Abstract
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.
Keywords
E-SET enables multidisciplinary collaboration for geographically distributed experts to ensure a safe working environment for ship crew.
Ship owners and designers have traditionally focused mainly on improving efficiency through investment in technologies rather than the people working on board (Bhattacharya, 2015). Naval architects are primarily concerned with ship powering, stability, strength, and seakeeping, with less focus on the users who will operate the ship or details of the design and layout of the onboard work environment (Andrews et al., 2007).
However, physical environments influence how tasks are completed and the behavior of people within a space (Meshkati, 2008; Stanton, Salmon, Jenkins, & Walker, 2010). The design and layout of a ship’s onboard work environment has shown to directly influence crew work procedures, productivity, and safety, and poor designs can encourage unsafe working practices (Forsell, Hagberg, & Nilsson, 2007; Lundh, Lützhöft, Rydstedt, & Dahlman, 2011; Mallam, Lundh, & MacKinnon, 2015; Nielsen & Panayides, 2005; Orosa & Oliviera, 2010).
Crew are rarely involved in ship design and construction processes and generally see the structure only late in commissioning or when they take the ship into operation (Earthy & Sherwood Jones, 2010). Furthermore, many contemporary naval architects do not have the experience or knowledge of ship operations or onboard work demands (Chauvin, Le Bouar, & Renault, 2008). Naval architects rarely spend time aboard ships at sea and seldom have the opportunity of forming an understanding of the real working conditions of crew (Chauvin et al., 2008). Thus, naval architects are removed from how their conceptual designs are actually used in the real world and may struggle to effectively optimize a ship’s work environment for crew capacities and work demands.
Individuals with practical seafaring experience have a wealth of domain knowledge that should be utilized throughout the planning and development of new shipbuilding projects (International Maritime Organization [IMO], 1998, 2003). Utilizing a participatory ergonomics approach involving end users in the planning and organization of their work activities and workspaces leads to improved compatibility with their tasks and contributes to increased safety, productivity, and user satisfaction (Eason, 1995; International Organization for Standardization, 2011; Vink, Koningsveld, & Molenbroek, 2006; Wilson & Haines, 1997).
This article details the purpose, features, and motivation for the development of the software prototype E-SET (Ergonomic Ship Evaluation Tool). E-SET was created to facilitate participatory design processes throughout new ship development by providing a digital platform through which geographically distributed, multidisciplinary stakeholders can communicate.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) in New Ship Development
Naval architects use advanced CAD solutions to support and manage the complexity of ship design (Nowacki, 2010). This specialized software permits rapid computation, comparison, and visualization of large numbers of design parameters in a timely and cost-efficient manner (Eyres & Bruce, 2012). Because design and manufacturing have become increasingly globalized, geographically distributed stakeholders require closer collaborations over a project lifecycle. Various computer-supported collaborative design tools are utilized to facilitate management and knowledge transfer among distributed stakeholders. Examples include digital visualization systems, data exchange and management platforms, and social software for mass, wiki-style collaboration (Shen, Hao, & Li, 2008).
The ergonomics domain also utilizes various digital tools for design and evaluation. These predominantly focus on computer modeling of 3-D virtual environments and digital human modeling for biomechanical evaluations (Chaffin, 2008; Mukhopadhyay, Das, & Chakraborty, 2012). However, CAD and visualization software specifically supporting participatory design practices in naval architecture applications are less developed (Lundh et al., 2012).
Participatory design interventions traditionally consist of face-to-face interactions in which designers, end users, and other stakeholders work with differing types of drawings, models, or other shared objects (Andersen & Broberg, 2015, 2016; Broberg, 2010; Broberg, Andersen, & Seim, 2011; Mallam & Lundh, 2016; Österman, Berlin, & Bligård, 2016). Specifically, within ship design, physical mock-ups with varying fidelity and scales have been used to evaluate and develop ship designs and work environments (Lurås, 2016; Österman et al., 2016). However, it can be difficult and impractical to gather all the required stakeholders together for in-person meetings at the appropriate times throughout ship development (Chauvin et al., 2008). Because of continually shifting project schedules and differing stakeholders potentially located around the world, in-person participatory design development throughout design and construction cycles can be difficult to organize and execute.
