Euromind (2009)

European Commission
Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry
2.9 Problem areas
As stated on the first page of this chapter communication,
in the widest sense of the word, is a key issue
for effective global business and therefore a must for
our high-tech European maritime industry. However,
some essential requirements must be fulfilled.
The first requirement is the need for standardisation
on a European level in order to communicate efficiently.
Reference can be made to several national
initiatives like Net-S in Germany, Open Mind in The
Netherlands and European/International initiatives
like the European Maritime STEP Association and the
Marine Trading Markup Language (MTML). However,
a lot of coordination still has to be done in the field of
standardisation of technical, financial and logistical
data. Secondly, a European standardisation of data
elements is required. This comprises a uniform “European maritime dictionary” including synonyms and the
“grammar” which is being referred to as classification. Communication standards have to be identified in good
practice studies of shipbuilding supply chain collaboration using XML and standardised drawing formats.
The main problem is that initiatives on standards were mostly too small in scale and were not coordinated at EU
level. This resulted in “standards” of too little scope being known to too few people leading to too little adoption by
a sufficiently large body of players. This in turn leads to hindrance and thresholds for the application at European
level of innovative e-business solutions.
Foreword Introduction Issues faced by the
European shipbuilding
industry
Inventory of standards
supporting interoperability
in shipbuilding
Standards related
to problem areas in
shipbuilding
The current situation in the European shipbuilding industry in applying standards in the digital exchange of
product data is characterised as follows:
• Several national developments led to various member states applying isolated parts of standards with
resulting shortcomings in the national adoption of those standards in view of the international playing field of
this industrial sector.
• Different disciplines in the maritime sector (e.g. construction, electrical and mechanical) are applying their
own specific standards.
• In the different phases of the product life cycle, (partly) different specific standards are applied.
Recommended
good practices for
shipbuilding
Conclusions and
recommendations
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