BOMA

Boat Management

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'After years of focusing on products quality, pleasure boat builders have realized the need to emphasize the after-sales market and their customers’ demands for products that are both easy in upkeep and environmentally friendly. Concepts of Product Lifecycle Management and Intelligent Maintenance can be applied to fulfil such requirements and solutions are available in comparable sectors such as the automotive or ship-building areas. However, these concepts have yet to be applied to the boat sector. BOMA intends to close that gap for the benefit of Europe’s generally small and medium boat building enterprises. BOMA is driven by the commercial needs of these SMEs and aims to increase their international competitively by establishing Intelligent Products and Service Extensions for the marine sector. BOMA will benefit not only the boat manufacturers and their immediate customers, but the entire value network consisting boat designers, ship yards, charterers, component suppliers and marinas. The boat market cannot be underestimated – with pleasure marine industry revenues in Europe totalling in excess of €23 billion, BOMA aims to support a very significant market for innovative European SMEs. The BOMA consortium is driven by leading European boat manufacturers supported by leading research and industrial partners in the fields of Product Lifecycle Management and Intelligent Products. BOMA will develop services addressing Intelligent Maintenance, Sustainability, Upgrades and the used boat market. These services improve all phases of the pleasure boat lifecycle – from enhancing design processes with knowledge from the entire lifecycle, through the usage phase applying Intelligent Maintenance concepts and technologies to improve safety, reliability and quality to the end-of-life phase by empowering sustainability issues such as increased reusability, refurbishing and reuse of used boats and components parts as well as ultimate retirement.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Boats are long-lived products well suited to after-market additions. An EU project helped small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) meet the demands of the sector by developing upgrade and maintenance services to be marketed internationally.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The European boat sector faces competition from manufacturers abroad, and is responding by applying the intelligent product/service concept to boats for the first time. The concept refers to marketing opportunities present throughout the lifespan of a product, which for boats is generally lengthy.

Facilitating such opportunities was the goal of the 'Boat management' (BOMA) project. The nine-member consortium ran for two years to November 2013. The group aimed to develop opportunities for European SMEs, by applying the intelligent product concept to leisure boats through existing technologies. The services developed address maintenance, sustainability, upgrades, safety and quality. BOMA aspired to a global market for its services, applied to opportunities arising from all phases of a boat's life.

Work during the project's first nine months mainly included analysis of the as-is situation of business and processes, and of the requirement of each SME. The project developed a first version of business models and key performance indicators. Combining the SME requirements and business models yielded requirements for supporting the information technology infrastructure. BOMA defined pilot cases, identified tools and methods for implementing the infrastructure, and developed a first draft of the system architecture. It also realised and tested a software concept mock-up.

The project's second period saw an updated business model, plus development of necessary algorithms. The team also refined the system architecture, comprising four components. Researchers developed, tested and implemented the Universal Marine Gateway for use both 'on boat' and in conjunction with a weather data interface. Various devices were connected to the BOMA architecture for testing. A decision support system was developed and integrated with the Lifecycle Management Severer. Complete system testing proceeded to the final beta test phase.

Project partners created extensive training materials for the SMEs. Dissemination and exploitation activities included developing a comprehensive website, promotional materials, and various publications and events.

The BOMA project yielded new services and technologies that European SMEs can apply to the boating after-market sector. Such opportunities lead to a competitive advantage for the European industry.