Ship Docking Project Management: From Arrival to Undocking and How to Control It

Ship docking project management is the way you plan, run, and control all docking work from the vessel's arrival to undocking. Control rests on a clear repair list, a ship docking schedule tracked through milestones, daily progress reports, control of additional work, and one shared set of data for the shipyard and the vessel owner.

Docking schedule and cost deviations usually come from many small things: a repair list that changes midway, late material, work permits that have not been issued, or additional work approved by phone and never recorded. This article explains the docking project flow, what to control at each stage, and how ShipyardPro supports dock masters, shipyard project managers, and owner-side superintendents.

The content is general industry practice, not a fixed standard and not a guarantee of results. The order of stages, documents, and approval authority differ between shipyards and owners. To discuss your shipyard's workflow, contact our team for a demo or assessment.

What Is Ship Docking Project Management?

Docking is lifting or placing a vessel in a dry dock or floating dock so the hull below the waterline can be inspected and repaired, along with other work that cannot be done while the ship is afloat. Docking project management is the handling of all that work as one project, with scope, schedule, cost, quality, and safety controlled together.

A repair list is the list of repair and maintenance work to be done during docking, usually drawn up by the owner with the crew and superintendent and then completed with a specification for each item. A daily progress report (DPR) is the daily report of work progress that the shipyard sends to the vessel owner.

Additional work (also called a variation order) is work outside the original repair list that appears after the vessel is on the dock, for example damage that only becomes visible once the hull is cleaned. Undocking is when the vessel is returned to the water after the required work, inspections, and approvals are complete.

Because these terms depend on each other, a docking project is hard to control when each part lives in a different file. The repair list sits in the superintendent's spreadsheet, prices in email, progress in a chat group, and costs in the finance system. Good project management brings the four together so every party sees the same figures and status.

What Are the Stages of a Docking Project from Arrival to Undocking?

A docking project usually passes through nine stages. Names and order may differ between shipyards, but the general pattern is similar. The table below summarises the main activities and the outputs that should exist at each stage before the project moves on.

Two stages often decide the rest of the project: pre-docking and docking. A mature repair list reduces surprises, while confirming findings right after the vessel is on the dock gives the owner time to decide on additional work without holding up the schedule.

How Do You Build a Docking Repair List and Specification?

A good repair list starts from varied sources: crew reports, damage records since the last docking, inspection results, class surveys coming due, and maintenance schedules from the ship's maintenance system. If the vessel uses a planned maintenance system (PMS), work that is deferred or can only be done in dock can be collected from there instead of relying on memory. Each item should have a number, location, work description, standard or reference, and a responsible party. The clearer the specification, the less room there is for differing interpretations between owner and yard when price and work quality are discussed.

• Group by ship section. Hull and coating, rudder and propeller, sea chests and valves, tanks, machinery, electrical, and deck make assignment and invoicing easier.
• Use fixed numbers. The same item number appears in the quotation, DPR, additional work, and invoice, so final reconciliation does not require matching descriptions one by one.
• Mark mandatory and optional work. Items linked to class surveys or safety are separated from those that can be deferred if budget or time is limited.
• Freeze a baseline version. Changes after the repair list is agreed are recorded as additional work and do not overwrite the original list.

A baseline specification gives both sides a fair comparison. The owner can see what was agreed, and the yard can show what changed afterwards.

How Do You Build a Ship Docking Schedule You Can Control?

A controllable ship docking schedule breaks the project into tasks with start dates, finish dates, sequence, and an owner. A Gantt chart shows all of it visually, so relationships between tasks are visible: hull work that must finish before painting, sea chest work that must finish before the dock is flooded, or testing that waits on electrical work. In practice, the chain of tasks that most determines the undocking date gets the most attention, because delay there shifts the whole project, while delay on other tasks may still have slack.

Milestones complement the Gantt chart with clear checkpoints, for example vessel on dock, hull cleaned, main work complete, joint inspection, and undocking. Each milestone should have criteria that can be checked, not just a date. That way the question "where are we" is answered from work status, not from impressions.

The schedule also needs to be read together with its resources. Dock availability, labour, cranes, and material decide whether it is realistic. A schedule that is not updated after additional work or material delays quickly stops being a control tool and becomes an archive document.

How Do You Manage a Shipyard Daily Progress Report?

A shipyard daily progress report works as the project's pulse. Common content includes progress on each repair list item, work started and finished that day, obstacles, additional work submitted, material status, and the plan for the next day. Reports written by hand or sent as separate files make it hard for the owner to compare one day with another, especially when several vessels are on the dock at the same time. A structured DPR, in the same format every day and linked to the work list, is far easier to trace than free narrative.

The digital DPR in ShipyardPro lets daily progress be recorded directly on the running project, and the owner can see it through the owner portal in real time. The superintendent no longer has to wait for an afternoon email to learn the latest condition.

A few habits make a DPR useful: report status by numbered item, state obstacles and the decisions needed from the owner, and keep original-scope work separate from additional work. A DPR that is honest about delays is worth more than one that always looks green.

How Do You Control Additional Work and Docking Costs?

