Shipbuilding

Competition is global, market niches numerous and the attractiveness and customisation of selection criteria more and more critical. To be successful, manufacturers must offer stylish products to attract customers and a wide range of features and excellent performance to make them stand out from their competitors, whilst keeping prices competitive. The ability to demonstrate to customers that maintenance is easy and affordable is an increasingly strong selling point, because customers know that these types of products require a substantial budget.

To get ahead of the competition, introduce new features and renew their product ranges more quickly, the entire sector is transforming these manufacturing processes and adopting new boat and ship development methods. The main challenges involve all the players in the segment: naval architects, designers, shipyards and system or component suppliers.

Challenges for naval architects and designers

• Design and quickly propose styles with renderings, drawings and an interactive 3D mock-up
• Collaborate and exchange project data in real time with shipyards and owners
• Modify earlier designs and automatically update all the data (drawings, calculations, Microsoft Excel tables, etc.) for increased reactivity
• Compute hydrostatics, stability and weight distribution.

Challenges for small shipyards

• Perform complete 3D detailed design through collaboration with all the necessary professionals
• Avoid modifications and reworking due to poor quality during production
• Standardise components on all the products and across entire product lines
• Better integrate subcontractors into the manufacturing process.

Challenges for large shipyards

• Efficiently manage scheduling and cost monitoring
• Anticipate and coordinate space reservation for all disciplines
• Integrate the design and manufacturing systems for components with long cycle times
• Observe lead times.

CATIA and ENOVIA solutions have been adapted for the yacht market segment.

“CATIA for Yacht” solutions integrate all the process elements, from initial to detailed design and manufacturing, due to their single collaborative platform.

This platform provides for the establishment of a language to make it easier to support the three main phases of development:

It also makes it possible to optimise the sequencing of these phases, run certain critical tasks concurrently and share the constraints encountered at a very early stage.

The modifications that will be necessary can be managed and traced within the CATIA and ENOVIA collaborative platform.

There are several benefits of a PLM approach in this industry sector which are already being measured by sector leaders.

• Having the advantage of a product development platform that facilitates simultaneous working and collaboration between the various players in the development process
• Designing and analysing multidisciplinary 3D data, from structure to fluid systems, in a single digital mock-up to ensure a "right first time" definition
• Carrying out most of the design work very early in the development cycle to anticipate and control manufacturing costs
• Allowing the project leader to give an account of the progress of the design and performance of the product to all the people involved within the company, the customer and subcontractors, throughout the development process
• Ensuring compliance with the specifications
• Maximising the reuse of design elements and components and standardising development practices, in order to improve productivity/quality
• Controlling the impacts between several batches of work assigned to different businesses or subcontractors.

This PLM approach and Dassault Systèmes solutions in particular improve not only your ability to innovate but also the definition quality of your products.

They improve the flexibility, modularity and portability of the engineering studies and production equipment to be deployed to produce boats with all the organisations impacted in the extended company.

It is really an important mechanism for improving the effectiveness of the NPI (New Product Introduction) and NPD (New Product Development) processes.

Since its creation and also during its time within Dassault Systèmes, Keonys has developed a special relationship with many customers in the shipbuilding sector.

Our consultants have participated in many projects involving the implementation of PLM tools, particularly for Bénéteau or the Chantiers Maritimes de Normandie (CMN) to provide the tools for various business processes.

Keonys consultants are experts in various business practices and can help you via various types of consultancy or operational activities to:

• Define a PLM roadmap and an implementation strategy
• Implement or adapt your PLM information system and measure its impact on your working methods by maintaining an overall view and consistency to ensure the scalability and sustainability of the changes introduced
• Specify innovative business solutions, by taking account of the most successful CAD practices such as "generative" part design methodologies (based on parametric 3D, the knowledge and incorporation of professional rules into your designs) and then implementing them on actual cases with your product development teams
• Develop special tools that allow you to automate certain design-to-manufacturing systems associated with, for example, metal structure, composite or piping systems.

Our teams also have the required experience to help you with your post-deployment support or change management activities via pilot studies / demonstrations or training programmes appropriate to your PLM context.