Page 390 - Practical Design Ships and Floating Structures

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It should not be forgotten that this is still along way and many problems not the least in the field of
work safety are to be solved.

4 INTEGRATION ASPECTS

‘fie new fabrication technologies and methods require considerable efforts regarding the integration of
suitable IT- and Communication tools and systems. The individual special software solutions need to
communicate often down to the shop floor level in a reliable manner and without loss of information.
This parts highest demands on Product Data Technology (PDT) which in spite of all efforts over the
last 15 years is still far fiom a common solution. The ISO-STEP approach created hopes rind visions
but the detailed problem solutions are only partially ready for use. If world leading CAD-vendors are
not integrated the practical merits are questionable.
New solutions, which are independent from specific application systems, are appearing which use
technologies offered by the world wide web (www). Some applications are already in use like digital
document exchange between the yard and the classification society.
The requirements on PDT from the production technology point of view are manifold. In the planning
stage detailed information about parts and processes are needed for the production simulation. As long
as only the steel part is considered this is relatively easy; the additional inclusion of outfitting and
machinery increases the complexity due to the large number of information suppliers.
A new task evolves from the necessity to update as built information along the process chain in order
to adjust downstream process data according to the as built situation. The problem addresses the
integration of sensor technology and data, CAD data and process data in a real time environment.
Several research projects are presently ongoing in this particular problem scenario.

FS+EPXI+hformation + +
++
‘AS BUILT’

Figure 9: Principle of the Product State Model Approach

5 CONCLUSIONS
The paper has addressed only a few of the many upcoming new aspects of ship production. The
underlying vision shows that ship production is still quite far away from harvesting the potentials
which new technologies and methods can offer. Due to the special challenge of the industry new and
more efficient solutions can not be purchased in the market or simply copied from other sectors. The
innovations must be developed in house because only then a full understanding of the complexity and
the interactivity is generated. On the other hand innovation requires also intense co-operation with
other industry sectors, provided however the benefits are also transsectorial. The development of Laser
technologies or of IT-CT-solutions are typical examples.