whole industrial ecosystem around the shipyard. The shipyard ecosystem is a complex entity thus, an enormous amount of data is needed for planning, producing, storing and moving different materials properly and timely along the pipeline. CALS has been developed to better meet the needs of demanding supply chain planning and material flow processes, and hereby to enhance the eco-efficiency of the whole shipyard ecosystem.

Fluent automated digital material flow enables even shorter storing times and more accurate deliveries, enhancing efficiency in production in the whole shipyard ecosystem. The system benefits both the material and turnkey suppliers; actors along the whole material management chain can execute and adjust their tasks according to the prevailing situation and timetable. Thus, CALS supported planning and material management system ensures a better control over the timely materials and their installation operations within the turnkey supplier.
Properly integrated digital material management system facilitates more accurate and transparent planning and production management. In practical terms this means that no excess material needs to be produced just to be on the safe side, and no re-ordering of materials is needed, since material production and information is kept updated and can be followed in the system. Thus, resource efficiency is highly increased, and the amount of material waste decreased by using CALS. If a centralized warehouse is taken into use, deliveries to the shipyard can be executed with full loaded trucks, instead of half empty trucks. This way even the transportation waste and emissions can be minimized.