Hanwha Ocean is accelerating the digital transformation of the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, which is regarded as a flagship site of the “MASGA” shipbuilding cooperation project between South Korea and the United States. Hanwha Ocean plans to launch the shipyard’s core systems by the end of the year to enhance its digital capabilities and begin establishing a ship repair, maintenance, and overhaul (MRO) business in North America.
Hanwha Ocean recently announced that, as a key component of the smart shipyard initiative at its Hanwha Philly Shipyard, the company began developing its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and production systems in November 2025. Following the completion of the preparatory phase in February 2026, the project officially entered the development phase in March 2026.
Hanwha Ocean plans to launch its ERP and production systems in November 2026. Once operational, these systems will enable integrated management of data across the entire production, materials, and process workflow, boosting the shipyard’s digitalization level by more than threefold and thereby accelerating its transition to a digital operations system.
It is reported that a smart shipyard is a concept for a digital production center that uses technologies such as drones and the Internet of Things (IoT) to monitor the shipyard’s overall production status in real time. By providing an intuitive overview of the operational status of each process and the flow of materials, it can significantly improve production efficiency. Given Hanwha Philly Shipyard’s location adjacent to U.S. Navy bases on the East Coast, Hanwha Ocean believes that its process management capabilities based on the smart shipyard concept are likely to become a core competitive advantage in future bids for U.S. Navy MRO projects.
Currently, on-site operational models in shipyards are also evolving rapidly. Hanwha Ocean reported that, to efficiently manage the recently expanded production space and capacity at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, it has introduced a plot management system.
In the medium to long term, Hanwha Ocean will simultaneously advance capacity expansion and automation investments at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard. In August 2025, Hanwha Group announced an additional $5 billion investment in this U.S. shipyard to construct two new dry docks, three berths, and a hull production facility. The goal is to significantly increase annual production capacity from the current 1 to 1.5 vessels to 20 vessels—effectively doubling capacity—through the introduction of automated equipment and smart shipyard systems.
In addition, to improve production efficiency at Hanwha Philly Shipyard, Hanwha Ocean is reorganizing production processes by restructuring complex procedures into an optimal sequence to reduce bottlenecks. At the same time, the company is introducing high-performance welding machines for shipbuilding and accelerating the deployment of welding robots. Hanwha Ocean plans to introduce a welding robot named “Indi” this year and further expand the use of automated welding equipment next year.