Within this section we will take a look at the core technology of offshore access providing firms. A lot of companies in the market concentrate on the development, construction and lease of high-tech offshore access solutions. Popular methods of transporting personnel offshore are: The helicopter, the Windcat workboat and the offshore access system, also called the heave compensated gangway.
The Offshore Access System
The offshore access system is a self-stabilizing platform that provides access from the moving vessel to a stable platform on the ocean. Six hydraulic legs work against any movement of the vessel brought on by waves, making the merchandise very safe and stable when compared with other offshore solutions supplied by competitors who use the helicopter to transfer personnel on sea. The bridge could be installed on location within eight hours and operated by a single person. The core technology used by the organization is the manufacturing process.
Classified in Woodward⤙s technical complexity scale, the manufacturing procedure for the organizations falls mostly into Group I. Since most providers of the offshore access system are young and emerging companies, which sell an innovative product, the organizations produce single units and small batches to customer orders. The organizations are characterized by a high amount of involvement by the employees for many of their operations.
Yet, the companies have not reached the stage of mass production; therefore every worker currently takes a complete knowledge of weve got the technology getting used. The technical complexity, that is based on the degree of the mechanization from the production process, is therefore between medium and low, as the companies use a standardized production process similarly, but didnt go into the stage of mass production however. Since the organizations are currently facing rapid growth, it might fall into Woodward⤙s Group II soon. Group II manufacturers are seen as a large batches and mass production.
As a consequent from the rapid growth, the businesses might highly routinize the manufacturing process and increase the production capacity soon. This will result in a focused understanding on specific areas of the manufacturing process by the workers, a heightened division of work and similarly a greater amount of mechanization.
Weve chosen Woodward⤙s model to explain the length of the primary process, because she focused particularly on manufacturing firms such as the offshore access providers on her studies. Moreover, we believe that her typology currently characterizes the technology used by the organization best.
