How Southern Wind improves project planning with Structr
Structr Use Case
Since its founding in 1991, SWS has specialized in the production of high-performance luxury superyachts. Each of the projects launched in the yard’s history has resulted in successful mini-series, each of which in its own way has helped to cement SWS’s solid reputation in the yachting industry.
Investment in research, product development and the latest design techniques have been paramount to SWS’ technological innovation over the years.
As a result, the yard is fully self-sufficient in all aspects of yacht production, from lamination and steelwork to joinery, painting and interior finishing.
Key Highlights
Key Highlights
A major challenge for this customer lay in the products themselves, because the yacht product alone is so complex that a comparatively high number of materials and requirements are associated with it.
When the term “luxury” is mentioned, it is immediately clear that this is a product that goes far beyond the usual. And, as if the complexity were not enough, SWS offers the discerning buyers of such a luxury yacht the possibility to equip their boat according to their own individual wishes. Above all, these individual ideas are in no way predictable and require maximum flexibility and openness on the part of both the project team and the underlying planning tool.
In addition to the bill of materials (BOM) itself, project planning and coordination between the respective responsible parties – knowing who is responsible for the respective part or section, exactly which steps are required and when what has to be ready – is an elementary challenge.
In order to manage the data, which was previously available mainly in Excel files, efficiently and connected on one platform throughout the entire project phase, the shipbuilder SWS was looking for a new, flexible solution for its project management.
The scalability and speed of graph technology, combined with the advantages of a low-code-based platform, convinced the company of Structr.
Overall, the big challenge in this project was to clean up the data model. Until then, data was scattered in multiple data sources such as Excel sheets, e-mails, and other software systems, and was sometimes labeled differently even within a single data source. For example, the responsible persons were stored in different files under their first names, full names or abbreviated names, which ultimately resulted in multiple data sets when the data was merged. As a first step, it was therefore necessary to agree on a common format in order to be able to clearly recognize related data as such.
In this project, it was evident from the outset that agility would be more crucial than the time aspect. The implementation of the new software across Southern Wind’s various departments occurred at different paces and with distinct requirements. This variability allowed Structr to leverage its strengths in agile software development effectively.
The graphical view of the Structr schema provided significant support during the definition phase. It enabled customers, even those without extensive development knowledge, to visualize how data was previously mapped in various Excel files. This visualization helped identify and address redundant or illogical data entries. Consequently, any “problem cases” could be quickly eliminated or resolved. Additionally, this approach facilitated the identification of new use cases for the linked data, further enhancing its utility.
As a result, Southern Wind has obtained a new, graph-based project management tool that is centrally available to all employees as a common resource pool (single source of truth). The data is stored redundancy-free on the basis of graph technology and is available in real time. The tool includes a clear overview of responsibilities and phases in the respective projects that is accessible to all. Interactive dashboards can visually represent the projects down to the smallest detail and are available to the entire project team.
To retrieve the roadmap and targeted information of e.g. deadlines, process steps and responsibilities, Structr allows filtering and sorting on lists, and swimlane charts to create a custom view on the data, on the fly, and therefore quickly find relevant elements. In the same way, changes in time or responsibility planning can be made directly, considering all consequences. Programming skills are not required for this.
Looking at the workload of employees, the Structr tool offers the possibility to visualize not only an overview, but also a forecast of the capacity utilization and thus to identify workload bottlenecks in time. This allows employees to be relieved when there is a visible overload and others to be more involved when there is a surplus of capacity.
Implemented solutions include:
Benefits
Testimonial Southern Wind
Working with Structr you have a true sense of a partnership with common values and a shared goal. We had no experience or expertise in software development, but a clear idea of our process and what we wanted to achieve. I found the visual schema invaluable as this was used to map our business model, internal processes and how data is actually stored all in one. As a communication tool it forms a common reference point between client and developer and facilitates clear understanding in a very efficient manner. Using the schema we were able to quickly create a data model that mirrored the design brief , but also accommodate changes and new features along the way. I found the process rewarding and look forward to extending the application with the team at Structr.
Results
All in all, we worked closely with the client to sort out, clean up and restructure in a meaningful way.
Visualizing the data allowed the Southern Wind team to uncover hidden inconsistencies in the data connections. The new perspective they gained through visualization revealed insights that drove clarity in the company’s structure and the elimination of redundancies.
The result is a database that creates a single source of truth of responsibilities and project steps and keeps the company clean, modern and focused on what matters. All data was named and assigned consistently. Dependencies were mapped correctly and data was stored redundancy-free in the graph database.
All project participants have gained access to a common resource pool with up-to-date information in real time and clear project plans. With the Structr solution, the SWS team benefits in many ways.
Project work is facilitated by the detailed interactive dashboards that visually represent the projects down to the smallest detail.
The system also features an integrated and easy-to-use user interface, filtering and sorting capabilities that allow users to create custom views on the data and quickly find relevant items and a custom database of standard data that can be included in new projects.
The company can build on this basis in the long term and well prepared for the future.
Would you like to learn more about how Structr was used in this solution?
Get in touch with Structr
We are interested in the use of Structr
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Axel Morgner
CEO & CTO
Call 0800-STRUCTR
+49 800 / 78 78 287
Advantages
Build individual software solutions in no timeFeature-rich applications in minutes with the flexibility and speed of Graph technology
Control complexity through graph technologyNo-compromise back-ends and front-ends optimized for each role
All-in-one software stack with all necessary toolsBuild real end-to-end solutions without any additional tools or services needed
