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WHY HDW IS DIVING INTO DIGITAL
Howaldtswerke -Deutsche Werft (HDW) doesn’t like its designers building plastic submarine models on the job. “Just consider that before going to production, we have to build an exact one-fifth scale plastic model of each submarine type,” says HDW executive board member Hans-Joachim Schmidt. “You can imagine the impact this has had on the economics of our shipbuilding process as a whole.” That’s why this summer the German shipbuilding giant decided to do something about it by signing a contract with IBM and IT company CENIT AG Systemhaus to convert its entire development, engineering and product data management to digital processes.
Designers will use the new system to construct virtual models of ships—and manage all the product data that goes with them—on the computer. The new system, based on IBM’s Product Lifecycle Management solutions CATIA Version 5 and ENOVIA 3D, will not only allow shipyard engineers and designers to work internally with and share critical design data in real-time, but also externally with HDW’s major suppliers through the Internet.
“Seamless electronic data exchange is of extreme importance,” explains Hubertus Manthey, managing director of CENIT. “There will no longer be a need to have the manual exchange of information, as is the case today, since the existing software solutions are not integrated into the shipyard’s other systems. With this agreement,” he states, “this will become obsolete.”
HDW’s Dr. Juergen Rohweder agrees. “Our existing shipbuilding software programs were too old and not integrated,” says Rohweder. “We’ve been working closely with our suppliers to find solutions. CATIA 5 is a big leap. It will allow simultaneous engineering and better and quicker access to information. And,” he adds, “we expect to forge closer ties with our suppliers.” |
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