To address these challenges, we developed E-SET, a diagnostic visualization tool that utilizes digital renderings of ship drawings to quantitatively calculate, map, and evaluate the movement of crew and their work tasks throughout a ship’s structure. E-SET aims to create a participatory design environment that facilitates naval architects, crew, and ergonomists to work together in developing more user-centered design solutions of a ship’s physical work environment from early design onward.
Facilitating Ergonomics Integration
Ergonomics applications are often perceived as secondary to an organization’s main goals, to be added if the timeline and budget allow (Norros, 2014). The wider value of ergonomics as a process for optimizing not only safety but productivity and cost savings is generally not understood (Dul & Neumann, 2009) and, specifically within the shipping industry, lacks economic data (Österman & Rose, 2015). In the competitive world of shipping and lean manufacturing, ergonomics applications must be strategic and pragmatic. This integration strategy focuses on two basic ergonomics design principles:
early and continuous integration of ergonomics applications throughout design and construction, and
fostering a participatory ship design process by increasing knowledge transfer specifically among three key stakeholder groups: designers (i.e., naval architects), ergonomists, and end users (i.e., ship crew).
These two principles are facilitated by a pragmatic design philosophy and technology focused on mobilizing ergonomics knowledge between the identified stakeholders, who must be directly involved during the system analysis and idea generation phases of a project (Vink, Imada, & Zink, 2008). In creating a platform in which stakeholders share common ground, tacit knowledge can be more effectively communicated and contextualized between disciplines.
Complementing naval architecture methods
Ship development progresses from basic design (also known as preliminary) to detailed design (also known as tender or contract), which provides a framework for increasingly detailed design iterations through to physical construction (Molland, 2008). The basic design phase involves development of overall ship dimensions, displacement, stability, hull form, propulsion characteristics, general arrangement, and principal structural details (Eyres & Bruce, 2012).
Mallam et al. (2015) suggested that the most practical point for integration of physical ergonomics and work environment evaluations is during the basic design phase, when the general arrangement is initially drafted and developed. General arrangement drawings reveal a wealth of information about logistical flow and node links between different areas throughout a ship. These links can be evaluated and optimized using task and link analysis methods. By knowing what, where, and how crew carry out tasks, designers can map their movement patterns throughout a ship’s structure and visualize those movements during design iterations, from basic design planning onward.
In practice, the construction of a ship’s superstructure can begin before detailed design has been finalized (Chauvin et al., 2008). As shipbuilding projects are generally multiyear commitments, and the construction of a ship involves many contractors and subcontractors, overlap between detailed design and construction can save time and money and can increase the efficiency of a project’s completion. For the purposes of the current software development and integration strategy, we combined the detailed design and construction phases, particularly focusing the software’s purpose and functions on basic design and layout of general arrangement drawings.
Once the design team has progressed through several design iterations, a general arrangement is created and specification lists of equipment and building requirements are developed. Shipyards use this information to guide their work; however, they are generally given liberties to complete design and installation details as long as requirements are met. Auxiliary equipment and system design specifications − such as electrical installations, piping, valve placement, flooring, and doorway and stair characteristics − may not be specified in basic design. These are generally organized by the contracted shipyard at the later stages of detailed design and installation.
Although seemingly minor design and construction decisions, these factors can have major implications for the finalized work environment and basic crew safety, particularly in creating slip, trip, and fall risks; confined spaces; and poor logistical connections throughout a structure. However, these issues cannot be evaluated during basic design or in general arrangement drawings because they are typically not created until on-site installation. Therefore, in reality, the finalized work environment is dependent on the knowledge, skills, and available resources of not only the naval architects involved in basic design but also the various stakeholders (e.g., shipyard contractors, subcontractors, on-site managers, construction personnel) involved at the time and point of installation.
Development of E-SET
Most ships are unique structures and built for specific purposes with varying work environment designs, layouts, operational systems, equipment, and installation characteristics (Hetherington, Flin, & Mearns, 2006; Stopford, 2009). Thus, creating customized, accurate representations of a future ship’s working environment in high fidelity is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve through reiterative design cycles. Similarly, detailed multidisciplinary evaluations of the work environment or site-specific task analyses may not be practical, as each make and model of equipment and installation configuration are highly variable (e.g., design of boilers from Company A versus Company B have differing overall dimensions, design characteristics, etc.).
