Feeding the ERP Beast: Properly Integrating CAD and ERP
ERP systems are beasts. To be happy, they have to be well fed. Computer Aided Design/Drafting (CAD) systems are a source of the food for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems since they contain significant information regarding the plans and materials needed to construct a ship. ERP systems are data hungry. They can only be effective at planning purchasing and production as long as the beast is consuming the information that the CAD system provides. In fact, there is a direct link between the success of an ERP system and how well it is fed the information it requires to do its job.
Seaway Pre-Entry Notification Required
On March 4, the Great Lakes / St. Lawrence Seaway System issued a notice stating that all foreign flagged vessels intending to transit the Seaway must submit a complete Notice of Arrival (NOA) 96 hours prior to entering the Seaway at Call In Point 2 (CIP 2). The NOA must be provided electronically following the USCG National Vessel Movement Center’s (NVMC) procedures and using either a website (http://www.nvmc.uscg.gov), eXtensible Markup Language format (XML schema), or InfoPath application. To complete the NOA correctly for the Seaway, CIP2 shall be selected as the Arrival Port, Foreign to Saint Lawrence Seaway shall be selected as the Voyage Type, and Saint Lawrence Seaway – Transit shall be selected as the Arrival State, City and Receiving Facility. As a reminder, if calling on a U.S.
ClassNK and Tribon Offer Different Options
The Japanese classification society ClassNK and Tribon Solutions offer time savings in the early phases of ship design through a new software interface. As part of a program to facilitate cooperation between ship designers and classification societies through digital data transfer, the Japanese classification society ClassNK and software provider Tribon Solutions have developed a direct interface between the Tribon Shipbuilding system and ClassNK PrimeShip. This new capability offers efficient data transfer and cost reductions in the early ship design phases. As a result of this integrated process, ship designers will be able to examine multiple design alternatives in a shorter time allowing more detailed analysis of structural strength and steel weight.
Tribon Solutions To Promote Standardization of Data Exchange
Tribon Solutions will promote the standardization of the shipbuilding CAD/CAM data exchange using XML (Extensible Markup Language) to become a de facto standard within the shipbuilding industry. Historically there have for many years been difficulties with the data exchange between various CAD/CAM systems because they all have unique data formats. There have partly been some practical data exchanges using standard data formats like IGES and DXF. These formats are based on geometry information and primarily used by the "general purpose CAD systems" for data exchange regarding drawings and solid models. Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (Class NK) and Tribon Solutions have together made intense research investigations using XML.
E-Business: Growing in Maritime Industry
E-business means doing business on the Internet. This can include any business process - to include buying and selling, which is known as E-commerce. The arranging for transport by sea or the buying and selling of things needed for ships that sail from port to port are among the world's oldest professions. Many ship owners, operators or managers still conduct business the old-fashioned way, building and maintaining close and longstanding relationships with suppliers or customers. While the dot-com craze of a few years ago has passed, E-business is revolutionizing several important business processes in the maritime industry. Computers can aid in the design and construction of vessels, and the Internet can be used to transmit design information and changes instantaneously.
