Technical and cost model for slipway development

Abstract

In recent years, the discussion and progression of slipway construction in Malaysia is developing extensively due to the growth of the fleets registered in the country. In conjunction with the slipway constructions, it is crucial for the developer to have an early estimation of the principal dimensions of the slipway as well as the final cost since the development of the slipway involves a huge cost. The technical and cost estimation tools are oftenly used by the key person in the project management team to identify the technical feature and cost involved in slipway construction project. Therefore, this research is aimed at developing a model to identify the principal dimensions of the slipway including length, breadth, maximum capacity, angle, cradle size and construction cost. The technical and cost model developed can be used as a tool to support the developer in performing the decision making during the pre-design stage of the slipway development project. The model was developed by performing regression analysis to the collected historical data from the previous slipway projects in Malaysia. A total of thirteen (13) mathematical equations to identify the slipways’ principal dimension and construction cost has been successfully generated. An excel package for technical and cost model have also been developed. The package has been verified by substituting the historical data in order to determine the limitations of the package. The technical and cost model package was deemed appropriate for the slipways with capacity between 277 tones to 3363 tones. At the end of the research, the package has been tested to determine the accuracy of the output was validated by comparing the results against the real world data from slipway Kuala Linggi project. The highest error found was only 13.1% for the slipway length variables, showing that the package resembles the real world data. Therefore, the technical and cost model developed is considered relevant to both industry practitioners and academic researchers.