Automating Ship Assembly Planning and Simulation

Discrete Event Simulation (DES) can help U.S. shipyards reduce cost and schedule risks. A major barrier to employing DES in shipyards is the overwhelming task of modeling production facilities and work content. Another obstacle is large data volumes generated for shipbuilding can seriously degrade system performance. The goals of this project are to reduce manual data input for simulation by at least 70% and to achieve acceptable levels of system performance. Utilizing two Atlantec tools, QA Desktop and Assembly Production, an automated front end application for DES modeling systems will be developed that greatly reduces modeling time and processes large volumes of complex data. The application will be a rules-based facility, resource, and process modeling system that interfaces with major DES systems. The initial approach will be to develop a system for yard-wide capacity planning, scheduling, and estimating. Follow on efforts will enable detailed planning and scheduling, connecting CAD, MRP, and scheduling systems.