South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s largest shipbuilder, is pioneering into the field of smart shipbuilding, an area that has not been attempted by its leading peers for its complexity.

Maeil Business Newspaper on Wednesday made a visit to a control center of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ 636-square-meter shipyard in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province. A large screen there showed real-time movements of the company’s shipyard. It showed a 109-meter-tall crane moving a ship block weighing 1,000 tons and a nearby transporter carrying a large block.

The shipbuilder established a digital twin, or a virtual representation, of a real-life shipyard based on real-time data.

The smart shipyard is part of a project named “Future of Shipyard” carried out by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. A smart shipyard is an area that has not been attempted by even the world’s largest shipbuilders. Converting into a smart factory is relatively easy for the semiconductor and home appliances sectors where production facilities are located inside. It is possible to stably aggregate process and inventory status by simply installing facilities for data collection.

In the shipbuilding sector, however, processes are performed outdoors such as docks where blocks are assembled to build ships, quay walls where finishing work such as assembly and painting is performed, and large cranes in addition to various indoor spaces such as facilities for processing, block building, assembly, and painting. Given the circumstances, it is not easy to build a facility network required to secure data.

“We are extensively building Internet of Things (IoT) facilities in the indoor and outdoor spaces of shipyards,” said Park Do-yu, a manager of shipbuilding and marine digital innovation at HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.

“It is a super-scale project incomparable to other smart plants in the manufacturing sector.”

Park added that the status of each block as well as ship-specific process rate can be identified in real time.



There are about 1,500 blocks in the process line at the company’s Ulsan shipyard. When the cursor is moved on the large screen of the control center to click one of the blocks, various information appears, such as the process rate, unique numbers of each ship where the blocks go, vessel types, and the name of the manager.

The status of work in the dock, a key step in ship construction, is shown in a three-dimensional display. A dock, or dockyard, refers to a space for shipbuilding in the shape of a canal made by digging deep into the land inside the shipyard.

The progress is measured in detail as the processes in completion are displayed in green and those in process in gray. It usually takes about two years to build a ship, and the control center offers an at-a-glance view of each step of the process from groundbreaking to launch, commissioning, and delivery. A delay in the process is also informed through a warning message.

IoT sensors enable data collection that is densely connected to various production facilities and equipment.

A crane, for example, has sensors for pressures, noises, vibration, and the global positioning system (GPS) installed. Vibration outside the normal range sets off an alarm so that repairs can take place preemptively, which means predictive maintenance can be performed before an actual failure occurs.

The developments at the Ulsan shipyard are transmitted to the Global R&D Center (GRC) in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, which is the headquarters of the holding company HD Hyundai Co., which facilitates effective coordination based on real-time data of Ulsan Shipyard. The digital twin screen of the shipyard is also installed at the office of Chung Ki-sun, chief executive officer of HD Hyundai.

By Oh Soo-hyun and Choi Jieun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]