General Dynamics Deploys Shipyard Simulation Modeler

TranSystems has completed a large scale computer simulation modeling system for shipbuilding for General Dynamics NASSCO (NASSCO), a designer and builder of ships specializing in auxiliary and support ships for the U.S. Navy as well as oil tankers and dry cargo carriers for commercial markets.

The U.S. shipbuilding industry did not have a fast, efficient way to analyze the effects of potential new ship construction business on their facilities and operations. As part of a National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) sponsored project, TranSystems helped create a Simulation Modeling System to allow NASSCO to perform these analyses across an entire shipyard. The purpose of the new system is to assist NASSCO's planning and production departments to evaluate potential future production scenarios in order to execute appropriate facility developments and manning plans.

"We set out to develop an unprecedented analysis capability for the U.S. shipbuilding industry," says John Horvath, manager of the Industrial Engineering Group of NASSCO. "This modeling system has achieved that by offering a tool that can quickly and precisely determine the effects of any change to the shipyard. Whether it is constructing additional ships, implementing new production equipment or managing a changing labor force, the LSMS (Large Scale Computer Simulation Modeling System for Shipbuilding) can tell you how that change is going to impact performance."

TranSystems was recently awarded Phase I of an add-on project, which will bring additional capabilities to the LSMS tool that were outside of the scope of the original project. Expected benefits from this project extension include a significant decrease in analysis labor over current manual methods and large annual savings implementing analysis findings. The project team consists of NASSCO, ARL at Penn State, Atlantec ES and TranSystems and is partially funded by the National Shipbuilding Research Program.

More information on the project can be found here.