Creating a virtual environment for early participatory design evaluation requires a flexible solution. We designed the software prototype E-SET as an auxiliary application for traditional ship CAD programs, utilizing Web-based platforms to enable participation from geographically distributed stakeholders. E-SET is a visualization platform whereby structural drawings under design are uploaded and disseminated for evaluation.
Two methods were used in combination as the foundation for E-SET: task analysis and link analysis. Establishing a catalog of crew work tasks through extensive task analyses provided the fundamental information about onboard crew work demands. This information could then be visualized and mapped onto a ship’s general arrangement drawings through link analyses. The combination of task and link analyses provides naval architects with tangible, quantifiable information and visual feedback, which can be directly implemented into their design work.
Creation and development of task database
Initially, we established an online database to organize key nodes and crew work tasks throughout a ship. The selected tasks were divided between specific crew positions and areas of a ship (i.e., engineering department, deck department, steward’s department). These tasks were identified through onboard ship visits and observations, interviews with subject-matter experts, and review of relevant ship operations documents. The online database, which we managed, could be logged into and viewed by stakeholders to enable them to comment on and provide input to its content (see Figure 1).
The online database organizes crew work tasks and physical ship location information.
In theory, there is no limit to the number of vocational positions or work tasks that can be entered into the database. However, as each crewmember can potentially detail hundreds of unique node interaction combinations throughout a ship, we took a systematic and hierarchal approach in populating the database. Tasks were selected and ranked based on duration, intensity, and frequency of execution. The creation of a generic task database can be built upon and customized for specific crew positions, ship types, and operational demands depending on the project and crew input.
Crew and equipment movement analysis
E-SET applies the same concept and function to work environment and movement analyses as Web mapping services by calculating and comparing differing routes, their characteristics, and travel time estimations. Once a scaled ship’s general arrangement drawing is uploaded into E-SET, node locations identified in the online database must first be manually identified and marked on the digital model. The movement sequences can then be calculated automatically and visualized (see Figure 2).
Graphical user interface of E-SET presenting a 2-D ship drawing with a single A-B node analysis – movement around the main engine.
Output metrics include distance between nodes (total and segment), walking time (derived from standardized data: 1.40 m/s), total number of stairways walked up/down, total number of doorways, and defined obstacles passed (see Table 1).
Example of Output Metrics Calculated and Logged for a Single Work Task
These metrics can be calculated and visualized for simple A-to-B nodes as well as more complex multinodal tasks. Overlaying multiple tasks within the same drawing can reveal high crew traffic areas and critical passageways throughout a structure (see Figure 3). Additionally, a function of E-SET calculates and compares multiple configurations of routes and nodal locations using the output metrics to rank design alternatives in an optimization process.
Visualization example mapping 20 unique crew task movements in 2-D.
Pragmatic 3-D analysis
Although users may tend to favor digital tools with high-fidelity graphics (Perez & Neumann, 2015), the time and resources required to create and update such virtual environments imposes a barrier for reiterative design processes. Low- and medium-fidelity virtual reality (VR), compared with conventional VR, allows for relatively fast and easy physical ergonomics interventions early in the design process (Hallbeck et al., 2010). Furthermore, lower-fidelity renderings are more likely to be developed reiteratively as a ship design moves toward increasingly detailed design iterations. Updating low-fidelity models requires less resource allocation and maintains a higher degree of flexibility throughout development.
E-SET renders 2-D general arrangement drawings into relatively low-fidelity 3-D environments that outline basic structural dimensions and physical characteristics of large equipment in the engine room, such as the main engine, auxiliary engines, pumps, and tanks. This rendering creates an opportunity to visualize the work environment from both a 2-D and a 3-D global perspective as well as a 3-D first-person viewpoint. Both the 2-D and 3-D modes are available within the same program file and can be instantly switched between perspectives.
Figure 4 presents the graphical user interface of E-SET of a ship’s superstructure presented in 3-D mode. Only the superstructure was rendered for this ship’s model, as this is the area where crew execute the majority of their work activities and spend most of their time.
Global perspective of a ship’s bow and superstructure in 3-D mode.
Although lacking full detail, low-fidelity 3-D environments provide the potential for evaluation of issues that otherwise would be overlooked until later phases, when they would be less likely – and more expensive – to alter. The strength of a 3-D rendering of a work environment, in comparison with 2-D, is the ability to better visualize structural characteristics, particularly space, access points, and logistical flow for crew and equipment throughout a ship (see Figure 5).
