During the manufacture of a modern naval ship, one aim is to maximise the amount of equipment, pipework, etc. installed during the initial build process. However, a significant amount of effort is still required to complete the ship during outfit. Ship outfitting occurs following the launching of the ship, prior to sea trials, and is the point at which all remaining equipment is installed. Whilst all of the larger equipment is typically fitted during block outfitting, there are still 1000's of equipment items that remain to be installed after the ship has been launched. At this stage, the challenge is to efficiently and effectively manage the many trades that require access in confined spaces. This relies on access routes to bring equipment to specific compartments, whilst simultaneously coping with rework due to late changes. This is further compounded by the scheduling of outfitting activity when the skilled resource is available.

The aim of the PhD will be to develop a tool and techniques to improve the effective and efficient paralleling of outfitting tasks, overlapping in the physical space, whilst maintaining a safe working environment. The result will be a time and safety-optimised sequence of outfitting tasks that considers the constraints of the compartmentation of the vessel, the availability of skilled resources, the delivery of equipment from the supply chain, and the prioritisation of rework activities. The outcome will be to safely deliver naval ships into service faster than using existing outfitting management techniques.

The objectives associated with the delivery of the aim are:

• preliminary review of literature relating to outfitting practices to understand the language that is used, what the nature of the challenge is, and a basis for the state of the art.
• on site information gathering exercise. It is anticipated that this will involve onsite access to block outfitting as well as conventionally outfitting operations to define the scope and boundary of the problem. Access to outfitting planning, exposure to planning of late-stage rework, and in-depth understanding of safety culture within a naval ship yard will be provided.
• secondary critical and in-depth literature review will be completed to assess the extent to which existing research addresses the needs of the industry.
• development of core research skills necessary for the project. In addition to the PGCert, additional training will be provided in relation to System Engineering Management to provide a foundation for the development of the student’s skills to conceptualise the problem. It is anticipated that the solution will involve some stochastic optimisation of a spatially oriented problem, hence additional training in that respect will be provided.
• definition and verification of the problem to be addressed. The "system architecture" of the problem will be defined, bounded and verified by key industrial stakeholders.
• development and validation of a tool to evaluate the sequence of overlapping outfitting activities in terms of programme safety, schedule, cost and quality. Where possible existing data models (such as compartmentation) of increasing size and detail will be used to feed the developed tool, and incrementally validate the approach. The tool will subsequently represent a digital twin of this stage of outfitting.
• development of an optimisation approach to explore viable sequences of outfitting activities to optimise safety, schedule, cost and quality.
• evaluation of output from the project in comparison to existing practices. Writing up of PhD thesis.

Further information

Interviews with qualified and promising candidates will be conducted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.