Simulation Based Automatic Design for Producability

"Design for producability is the key to reducing ship construction costs. The most direct way to ensure that design for producability goals are met is to automate portions of the design process, enforcing producability requirements in software. IndustrialPlanning Technology Inc has developed an automated design and planning technology that is based on the use of high fidelity fabrication and assembly simulators. This technology yields lower construction costs than traditional rule-based design forproducability, and does not require the development of comprehensive design rules.Distribution systems (piping, cabling, HVAC) represent between 25% and 40% of the construction cost for Naval ships. This proposal will explore the feasibility of developing an automatic design for producability tool which couples an automatic 3D spatialrouter for ship piping, cabling, and HVAC with IPT's construction planning and simulation tools. The benefits of this approach are lower construction cost through optimized design for producability, and reduced design costs. The technology would bepackaged as a plug-in to existing commercial ship design systems. Anticipated savings are $15 million per year in construction costs and $1 million per year in design costs for U.S. shipyards. This assumes that 3% of piping fabrication work is moved from in-dock and in-module on-site fabrication to mechanized shopfabrication as a result of deploying the tools d