Implementation of an executable business process management model for the ship hull production design process

Abstract

The shipbuilding industry has adopted IT convergence as a new engine for growth encompassing conventional production know-how and economies of scale. Brand new solutions for enterprise IT, such as three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and product lifecycle management systems have been adopted and customized to shipyards and contribute to productivity enhancement. As part of IT convergence in the shipbuilding industry, we examine the adoption of business process management (BPM) for the ship hull production design process. Ship hull production design, a process-based task, requires the most man-hours among all ship design processes and is directly coupled with ship production; thus, improvements in this task can contribute hugely toward enhancing productivity. First, we explain the concept of the executable model, which is an essential condition for executing defined processes in a business process management system (BPMS). In addition, we analyze the hull production design task and use this as the basis of a process to build executable BPM models. Thus, we present detailed implementations and the expected effects for the BPM execution of the hull production design process. The executable BPM model of the hull production design process is implemented using Bonita Open-Solution 5.5, a representative open-source BPMS.