Assessment of design producibility

A shipyard working in partnership with its client agreed to design a highly producible naval vessel that would allow production to achieve a high level of productivity. Our challenge was to develop a monitoring system to determine the degree to which the design process and design decisions facilitated the shipyard achieving its productivity goals. The system predicted the effect of design on shipyard processes, production programmes, performance metrics and manning levels.

Based on the results of previous FMI benchmarking and performance studies, we developed a computer-based model that formed the core of the system. The system was structured to provide guidance to the designers and visibility of performance impact.

We provided full-time on-site presence to develop the model and recommended which new technologies should be implemented in the design. These included product orientated design and operations, spatial design and common core coding. These ‘enablers’ will allow the shipyard to achieve its performance goals.