Smart technology to boost smaller shipyard productivity across Europe European small- and medium-sized (S&M) shipyards face specific challenges concerning product performance and reduced environmental impact. An EU initiative introduced smart technology solutions to tackle these challenges. Digital Economy Climate Change and Environment Industrial Technologies Fundamental Research © Alexey Seafarer, Shutterstock While small and medium sized companies form the backbone of European economy in many industry sectors, they face specific challenges related to the uptake and implementation of innovative technologies in their design and production processes. These are related to limited financial capabilities and human resources, low economy of scale, lack of skills and limited access to information and cooperation networks, all available to large industry players. To improve productivity of maritime S&M shipyards and their partners in the process chain, the EU-funded SMARTYARDS (Developing smart technologies for productivity improvement of European small and medium sized shipyards) project put together a catalogue of more than 25 smart solutions in 7 different technology areas. Listing affordable, robust and flexible technical solutions, it also identifies necessary skills and recommends new business models to help exploit solutions more efficiently in a cooperative process. Based on these solutions and specific needs of partner shipyards, the SMARTYARDS team successfully developed, tested and validated six smart technology show cases. For each of the prototypes, productivity improvements as well as the impact on the environment and health and safety conditions were assessed in detail. Training material was elaborated and tested. Apart from assessing the impact of the six prototypes individually, the SMARTYARDS partners estimated that implementing a wider range of proposed solutions in a company can reduce personnel cost and process lead times by about 20 % and 33 % respectively. The SMARTYARDS partners and outside companies from an external user group have clearly identified the potentials of a Europe-wide research, innovation and technology transfer network for the competitiveness of S&M shipyards and suppliers. The project has developed a concept for a sustainable network, as well as tangible instruments to support cooperation, such as templates for cooperation and technology transfer agreements. As most of the small companies are well connected at local or regional level, a network of six European regional maritime clusters was initiated at the end of the project, which will improve the access of small companies to innovative technologies, skills and competences substantially. This network is open for new partners and will prevail after the end of the project. Keywords Smart technology, shipyard, productivity improvement, SMARTYARDS, European networks
