Dec 27, 2016
About the Customer
Engineering is working on a Simulation initiative with a new customer in the nautical manufacturing industry. The client is an American shipbuilding firm with its production based out of Wisconsin. Since its founding, the customer is an industry-leading manufacturer of commercial vessels. Recently, the corporation has also taken on a new agreement to help produce combat ships for the U.S. Government.
Issues @ The Shipyard
- Currently, the customer has a total number of hours per module that logs all activities. This includes delays, transportation, storage, hours worked on modules, and even changeover times. Then, the time spent on each of these activities is charged towards that total time.
- The entire construction and pre-assembly of the process is based off their hull launch date. Their flexibility on when they start fabrication of the ship is limited due to this constraint. Any sort of delays (known or unknown) cause issues downstream in the process.
- The flow of the modules varies widely and depends on a number of factors. Each module has a priority workstation to go to for a number 1 option but in case that workstation is occupied a second or even third option are available to maintain continuous construction of the modules.
- Storage for the modules and grand modules have become a constraint. An uncertain amount of storage spots and length of stay in storage can cause blockages in the process.
- Allocation of resources is a major concern at this shipyard. The quantity of workers per module vary by hour, day, and even week as well as what can be done on the modules at that time. Accurately scheduling/forecasting workers on a daily basis has proved difficult because of that and the available workers add a second layer of difficulty because of their high percentage of absenteeism.
About the Project
Currently, it takes approximately two years to launch a hull. To continuously improve their process and maintain high competitiveness over the competition, the customer has brought in Engineering to begin the implementation of Siemens Tecnomatix Plant Simulation across their shipyard. The customer bases their entire manufacturing and construction dates for each hull by their launch date, so they want to leverage Simulation to see how known delays will affect their system downstream.
Engineering has spent a little over two months collecting data and information on a specific building in the customer’s shipyard to model in Siemens Tecnomatix Plant Simulation. This model will allow the customer to see the capabilities of Simulation and create further projects to help analyze their process. Along with the model, Engineering will provide a final report detailing the entire project, a final presentation showing the final model, and training for use of the new software system once the project is complete.
Final Results
The goal is to see if the customer can reach the scheduled launch dates, and if not, how to improve their process so they can meet these dates. Once the customer is comfortable with their production planning, they will look to dive deep into their construction process and starting modeling very specific details throughout the build to help continuously improve their process to maintain that competitiveness.
What Engineering Provides
- Final report detailing the entire project:
- What information was gathered and how it was used
- Overview of simulation with details on each object used in the simulation and what they do
- Analysis of simulation and designed model to determine process improvements, bottlenecks, or other specific analysis based on customer’s wants/needs
- Final presentation detailing the entire project including demo of designed model
- Basic Siemens Tecnomatix Plant Simulation training documents
- Onsite Software Training:
- How to use software including but not limited to the different objects, coding language, and analysis tools
- In-depth explanation on how designed model and all details used to create model
