Integrating Participatory Practices in Ship Design and Construction

Journal article, 2017

Ship procurement is a globalized, multidisciplinary development process that demands lean manufacturing solutions for the highly competitive and safety-critical shipping industry. This article presents the software prototype E-SET (Ergonomic Ship Evaluation Tool), specifically created to facilitate participatory design processes throughout ship development. E-SET is a diagnostic visualization tool that utilizes digital renderings of ship’s drawings to quantitatively calculate, map, and evaluate movement of crew and their work tasks throughout a ship’s structure. This flexible and accessible digital platform facilitates multidisciplinary stakeholder knowledge transfer in order to implement and optimize user-centered design solutions in ship design.