3-D side view of ship model reveals space and access characteristics of crew movement patterns.
Establishing a legacy and future added value
The development and use of a virtual platform for ship design should not cease once a ship is constructed. A legacy piece is created through the development of the database and virtual environment that can be exploited further by an organization after a ship goes into operation. Although outside the scope of this project, a virtual environment that has been refined and customized through design evaluations can be utilized further as a tool for crew, naval architects, ergonomists, and shipyards (Lundh et al., 2012). From use as an educational tool for naval architects and management on the importance of user-centered design to facilitating new crew familiarization, safety training, and the planning of onboard work tasks, this customized platform initially created for conceptual design evaluations can be leveraged further once ship construction has been completed.
E-SET Advantages
Strategic knowledge mobilization
From initial concept and financing to finalized construction and operation, the international and multidisciplinary nature and processes of new ship development is divided among many stakeholders, who are potentially located around the world (Stopford, 2009). Thus, ship development requires the effective transfer of knowledge to stakeholders of different disciplines, cultures, and locations on a global scale (Argote, Ingram, Levine, & Moreland, 2000).
We developed the integration strategy and methods of E-SET specifically to coincide with ship design processes and to facilitate the involvement of end users and their domain knowledge in ship development. Task and link analyses are powerful methods, but they are also practical, producing tangible information that nonexperts can understand and apply. Overloading naval architects with ergonomics information, theories, and methods of a subject that has so far struggled to gain widespread application is counterproductive. Similarly, the reverse is true: Providing ergonomists or end users with detailed work methodologies and demands of ship design is impractical. Presenting large amounts of information can be detrimental if users do not understand the value or purpose of the concepts (Alavi & Leidner, 2001). The strength of a multidisciplinary team is in its diversity and expertise in different fields. The challenge is to find a common ground whereby each group can effectively express and share its knowledge.
Demand for ergonomics solutions in shipping
Shipping’s governing bodies are taking a greater interest in ergonomics and user-centered design, stating its importance in contributing to a safe and efficient system (IMO, 1998, 2003). Although utilizing end users in a participatory approach has shown to have positive outcomes, designers can find the process difficult to incorporate into their work because of the increased demand of resources and effort above and beyond the traditional process (Kujala, 2010). This difficulty highlights a general lack of knowledge and support from both engineering disciplines and the shipping industry regarding the benefits and purpose of ergonomics applications.
Clearly, a better approach is required to successfully integrate participatory design processes into complex design and construction projects. Engineers view a lack of tools, knowledge, and time as a barrier to ergonomics integration in design processes (Broberg, 2007). Traditional engineering education curricula should be supplemented with a more contextualized approach, increasing the teaching of ergonomics knowledge and skills and the importance of end users in systems (Buch & Bucciarelli, 2015; Vicente, 2006; Wulff, Westgaard, & Rasmussen, 1999). Thus, the attitude of the end user and ergonomics applications become marginalized in the pursuit of achieving overall project goals.
There is a gap in both the strategy and technological application of ergonomics that is preventing its widespread application in ship design and the maritime domain. An obvious barrier for naval architects is the sheer volume of domain-specific knowledge needed to understand onboard ship operations, specific crew positions, individual work tasks, and movement throughout a ship’s structure.
In creating and continually developing a database and communication platform, onboard crew work procedures can be organized, visualized, and optimized through a participatory design process. Multidisciplinary, geographically distributed project stakeholders (particularly crew, naval architects, and ergonomists) can utilize this shared, commonly understood visual object to jointly develop ship design solutions. Now highly specialized subject-matter expert knowledge gained through years of seafaring experience, which would otherwise be unused, can be efficiently collected, organized, and customized in a database for both current and future design projects, facilitating knowledge mobilization and adding value to an entire organization.
Conclusion
New ship development is heavily influenced and driven by economics that demand lean manufacturing solutions with measurable outcomes. Ergonomics applications in ship design and construction must apply this same approach in order to gain long-term trust and buy-in from stakeholders. The concept for E-SET revolves around a pragmatic, streamlined approach to ergonomics integration in ship development, aiming to attract the interest of naval architects with straightforward methods and tangible design input with measurable results.
Ultimately, increasing knowledge mobilization and empathy among multidisciplinary stakeholders facilitates a participatory approach to ship design and the integration of end users and ergonomists within what is traditionally a predominantly technical engineering development process.