Shipyard ERP vs custom software
The software choices in ship repair were designed for yards with hundreds of trades and an IT department. Most repair yards have neither, which is exactly why the comparison matters.
The short answer
Choose a shipyard ERP when the yard is large enough to staff a long implementation and needs estimating, procurement, production and finance in one enterprise system. Choose a scoped custom build when a mid-size repair yard needs the three things that bleed money now: live job costing per vessel, digital work permits, and dry-dock scheduling that survives change orders. The ERP is a program; the build is a project.
Industry analyses of yard operations describe the same baseline. Estimates, work orders, parts, schedules and billing live in separate systems, with staff re-typing between them. A meaningful share of revenue goes to process breakdowns. The enterprise vendors solve this with breadth. Their systems cover a yard end to end, and they earn their place in new-build and naval work.
Breadth is also the problem for a repair yard of modest size. A long implementation assumes IT staff, process discipline and budget that a hundred-person yard rarely carries. The custom alternative is narrower on purpose. Pick the two or three workflows where money leaks and build them against how the yard already works. Then connect them to the accounting system that is not going anywhere. Multi-trade job costing on long repair jobs is usually first, because guessing margins on a two-month vessel stay is how yards lose quietly.
Side by side
A program against a project.
| Dimension | Shipyard ERP | Scoped custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Large yards: new-build, naval, hundreds of trades | Mid-size repair and service yards |
| Scope | Everything: estimating to finance | The workflows that bleed: costing, permits, scheduling |
| Implementation | A long program with process change across the yard | Weeks per workflow, shaped to current practice |
| IT burden | Assumes dedicated staff and admin roles | Runs maintained, with a named engineer instead of a department |
| Compliance records | Modules configured to class and HSE needs | Hot-work and confined-space permits digital from day one |
| Cost shape | Enterprise licence plus implementation services | Engineering per workflow, then hosting and maintenance |
Shipyard ERP
Where it wins
- One vendor covers the yard end to end, estimating through finance.
- Proven in naval and new-build programs where auditors expect it.
- Class-society and regulatory reporting arrives as configuration, not code.
- Reference customers exist at the largest yards in the world.
Where it hurts
- Implementation length and cost assume an enterprise, not a hundred-person yard.
- Process change runs yard-wide before the first benefit lands.
- Modules you will never use are part of the licence anyway.
- Small-yard requests sit low on an enterprise vendor's roadmap.
Scoped custom build
Where it wins
- Live job costing per vessel and trade, without waiting for month-end.
- Digital permits with the sign-offs and time limits your HSE process requires.
- Dry-dock and berth scheduling that absorbs change orders instead of breaking.
- Connects to existing accounting rather than replacing it.
Where it hurts
- Narrow by design: it will not run procurement or finance for you.
- The yard must commit real people to scoping, or the build encodes guesses.
- Maintenance is a standing arrangement, not a one-time purchase.
- A yard heading into naval prime-contract work will eventually need ERP-grade records anyway.
How to choose
Ask what you could not answer last month. If the question was which vessel made money and which trades overran, that is a costing build, not an ERP.
- 01Choose an ERP if the yard runs new-build or naval programs where end-to-end enterprise records are contractual.
- 02Choose a custom build if job costing, permits or dock scheduling still run on paper and spreadsheets.
- 03Sequence them where growth is real: build the costing and permit layer now, and let it feed an ERP later if the yard scales into one.
- 04Choose neither before mapping one vessel's job end to end. The map shows which workflows actually leak.
Paper field records replaced at industrial scale
Questions yard managers ask
01What software does a mid-size ship repair yard actually need?+
Three systems cover most of the pain. First, job costing that tracks labour and material per vessel and trade in real time. Second, digital work permits for hot work and confined spaces. Third, a scheduling view of docks and berths that survives change orders. Everything else can stay where it is until those three run cleanly.
02How long does a shipyard ERP take to implement?+
Enterprise shipyard systems are sold with implementation programs measured in seasons, because they change processes across estimating, procurement, production and finance at once. A scoped custom workflow lands in weeks. The honest comparison is program against project.
03Can custom software handle class and HSE compliance records?+
Yes, where the records are defined. Permits, inspections and sign-offs are structured documents with rules, which is exactly what software captures well. We have replaced paper inspection logs across hundreds of fuel sites with signed digital records, and the same record-keeping shape applies dockside.
04What does yard software cost?+
Enterprise ERP pricing is licence plus a services program, quoted per yard. A custom build is priced from a diagnostic: an engineer maps the workflows first, and the build price is fixed from that scope. Scoping conversations cost nothing, and the map is yours either way.
