Manufacturing
Shipyards and ship repair
A vessel comes in with a work list and leaves with a record that follows it for life, to other ports and other yards.
A yard stay compresses into a few weeks what a factory would spread over months: dozens of simultaneous jobs, several companies aboard at once, and a client whose vessel cannot stay a day longer. Documentation is produced alongside the work or it is not produced at all.
What piles up during the stay
| Front | What documentation it leaves | Who needs it later |
|---|---|---|
| The work carried out | Reports, measurements and tests | The owner and the next yard |
| Materials installed | Material certificates and traceability | Whoever inspects that equipment |
| Companies that came aboard | Their documents and their people's | You, if anything happens |
| Incidents and scope changes | What was approved and by whom | The final invoice, where it gets argued |
Important
The fourth row moves the most money and is documented worst: **during a stay the scope changes daily, and what is approved verbally on deck gets invoiced weeks later**. If an extra job was authorised in a conversation with the chief engineer and nobody wrote it down, the final discussion is not technical, it is about memory — and the payer's memory and the worker's rarely match. One line written the same day, with who authorised it, beats any later report.
What to have before they come aboard
- 1
Each company's documentation, current
The same logic as site access control, with less slack.
- 2
Who their supervisor is and who they answer to aboard
With several firms working at once, there is no coordination without it.
- 3
And each one's scope, in writing
It prevents work done twice and work done by nobody.
Watch out
What sets this sector apart from almost any other: **the record travels with the vessel, it does not stay at the yard**. What you hand over at the end is what the owner will show at the next port, at an inspection or at the next repair, possibly in another country and another language. An incomplete record does not inconvenience you — it inconveniences the client months later, and that is why owners change yards.
What is worth handing over at the end
Worth knowing
Which certifications each job requires, which inspections must be witnessed and what the classification society or flag demands depends on the case. **The owner, their surveyor or your adviser settles that**; here it is about what is generated during the stay not scattering across four workshops.
›Should we keep a copy of what we hand the owner?
Yes: it is your evidence of what was done and how it was delivered.
›What about a subcontractor's work?
Their documentation goes into the record too: the owner asks you, not them.
›How long to keep it?
Longer than the warranty; vessels come back years later.
A real case
The situation
A yard invoices extra work approved verbally during the stay and the owner disputes it.
What you do
- Records each scope change the same day, with who authorised it
What you get
The final invoice is argued from what was written, not from what each side remembers.
The situation
The repair is documented at the end and half is missing.
What you do
- Captures evidence as it is executed
What you get
The file completes itself.
The situation
Several firms come aboard the same vessel.
What you do
- Checks everyone's status before authorising
What you get
The whole is visible at once.
The situation
The owner asks you to evidence an intervention.
What you do
- Checks that repair's file
What you get
You answer from the record.
The situation
A part is replaced and there is no record of which.
What you do
- Records what was replaced and why
What you get
The vessel's history is true.
The situation
A review asks about work from years ago.
What you do
- Keeps the file with its date
What you get
You answer from the archive.
This article answers
- ship repair documentation
- work on board and subcontractors
- what to hand the owner at the end
- certificates for a vessel repair