By Ira Breskin
BRONX, NY — Vessel Construction Management (VCM) received recognition at the recent Shipbuilding in America conference.
VCM refers to the practice of outsourcing the management of a ship’s construction process to a third party. This party acts as the owner's representative and oversees everything from design to delivery. They handle all aspects of the project, including material procurement and vessel testing before it is handed over.
The Maritime Administration (MARAD) has recently adopted VCM for acquiring new training ships for five out of six state maritime academies. So far, contractor TOTE Services has successfully delivered four of these five vessels.
“The aim is to deliver a newly built ship on time and within budget by minimizing direct government involvement and making the construction process more commercial compared to standard government procurement,” explained Charlie Papavizas, a lawyer with Winston Taylor in Washington, D.C.
Chris Clark, vice president of new construction at TOTE Services, mentioned during the conference that the next step is to broaden the application of VCM in commercial shipbuilding.
The conference took place earlier this week at the State University of New York Maritime College, where Empire State VII, the institution's new training ship, was the first to be delivered on schedule and on budget by TOTE, arriving in September 2023.
TOTE Services is also applying VCM in two additional government projects: building missile range instrumentation vessels and a new class of medium landing ships for the Navy.
Various ship operators and management companies provide VCM services, and the range of these services varies based on each company's expertise.
VCM utilizes best practices from commercial shipbuilding and incorporates commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components instead of military-specification parts, which helps lower vessel costs and accelerate delivery.
Additionally, VCM helps reduce unnecessary design changes and the resulting change orders, which often lead to expensive contract disputes.