Evaluation of the structural complexity of organisations and products in naval-shipbuilding projects

ABSTRACT

The complexity corresponding to the industrial projects and their management are concepts whose interest is increasing. The structural complexity derives directly from the main characteristics of complex systems, that is, many elements that interact, resulting in this structure of great importance in engineering projects. As well as in today’s world, the attempts of organisations to be competitive tend to increase differentiation (both horizontal and vertical) and interdependence. The final result will be to increase the complexity of the organisation. All this leads to the current interest to deepen the study of this concept. In this research, a review of the state of the art of the concept is made and a theoretical framework is constructed to establish and justify the dimensions of complexity in engineering, focussed on the naval-shipbuilding. After the discussion of an index of technological complexity adapted to the naval shipbuilding, starting from the integration of the knowledge derived from the development of the F-100 frigate program, a novel methodological process is presented to assess two key aspects in the complexity of these projects; organisational complexity and technological complexity. Finally, the case study of the frigates programmes developed by Navantia Shipyards for Spanish (F-100, F-105), Norwegian (F-310) and Australian (AWD) navies is presented and studied. From the fact those frigates are similar products developed between the 90s and the 2010s, the technological complexity could be assumed invariable and the increment of projects structural complexity is quantitatively studied through the analysis of organisational complexity by clustering techniques and complexity indicators of statistical network analysis. The frigates complexity evolution and its assignable causes are estimated and identified. This methodology is proposed to be applied to naval-shipbuilding projects.

KEYWORDS:

• Naval shipbuilding
• warships
• project management
• structural complexity
• organisational complexity
• network quantitative analysis

Acknowledgements

The research of Javier Tarrío Saavedra has been supported by MINECO grants MTM2014-52876-R and MTM2017-82724-R, and by the Xunta de Galicia (Grupos de Referencia Competitiva ED431C-2016-015 and Centro Singular de Investigación de Galicia ED431G/01), all of them through the ERDF. The authors thank the Ría de Ferrol Navantia Shipyards and, in particular, Mr. Carlos Blanco Seijo, for their valuable collaboration and provided information.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research of Javier Tarrío Saavedra has been supported by MINECO grants MTM2014-52876-R and MTM2017-82724-R, and by the Xunta de Galicia (Grupos de Referencia Competitiva ED431C-2016-015 and Centro Singular de Investigación de Galicia ED431G/01), all of them through the ERDF.