Praeses, a national provider of management services, announced that they are part of two teams awarded funding for research projects from the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP). Valued collectively at over $2.2m, the Praeses team projects are titled Enterprise Resource Planning Integration with Computer-aided Design (CAD) and Process Oriented Visual Planning Tool (POV Planner).
Along with the two Praeses team projects, all eight projects awarded by the NSRP are part of a portfolio focusing on cost reduction in the U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair industry. The portfolio is funded by both the U.S. Navy and industry teams through collaboration with the NSRP.
The Enterprise Resource Planning Integration with CAD project will automate the exchange of business data contained within two existing systems, the first of which currently manages materials procurement and management, and the second provides product information models—an abstract representation of a product’s properties, operations, and relationship with other products. By creating a non-shipyard specific tool for automation and integration of these two components, the system can be implemented throughout the industry. Upon implementation, the project will effectively reduce cost for shipbuilders by eliminating redundant and error prone manual data entry processes at the critical handoff between engineering and production.
The Process Oriented Visual Planning Tool (POV Planner) will develop a user-friendly production planning tool that incorporates data from a complete set of standard shipbuilding process templates and a suite of tools. The 4-D POV tool combines standard process definitions, 3-D model-based graphical representations, and resource constrained simulation-based scheduling tools to create an environment in which production planners can visualize forecasted work content and processes. The fourth “D” of 4-D planning is the time dimension. By adding the fourth “D” to the solution, Praeses will enable planners to visualize how scheduling and delivery constraints affect the way the pieces of the ship fit together and increase shipbuilding efficiencies with the creation of more robust production plans.
For both projects, Praeses will work alongside other companies to build the solutions. The member shipyards include large and mid-sized shipbuilders across the country.
www.praeses.com