Additional work almost always appears in docking, because the condition of the hull and equipment below the waterline only becomes visible once the vessel is on the dock. The problem is not that additional work exists, but how it is decided. A healthy practice is to submit each item in writing with a description, photo or evidence of the finding, a cost estimate, and the schedule impact, then wait for owner approval before doing it. Work approved verbally usually becomes a problem only when the final invoice arrives and both parties remember the agreement differently.

On cost, owner and yard both need a running picture, not just the final number. The ShipyardPro finance module calculates profit and loss (P&L) automatically per project, so costs from procurement, labour, and additional work can be seen against project value while the project is still running. The CFO and project manager read figures from the same source.

• Additional work uses a standard number and request format.
• Each request states a cost estimate and schedule impact.
• Owner approval is recorded with a date and the approver's name.
• Approved additional work goes straight into the schedule and cost summary.

How Do Material Procurement and Work Permits Support the Schedule?

The two things that most often hold up dock work are material that has not arrived and work permits that have not been issued. Material procurement should be seen as part of the schedule: a requisition is raised from work needs, vendor quotations are compared, the purchase order (PO) is tracked, and goods receipt is recorded. Material stock visible in real time helps the team avoid duplicate purchases and know whether a task can start tomorrow morning.

ShipyardPro covers procurement from requisition to goods receipt, vendor price comparison, PO status tracking, and real-time material stock control. With that data, material delays become visible before they stop work, not after.

Work permits and HSE compliance follow a similar pattern. Hot work, confined spaces, and work at height generally need a permit before they start. ShipyardPro combines work permits (work permit or safety permit) and HSE compliance in one module, so permits do not get scattered across separate paper and their status can be linked to the related work.

What Does ShipyardPro Support on a Docking Project?

ShipyardPro is shipyard management software from PT. Automata Info Nusantara for managing docking projects end to end. For anyone looking for shipyard software or a shipyard management application, the capabilities below are the ones relevant to this article.

The full functionality is on the ShipyardPro solution page. A broader discussion of integrated systems for shipyards is in the ShipyardPro article on integrated shipyard management, and a comparison with manual operation is in shipyard information system vs manual operation.

For vessel owners who manage maintenance with a PMS, data from the PMS can serve as the basis for the repair list. How the two systems are connected for your needs is discussed during assessment, not assumed from the start.

A 12-Step Checklist to Control a Docking Project

1. Collect repair list sources: crew reports, damage records, inspection results, surveys coming due, and the maintenance schedule.
2. Give each item a fixed number and group by ship section.
3. Mark mandatory and optional items, then freeze a baseline version with the owner.
4. Request written quotations and compare scope, not just the final price.
5. Build the schedule with task sequence, owners, and milestones that have criteria.
6. Confirm that dock, labour, cranes, and material are available for the planned dates.
7. Record the vessel's initial condition on arrival and confirm findings right after it is on the dock.
8. Issue the DPR in the same format every day, based on item numbers.
9. Submit every additional work item in writing with a cost estimate and schedule impact.
10. Track requisition, PO, goods receipt, and material stock status against work needs.
11. Make sure permits are issued before risky work starts and are recorded in one place.
12. Reconcile work, costs, and documents before the final invoice, then keep the close-out report.

This checklist is a starting point. Adjust it to your shipyard's policy, contract, and the vessel's class requirements.

Common Mistakes in Managing a Docking Project

• A repair list that changes without a record. Without a baseline version, there is nothing to compare against when the invoice is discussed.
• A schedule that is not updated. An outdated schedule does not help daily decisions.
• An always-optimistic DPR. Hidden delays make the owner decide too late.
• Additional work approved verbally. Cost disputes almost always start here.
• Material tracked separately from the schedule. Delays are discovered only after work has already stopped.
• Data spread across many files. Dock master, procurement, and finance use different figures for the same project.

Almost all of these trace back to one root: project information is not in one place that every party can see. Bringing it together is the single most influential first step, with or without software.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ship docking project management?

Ship docking project management is the handling of all docking work, from arrival to undocking, as one project with scope, schedule, cost, quality, and safety controlled together. Its main tools are the repair list, a schedule with milestones, daily progress reports, and control of additional work.

What are the stages of ship docking?

The usual stages are pre-docking, quotation, arrival, docking, execution, additional work, inspection, undocking, and close-out. The order and names can differ between shipyards and vessel owners.

What does a ship docking repair list contain?

The repair list contains the repair and maintenance work during docking. Each item should be numbered and have a location, work description, specification, and responsible party. The baseline version is frozen, and later changes are recorded as additional work.

What is the purpose of a shipyard daily progress report?

A daily progress report gives the vessel owner a daily picture of progress on each item, obstacles, additional work, and the next plan. In ShipyardPro, the DPR is recorded digitally and the owner can follow progress through the owner portal in real time.

Can ShipyardPro be used by vessel owners, not only shipyards?

ShipyardPro provides a real-time owner portal so vessel owners can follow project progress. Project management, procurement, work permits, and finance run on the shipyard side. Contact our team for a demo that fits your workflow.

How do you connect PMS data with a docking project?

PMS data, such as deferred work and survey schedules, can be a source for the repair list. How to connect the PMS with ShipyardPro for your needs is discussed during assessment. Contact our team to schedule it.