Innovation and engineering maturity analysis - increasing preparedness in the finnish marine cluster

The world shipbuilding market and capacity distribution is currently undergoing a radical change. China has set its target to be the leading shipbuilding nation by 2015. The past two decades saw an immense boom in cruise liner production in Europe. The current economic downturn hit the shipbuilding industry with its full strength. Newbuilding orders have dropped to almost zero and the yards and the European marine industry are facing large restructuring. In order to be prepared for the future, design companies and engineering consultants needed to assess their innovation, engineering and collaboration maturity. It is fundamental for companies to position themselves in the branch and continuously invest in increasing their capability and competence. This paper proposes a maturity analysis based methodology and an analysis tool to building preparedness for the industry branch for the next upswing.