8: Conclusion
According to unofficial information by a certain classification society, 10-20 percent of total new building ships are newly designed ships and the remainder, about 80 percent, are series ships.
It is assumed that only 10-20 percent of the newly designed ships are strategic ships with distinguishing functions and high level performance which cannot be substituted in the shipping market. From this new point of ship design, it seems that series ships have been almost achieved the perfect position.
Therefore, it is assumed that the game of differentiation with hardware is over. For that reason, the most important matter is improving the total reliability of ships by promoting standardization.
As standardization spreads and additional profits increase, we expect that shipowners will be able to receive delivery of lower priced ships which have the same level of reliability as normal ships presently delivered as series ships. We also believe that manufacturers and shipyards can also expect to reduce production costs by applying standardization.
At present, it seems that true differentiation and reliability of equipment is not evaluated correctly.
One of the reason why such a situation exists, I think, is the majority of shipowners ask shipyards to prepare low priced ships without the evaluation of the equipment's reliability and selects equipment based on the consideration of price only. This means that the evaluation of the manufacturer and the equipment type is not dealt with fairly and that price is the only target.
Therefore, one of the most important tasks that shipowners should take upon themselves is to determine their requirement for the balance between reliability and economy, since it is truly only the shipowner who knows how much reliability is necessary.
In considering the above situation, it seems necessary that the shipowner should supply equipment to the shipyards themselves or designate the manufacturer and types of equipment. Therefore, it is my opinion that true standardization is the most important and necessary factor for the selection of equipment.
