Objective:
The objectives of this project are summarized as follows:
- Significantly reduce the “non-value added” time the shipyard spends selecting and filtering relevant ABS rules and guides
- Improve the first-time quality and accuracy of the engineering products.
- Simplify the design review process through embedded assessment to verify the technical memory is being used.
- Provide robust knowledge exchange between shipyard and supporting design agents.
- Reinforce the use of standard engineering processes and shipyard producibility standards.
- Measure usage and compliance to improve the implementation of the system.
Summary:
This project will deliver an application to generate an ABS Custom Rule Book including US Supplement under ACP (Alternate Compliance Program) to be made available gratis to industry stakeholders. This will further simplify the regulatory compliance workflow by providing customized ABS Rule sets that contain only the rules and guides specific to the vessel being designed and built, and/or based on shipyard discipline; avoiding the complexity of overlapping or ambiguous rule sets. Included rules and guides will be based on the vessel parameters such as vessel type, function, and class notations.
Key Deliverables / Benefits:
The team estimates the following benefits:
- Reduces the time it takes to research ABS Rules and Guides for the contracted vessel
- Reduces the time it takes to sufficiently check the accuracy of the design. For example, providing a way to ensure designers incorporate all ABS note changes in a timely manner would reduce a cause of design rework.
- Increase standardization of engineering processes and design standards enables reuse of information and data. This translates into process stability and consistency of the engineering process.
- Reduces the rework associated with outsourced design work, as the required information is provisioned directly to the design agent, instead of waiting for information to be exchanged during the design review process.
- Provides a single approach to managing all the knowledge.
- Provides an active knowledge delivery system that filters massive amounts of data to the point of consumption.
- Throughput is expected to increase with the reduction of significant engineering preparation time and rework. As stated earlier, the business case is based upon an expectation that a reduction in critical-path non-valued added activities will convert to an increased throughput for the shipyard if customer demand is stable. The additional throughput gains can also be converted to increased capacity for the shipyard.
Point of Contact:
Nathaniel Terre, American Bureau of Shipping
To request a copy of the Final Report please email nsrp@ati.org
Overview
Project Team:
- American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
- Conrad Shipyard LLC
- VT Halter Marine Inc.
- Auros Knowledge Systems LLC
- Military Sealift Command (MSC)
March 2022 – March 2023
INDUSTRY INVESTMENT: $452K | NSRP INVESTMENT $350K