Enabling Interoperability through the Ship Life Cycle

Abstract

Shipyards are increasingly responsible for the life cycle support of ships, including maintenance and logistics data over the life of the ship. Hence, it has become important for shipyards to efficiently integrate acquisition product model data with the lifecycle support product model data. The use of Integrated Data Environments (IDE) for Navy ship programs has fostered the integration of design, logistics, and production information for the ship. However, it has not been possible to exchange this integrated data set; rather, different data is typically transferred at different times often resulting in inconsistency. The Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) STEP standard (ISO 10303-239) for logistics data and life cycle support provides the capability to exchange logistics data linked back to design data. The standard was developed and has been implemented by the aerospace and defense industry. The ISE-6 project demonstrated the feasibility of using the PLCS standard for naval shipbuilding. This approach should also enable interoperability of life cycle data with other defense programs. The ISE-6 team mapped naval shipbuilding requirements into PLCS, while preserving compatibility with existing PLCS implementations. A unique feature was the automated mapping via template expansion and identification. The ISE-6 team conducted a demonstration of this capability, exchanging data between two Integrated Data Environments (IDE) and a Knowledge Management tool, which was used to modify and update the data for the receiving IDE. During the next phase of the project, the ISE-6 team will be investigating interoperability using the S1000D Specification for the procurement and production of technical publications.