Today's standard Croatian shipyards are faced with major problems of the globalized shipbuilding market, whose main feature is an exceptional competition with great cost pressures. Therefore, this paper aims to explore a new model based on the application of the process approach in modern shipyards, as one of the possible answers to these market demands. Business processes represent a key role in forming the optimal organization of modern enterprises. In this paper we propose application of the process approach in the shipbuilding industry of Croatia, as the first step to achieve profitability, to define the forms of ownership and to achieve rationalization of operations, in order for shipbuilding to become the major foundation for the development of Croatian economy.