Shipyard repair software that captures growth work where it is found

Shipyard repair management is the control of a vessel repair availability from owner specification through bid, execution, growth work and close out. The regulatory floor is 29 CFR 1915, the federal standard for shipyard employment, with subpart B covering confined spaces and dangerous atmospheres. Neurobird turns the specification into structured work items, logs growth work with photos at the point of discovery, and keeps permits and marine chemist certificates attached to the item they cover.

neurobird / shipyard repair
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Watch the fields extract from the document.

Ship repair superintendent reviewing work items beside a vessel in drydock, used to illustrate shipyard repair management
Growth work is found at 2am and argued about in 3 weeks.
1915the OSHA part covering shipyard employment
120work items in an average availability
30%of a package that is growth work

Neurobird Shipyard Repair in short

  • Turn an owner specification into structured work items instead of a retyped bid sheet
  • Log growth work at the point of discovery with photos, so change orders are evidenced not argued
  • Attach marine chemist certificates and hot work permits to the item and space they cover
  • 29 CFR 1915 The federal occupational safety and health standards for shipyard employment, covering repair, alteration and shipbreaking as well as construction. eCFR, 29 CFR Part 1915
  • Subpart B Confined and enclosed spaces and other dangerous atmospheres, the source of marine chemist certification and competent person inspection duties in a repair yard. eCFR, 29 CFR Part 1915 Subpart B
  • Pricing runs 250 to 900 US dollars per month across 3 tiers. Early access is free.

What ship repair yards and topside contractors actually deal with

The specification arrives as a PDF, gets retyped into a bid sheet, then retyped again into the daily progress report.
Growth work is discovered on the deckplate and captured on paper, so the change order argument happens weeks later with no evidence.
Marine chemist certificates, hot work permits and confined space entries live in a binder in the office rather than against the work item they cover.

Why it stays broken

Ship repair is project work with a hard deadline, priced from a document written by somebody else, executed by 5 or 6 trades at once. The tooling is a spreadsheet for the bid, a whiteboard for the day, and a binder for the paperwork, and none of the 3 talk to each other.

On a 120 item package, 10 undocumented growth items is the whole margin.

The employer shall establish and implement a written program and procedures for lockout and tags-plus systems to control hazardous energy during the servicing of any machinery, equipment, or system in shipyard employment.

osha.gov, source

Neurobird Shipyard Repair Document Automation Platform

Make the work item the record. Price, progress, permits, photos and growth all hang off it, so close out is a print rather than a reconstruction.

  • 1Turn an owner specification into structured work items instead of a retyped bid sheet
  • 2Log growth work at the point of discovery with photos, so change orders are evidenced not argued
  • 3Attach marine chemist certificates and hot work permits to the item and space they cover
  • 4Close a package out with a document set the owner rep and the regulator can both read

What changes with Neurobird Shipyard Repair?

The same work, read left to right: how it runs today, and how it runs once the record is in one place.

Shipyard repair: current practice compared with Neurobird Shipyard Repair
TodayWith Neurobird Shipyard Repair
The specification arrives as a PDF, gets retyped into a bid sheet, then retyped again into the daily progress reportTurn an owner specification into structured work items instead of a retyped bid sheet
Growth work is discovered on the deckplate and captured on paper, so the change order argument happens weeks later with no evidenceLog growth work at the point of discovery with photos, so change orders are evidenced not argued
Marine chemist certificates, hot work permits and confined space entries live in a binder in the office rather than against the work item they coverAttach marine chemist certificates and hot work permits to the item and space they cover

Who is this for?

Same availability, three different operating models.

Repair yard

You own the dock

You carry the schedule risk and the safety obligation. You need work item progress and permits in the same place, not in 2 systems.

Topside contractor

You work other people's yards

You are a guest on somebody else's safety plan. You need your evidence portable and your growth work documented the moment it appears.

Owner or operator

You are paying for the repair

You are reading a change order written by the yard. You need to see what was found, where, and when it was photographed.

How does Neurobird Shipyard Repair work?

  1. Structure the specification

    Owner specifications arrive as PDFs. Turn them into numbered work items once, with trade, location and scope, and stop retyping.

  2. Log growth at the deckplate

    A trade worker photographs what was found, tags the work item and the space, and the change order has evidence from minute one.

  3. Close out with the file intact

    Permits, certificates, photos and sign offs are already attached, so the close out package assembles itself rather than being chased.

What actually governs ship repair work

Useful if you are scoping an availability or writing a safety plan. Each source links out.

29 CFR 1915

The federal occupational safety and health standards for shipyard employment, covering repair, alteration and shipbreaking as well as construction.

eCFR, 29 CFR Part 1915
Subpart B

Confined and enclosed spaces and other dangerous atmospheres, the source of marine chemist certification and competent person inspection duties in a repair yard.

eCFR, 29 CFR Part 1915 Subpart B
1915 index

The full standard index for shipyard employment, the document an owner rep or inspector will cite when asking what your permit process is.

OSHA, standard number 1915
NAICS 336611

Ship building and repairing is a distinct industry classification, so establishment counts and payroll for the trade are published rather than guessed.

US Census County Business Patterns

Shipyard repair software questions, answered

Key terms

What is shipyard repair work management?
Shipyard repair work management is the control of a vessel repair availability from owner specification through bid, execution, growth work and close out. The unit of work is the work item, and the difficulty is that items change while the vessel is on the dock.

Which safety standard applies to ship repair?

Shipyard employment in the United States is covered by 29 CFR 1915. Subpart B deals with confined and enclosed spaces and dangerous atmospheres, which is where marine chemist certificates and competent person inspections come from.

Why is growth work such a problem?

Because it is discovered by a trade worker in a tank at 2am and recorded on a scrap of paper. The commercial conversation happens later, and whoever has the better evidence wins. Capturing it at the point of discovery changes that.

Does this replace our estimating system?

No. It structures the specification and the work items, and it holds execution and evidence. Priced output can go to whatever you estimate and invoice in today.

Can it hold permits and certificates?

Yes. Hot work permits, confined space entries and marine chemist certificates attach to the work item and the space, so the document is where the work is rather than in a binder.

Why we are building this

Ship repair is one of the few trades where the scope genuinely cannot be known in advance. Open a tank and the job changes. That is not a planning failure, it is the nature of the work.

What is a failure is finding growth work at 2am and having no record of it until the invoice. The commercial conversation should be about the steel, not about whose notes are better.

We would rather build this with superintendents than guess at it. Tell us how your packages run, and where we have got it wrong.

Neurobird Team neurobird.com

Where the requirement comes from

The standards a repair yard is actually held to.

How much does Neurobird Shipyard Repair cost?

Priced per yard because a repair availability is a yard level job. Unlimited work items and users on every tier.

Single yard
$250
per yard, per month
  • Work item structure
  • Mobile growth work capture
  • Photo evidence
  • Package close out
  • Email support
Request access
Multi berth
$520
per yard, per month
  • Everything in Single yard
  • Permit and certificate vault
  • Trade progress by item
  • Change order pack
  • Named contact
Request access
Group
$900
per yard, per month
  • Everything in Multi berth
  • Multi yard reporting
  • Owner rep portal
  • Estimating system export
  • Onboarding included
Talk to us
First 20 yards get early access pricing locked for three years

Get free early access

If you run repair availabilities, tell us how the specification becomes work items today and where growth work goes.

Straight answer on where this is: In development. Early access gets the working preview, influence on what ships first, and early access pricing. It does not get you a login today.

Prefer email? Write to office@neurobird.com and a person will reply. No autoresponder.