The Damen Shipyards Group was founded in 1927. From modest beginnings with a single shipyard, Damen has since acquired a leading position in modular shipbuilding based on standardised designs. This concept was introduced in 1969, giving Damen the ability to offer its customers well-proven vessels, very short delivery times and competitive prices.
With more than 30 shipyards and related companies all over the world, Damen is involved in new construction as well as maintenance and repair activities. In addition, Damen provides a broad range of associated maritime services. Damen has established a strong reputation for efficient post-delivery support. Damen shipbuilding activities include a wide range of products, such as tugs, workboats, patrol craft, cargo vessels, dredgers and even mega yachts and fast ferries. Product design and engineering are carried out in-house and a broad range of designs is available.
The Damen Shipyards Group was formed by consolidating the acquisition of independent shipbuilding companies over the past decades. Damen’s operating companies had a high degree of freedom in selecting the technologies to support their business processes. As a result, the Damen Shipyards Group has a heterogeneous landscape of systems and technologies, supported locally. Damen’s aim is to improve the Group result by establishing best practices and common processes within its operating companies.
An important step was taken towards creating transparency across the Group by establishing a common set of KPIs and creating a common BI architecture.
The first step in creating a common BI architecture was the implementation of a Quipu data warehouse for the Group and for one of the operating companies in Gorinchem, the Netherlands. Especially in this first phase, Damen experienced many benefits by working with Quipu. While the organisation continues to become familiar with the business models for analysis and master data management, changes in the data warehouse are frequent. With Quipu, Damen has the flexibility to respond quickly to these changes. Quipu has set itself apart as the tool that is making this project a success.
Quipu data warehouse generation software is used to generate the data warehouse data model, including load code to bring the source data into the data warehouse. Microsoft SQL Server and Integration Services were chosen as the database and integration platform. SAS software is used for reporting and analysis within Damen Shipyards. The data warehouse has a Data Vault data model. This creates a solid and future-proof basis for extension with other source systems data, without touching the existing data warehouse data model and data.