Shipbuilding & Maritime

Find the profit your maritime business is leaking.

In ship repair and maritime services, the biggest leaks are growth work that never gets priced, berths and dry docks sitting idle, and milestone billing that trails the work. The diagnostic puts a dollar figure on each one.

Start the free diagnostic About 12 minutes (or a 4-minute Quick Check) · Results right away · Free

Built for ship repair yards, shipbuilders and maritime service companies

The four leaks we see most in shipbuilding & maritime

The maritime diagnostic adds these industry questions to the core assessment, prices each one against your numbers, and ranks them by what they're worth to fix.

Pricing & Margin

Growth work not captured

We ask: When new work is discovered during a repair (growth work), is it priced and approved before it's done?

A first fix: Require a condition-found report and customer approval before any growth work.

Labor & Productivity

Dry-dock / berth idle time

We ask: How much crew time is lost to waiting on dock, parts, or inspections?

A first fix: Track crew idle hours by cause for every vessel project.

Purchasing & Supply

Long-lead component delays

We ask: Are long-lead components ordered against a tracked schedule?

A first fix: Build a long-lead tracker with order-by dates for every active project.

Cash Flow & Collections

Milestone billing lag

We ask: Are progress / milestone invoices issued the day a milestone is met?

A first fix: Tie each milestone sign-off to same-day invoice issuance.

Finance + operations

Two sides of the same problem.

Yard work runs on long jobs, big material buys and change orders that are easy to lose. Blue Water works on both sides: a fractional CFO who keeps your numbers honest, and an operations team that fixes what those numbers reveal.

Finance · Fractional CFO

What your CFO watches in maritime

Job cost and change ordersEvery change order priced, approved and billed, tracked against the original estimate.
Progress billing and cash timingBilling in step with the work so a long repair doesn't drain the account.
Equipment and capital planningWhen to repair, replace or finance drydock, cranes and other big equipment.

Operations · Friction & systems

What operations fixes

The four leaks above are where the numbers usually point. Once the monthly review shows which one is costing you most, we fix it at the source: a clear procedure your team follows, a cleaner workflow, and the software you already use connected so nothing gets re-keyed or lost.

Then we track the result in your next month's numbers, so you can see what the fix was worth.

How the two sides work together

The diagnostic scores both sides. You'll see your financial control and operations scores, and which to fix first.

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Plus the six areas every business is scored on

Every diagnostic scores the same six areas, so you can see where maritime problems sit next to everyday ones.

Cash Flow & CollectionsHow fast you bill and collect, and how much cash is tied up waiting.
Pricing & MarginWhether your prices and job costs keep up with what the work really takes.
Labor & ProductivityOvertime, idle time and the hours that never turn into revenue.
Purchasing & SupplyWhat you buy, what you waste and what walks out the door.
Sales & Lead FlowHow many inquiries turn into paying work, and how many slip away.
Financial ControlWhether your books are current, reconciled and actually used to run the business.

The maritime benchmarks we compare you to

If you leave a figure blank, the diagnostic estimates it from these typical values for shipbuilding & maritime. Your results show which numbers came from you and which are estimates. In a paid audit, we replace every estimate with your real books.

Gross margin: 20%
Payroll share of revenue: 40%
Materials / supplies share: 35%
Days to get paid (target): 45

Planning assumptions used by our model, not guarantees. See the earnings disclaimer.

Free Friction Diagnostic

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Separate scores for financial control and operations
Your estimated annual profit leak, area by area
A recommended next step (finance, operations or both) based on your answers
A 30-day action plan you can start on today

Your answers go only to Blue Water. We never sell them.

Friction Diagnostic