Study on a process-centric modeling methodology for virtual manufacturing of ships and offshore structures in shipyards

Abstract

The production processes in a shipyard are highly complex and take various forms owing to the project-like characteristics of the products. Thus, a shipyard’s competitiveness is determined by the level of production management capability that it possesses. Many shipyards have made great efforts to improve their productivity by introducing higher level planning systems and process management systems. More recently, they have extended these efforts through the introduction of virtual manufacturing. Virtual manufacturing makes it possible to realize an improved productivity through the use of modeling and simulation technology. As a result, it is possible to leave behind decision making based on mere intuition or past experience by establishing improved planning based on concrete quantitative data. This study newly defines a simulation modeling methodology that is suitable for the characteristics of shipbuilding. On the foundation of existing virtual manufacturing modeling methodologies, we apply the product, process, resource, and schedule (PPR-S) model, which is suitable for a shipyard production environment. A process-centric simulation modeling methodology is defined based on the process-centric nature of ship production, and a system for applying this methodology is designed. Since it is designed considering a variety of virtual manufacturing software, it has a high level of flexibility for application in the field of shipbuilding.