Navalt: Scaling Solar-electric Boatbuilding Through Supply Chain Strategy

This case examines how Navalt, an Indian clean-technology venture founded by naval architect and entrepreneur Sandith Thandasherry, addressed the challenge of scaling solar-electric boatbuilding through changes in its supply chain architecture and integration choices. The case traces Navalt’s evolution from a marine design consultancy to a manufacturer of solar-electric vessels, beginning with Aditya, India’s first solar-electric public ferry. While Aditya demonstrated the feasibility of solar-electric propulsion in inland water transport, it also revealed constraints that limited Navalt’s ability to scale production, including dependence on specialized suppliers, long lead times for certified components, and limited flexibility in coordinating design changes across subsystems. As interest in solar-electric ferries increased, Navalt faced growing pressure to reduce delivery times, increase throughput and manage costs more effectively, requirements that could not be met without changes to how key components were sourced, assembled and integrated. In response, Navalt undertook a series of supply chain and integration decisions across structural components, auxiliary systems and drive-system elements. These choices altered the firm’s internal responsibilities, supplier relationships and cost composition, raising important questions about when to rely on external partners and when to bring activities in-house during scale-up. The case provides material for analyzing how these sourcing and integration decisions supported, or constrained, Navalt’s ability to scale production while maintaining product performance and reliability.

Building on the capabilities developed during this phase, Navalt also began considering opportunities beyond boatbuilding, including supplying drive-system components and offering vessel performance analytics through its software initiative, Oceanix. These possibilities introduce a broader strategic question regarding scope and resource allocation, but the primary analytical focus of the case remains on how supply chain restructuring shaped Navalt’s scale-up trajectory. Overall, the case invites students to examine scaling as an operational and strategic challenge, using Navalt’s experience to explore how supply chain architecture and integration choices shape cost, responsiveness as well as organizational complexity during the transition from experimentation to higher-volume production.