The National Shipbuilding Research Program. 1989 Ship Production Symposium. Paper No. 3: Producibility in Ship Design

Much attention has been given in recent years to the problem of reducing ship construction costs. This has primarily emphasized the improvement of production techniques, processes and management controls. There is a great deal that can be accomplished in reducing ship construction costs, however, by improving the producibility of the design of the ship. The design of a more producible ship requires concurrent product and process design. Various principles and techniques can be applied throughout the design process in order to reduce the construction manhours required by ensuring that the manufacturing attributes are considered. This paper identifies some of the key principles involved and describes the techniques for applying the principles. A practical approach to estimating the cost benefit of alternative designs by estimating the labor input differential between the designs 25 also presented. Finally, specific examples of the application of the producibility techniques to several recent ship designs are included.