PT. Surya Kencana Shipyard is a mid-sized facility in Batam, Indonesia, operating 3 floating docks and 2 building berths. Founded in 2008, the yard handles 40-50 vessel repair projects annually, ranging from routine class surveys to major steel renewals and conversion jobs.
In early 2025, Surya Kencana was typical of many Southeast Asian shipyards: competent operators running on a patchwork of Excel spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups, paper-based safety permits, and an aging accounting system that couldn't talk to anything else.
The Breaking Point
The decision to digitize wasn't driven by technology enthusiasm — it was driven by crisis. In Q4 2024, three events converged:
A $2.3M project went 40% over budget because material costs were tracked in one spreadsheet, labor costs in another, and subcontractor costs in a third. By the time the finance team reconciled the numbers, it was too late to course-correct.
A safety near-miss occurred when hot work was performed adjacent to painting operations. The paper-based permit system had no conflict detection — both permits were issued by different safety officers who didn't know about each other's approvals.
A key client switched yards after repeated frustrations with lack of progress visibility. "We couldn't tell them where their vessel was in the repair process without making 5 phone calls," recalls the operations director.
The 90-Day Implementation
Week 1-2: Discovery & Configuration
The ShipyardPro implementation team spent two weeks on-site, shadowing every department — project managers, safety officers, procurement staff, finance team, dock masters. The goal wasn't just to digitize existing processes but to identify waste and optimization opportunities.
Key discovery: Surya Kencana had 17 different Excel templates for tracking projects, each created by a different project manager over the years. No two were alike. This alone consumed an estimated 12 hours per week in data reconciliation.
Week 3-4: Core Setup
Asset registry (all 3 docks, 2 berths, 47 pieces of major equipment), user accounts (82 users across 6 roles), vendor database (124 active suppliers), and material catalog (3,200+ items) were migrated into ShipyardPro.
Week 5-8: Module Rollout
Modules were activated sequentially: Project Management (Week 5), HSE Permits (Week 6), Procurement (Week 7), Finance & Invoicing (Week 8). Each week included 2 training sessions and a supervised operational day.
Week 9-12: Optimization
With all modules live, the focus shifted to optimization — customizing dashboards, setting up automated alerts, configuring report templates, and training power users who could support their teams.
The Results (After 6 Months)
The metrics tell the story:
Project Delivery: Average project duration decreased from 45 days to 22 days. Not because the work was done faster, but because idle time (waiting for permits, materials, decisions) was virtually eliminated.
Cost Accuracy: Budget variance on completed projects improved from ±40% to ±8%. Real-time cost visibility allowed PMs to catch overruns early and adjust.
Safety: Zero safety incidents in the 6 months post-implementation, compared to 3 near-misses in the 6 months prior. The electronic PTW system's conflict detection was credited with preventing at least 2 potential incidents.
Client Satisfaction: The ship owner portal, which provides real-time progress visibility to vessel owners, transformed client relationships. "Our clients now login and see exactly what we're doing. The trust level has completely changed," says the operations director.
Revenue Impact: Higher throughput (more projects per year) and better cost control resulted in a 31% increase in annual revenue compared to the previous year.
Lessons Learned
Start with champions: Identify one person in each department who believes in the change. They'll carry the torch when resistance appears.
Expect a dip: Productivity dropped by about 15% in weeks 5-8 as people learned the new system. This is normal. It recovered and surpassed pre-implementation levels by week 10.
Data quality matters: The principle of "garbage in, garbage out" applies. Investing time in clean data migration upfront saved enormous headaches later.
Don't customize too early: Use the standard configuration for at least 30 days before requesting customizations. You'll discover that many perceived needs were artifacts of the old way of working.
Six months in, Surya Kencana's managing director summarizes the transformation simply: "We can't imagine going back. It would be like going from a smartphone back to a flip phone."