Marine & Shipbuilding
Run hull blocks, outfitting, and repair availabilities on one system, with the records a class surveyor and the Coast Guard ask to see.
A hull is engineer-to-order work with a surveyor standing next to it. The drawing changes mid-build, the owner adds scope after the tank is opened, and every structural joint still has to tie back to an approved welding procedure, a welder whose qualification is current, and steel with a class certificate. WorkCell runs that as one record: versioned bills of material and routings per block, material received against its certificate, welders and procedures attached to the operations that used them, and inspection results captured where the work happens. Finite capacity scheduling plans panel line, blast and paint, and the fitting crews against real capacity, so growth work reprices and reschedules instead of silently eating the margin.
Shipyards, boatbuilders, and marine fabricators building and repairing commercial, government, and workboat hulls, plus suppliers of marine structures, outfitting packages, and shipboard machinery.
| Standard | What It Requires |
|---|---|
| ISO 9001 | The quality management baseline most yards and marine suppliers hold, covering document control, corrective action, calibration, and management review. |
| ITAR | Technical data for naval combatants and defense articles must be restricted to authorized persons, with access controlled and auditable rather than governed by folder convention. |
| DFARS | Navy and Coast Guard contracts flow down clauses on quality, specialty metals, and safeguarding covered defense information to the yard and down to its subcontractors. |
| NIST 800-171 | Controlled unclassified information in a contractor's systems must be protected across 110 security requirements covering access control, audit, and media protection. |
| CMMC | Defense work requires demonstrating maturity against NIST 800-171, which reaches the yard's suppliers as well as the yard. |
Plate, shapes, pipe, and castings are received against a lot that carries the mill or class certificate. Issues to a block keep the link, so a hull number resolves backward to the steel in each block, the procedure and welder on each structural joint, the nondestructive examination performed, and the drawing revision in effect when it was fitted. That is what a surveyor samples and what a warranty claim three years later forces you to reconstruct.
Mill and class certificates stored against the receiving lot so they follow the steel into the block, instead of being chased from the supplier when the surveyor asks.
The approved procedure, the procedure qualification record behind it, and each welder's qualification attached to the operations that used them, with expiry visible before the joint is scheduled.
Radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle, and visual results recorded against the joint, with the technician and the acceptance criteria captured at entry.
Added scope quoted, approved, and costed as its own line against the availability, so the hours and material from a tank opened after survey do not disappear into the base contract.
A tank is opened, the wastage is worse than the survey said, and a foreman tells a crew to fix it. The hours get charged somewhere and the steel comes off the rack, but nobody raised a change order, so the yard finds out it ate the job at closeout.
The yard knows roughly who is qualified to what. Continuity lapses, a procedure is revised, a subcontractor's welders arrive with certificates nobody checked. When the surveyor asks for approval test certificates, the chart does not match the joints that were actually welded.
Plate arrives with a heat and a certificate, gets nested and cut into parts for four blocks, and identification transfers only if somebody marks the pieces. Later, the question of which hull contains a questioned heat has no answer the yard can defend.
The panel line, the blast and paint cell, and the crane are all bottlenecks, and a spreadsheet plan assumes none of them. One late casting cascades into a delivery slip that is only visible once the erection sequence has already been broken.
Engineer-to-order structures with versioned revisions
Bills of material and routings carry a revision and an effective date per block or module, so a change issued at frame 60 does not rewrite what was already fitted forward of it. Changes supersede rather than overwrite.
Material certificates held against the receiving lot
Receiving records the heat or lot and its certificate, and every issue, nest, and cut inherits the link. A hull resolves to the steel inside it and a questioned heat resolves to the hulls it went into, without a separate traceability log.
Inspection and examination results captured at the work
Inspection templates and AQL sampling plans define the checks at each operation, and results are entered where the work happens. Failures raise severity-classified nonconformances with a disposition, and systemic ones escalate to an 8-D corrective action.
Finite capacity scheduling across the yard's real bottlenecks
The scheduler plans against actual machine and labor capacity rather than infinite capacity, and proposal runs let a planner test an erection sequence before committing it. When a casting slips, you see which deliveries move first.
Job costing on availabilities and growth work
Labor, material, and subcontract post to a job cost object as they are incurred, with added scope carried as its own line. A multi-month availability shows where it stands against the estimate while there is still time to act.
Role-based access over controlled drawings
Permissions are enforced per role at the data layer, with tenant isolation and single sign-on, so visibility of naval drawings and specifications is governed by the system and leaves a trail rather than resting on folder conventions.
Versioned bills of material and routings per block, with revisions that supersede rather than overwrite.
ProductionFinite capacity scheduling across panel line, fitting, blast and paint, with terminals in the shop.
QualityInspections, examination results, nonconformances, and 8-D corrective action against the hull.
WorkforceLabor captured by trade and operation, so growth work and base contract hours stay separable.
Estimating, engineering, purchasing, inventory, scheduling, labor, and job costing on one database.
APSFinite capacity scheduling for block erection, outfitting, and dry-dock windows.
QMSInspection and examination records, nonconformances, and corrective action tied to the hull.
MESTerminals that capture labor, quantities, and inspection results where the work happens.
Builds where the design is still moving while the work is underway.
Fabrication ShopsPlate, weld, and structural shops running documented, low-volume work.
Aerospace & DefenseThe same flow-downs on the defense side, under AS9100 and ITAR.
DFARSWhat the defense clauses ask for and which records WorkCell keeps.
What records does a class surveyor want to see on a hull job?
Approved welding procedures with the qualification records behind them, valid welder approval test certificates including subcontractors, certificates for the steel and components, and the nondestructive examination results for the joints surveyed. ABS rules for materials and welding set the expectation; the yard holds the evidence.
How do we keep track of welder qualifications and expirations across a yard?
Hold each qualification as a record tied to the welder and the procedure, with its date visible before the joint is scheduled rather than after the surveyor asks. Subcontracted crews need the same treatment, since the yard is answerable for their certificates too.
What does the Jones Act actually require about where parts are made?
A vessel carrying cargo between US points must be US-built, which Coast Guard regulations read as all major components of the hull and superstructure fabricated in the United States and the vessel assembled here. Foreign engines, propellers, and some sections are permissible. Confirm specifics with counsel.
How do we cost a repair availability when the work grows after survey?
Carry growth work as its own costed line against the availability, approved before the crew starts. Labor and material post to that line as they are incurred, so the yard sees the base contract and the added scope separately instead of discovering the overrun at closeout.
Can WorkCell handle drawings that change in the middle of a build?
Yes. Bills of material and routings are versioned with effective dates per block, and a revision supersedes rather than overwrites. A block fitted to revision C still shows revision C, which is what you need when a surveyor or an owner's rep asks what was actually installed.
Does WorkCell replace our CAD, nesting, or lofting software?
No. WorkCell is the ERP, quality, and scheduling system; your structural design and nesting tools stay where they are. A REST API and webhooks are available for moving part lists and quantities across, and QuickBooks Online is the live accounting integration today.
See it run on your parts.
Tell us how growth work and survey records get handled in your yard today and we will tell you straight whether WorkCell is a fit.