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IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DARPA ANNOUNCES FY 1997 MARITECH SELECTIONS
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency today selected
nine new projects for negotiation as a result of the FY 1997
MARITECH competition. Combined, these nine projects are expected
to receive a total of $36.0 million in government funding matched
by $39.2 of industry contribution. The five-year MARITECH
program is currently in its fourth year. MARITECH is part of the
National Shipbuilding Initiative and is an effort to develop and
apply advanced technology to improve the competitiveness of the
U.S. shipbuilding industry and thereby develop and preserve the
capability for affordable Navy ship and submarine construction.
The projects cover two thrust areas, Advanced Business
Practices and Total Process Systems. The ABP demonstration
projects are expected to develop and demonstrate innovative
application of new technologies and processes that will vastly
improve a shipyard's capabilities in its interoperations among
suppliers, customers, and other shipyards. TPS demonstration
projects are expected to develop and demonstrate system-wide,
integrated design and production technologies. Each project will
result in a demonstration of the developed technologies, with
possible future commercialization of the enabling technologies.
These are two-year efforts. The nine winning projects were
selected from 23 proposals.
The selected projects and consortia are:
* A First Principles Approach for Shipbuilding Integrated
Process and Product Development (FIRST) - FIRST will develop a
computer system that integrates ship design, engineering, and
manufacturing systems. This will be a first-of-its-kind system
that uses COMPASS, a next-generation WINDOWS-based computer aided
design tool being developed under a separate MARITECH award, as
its underlying foundation. FIRST will integrate design,
planning, scheduling, and engineering analyses tools into an
enterprise-wide integrated computer system. These tools will be
coupled with multidisciplinary design optimization to allow
issues such as costs and refinement of build strategies to be
developed simultaneously with the ship design. The system will
provide the shipbuilder with a capability to develop more
competitive
bids with a higher level of confidence and lower risk. The
project participants include Intergraph Corp. of Huntsville, Ala.
Proteus Engineering of Stevensville, Md.; SPAR Associates Inc. of
Annapolis, Md.; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University of Blacksburg, Va.; Newport News Shipbuilding of
Newport News, Va.; and the American Bureau of Shipping of
Houston, Texas.
*National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols
(NIIIP) for Shipbuilding Partners and Suppliers (SPARS) - SPARS
will develop national level protocols and Virtual Enterprise
Servers to enable electronic-based business operations between
shipyards and their suppliers transparent of the underlying
processes and computing environments of the participants. It
directly supports the transfer of information between
geographically dispersed teams in support of requirements
analysis, supplier relations, material procurement, and resource
and financial management. By improving the ability to transfer
information between team members, the shipbuilding virtual
enterprise can reduce the total time of ship design and
construction. SPARS will develop an Information Management
System that enables users to access and share real time
enterprise-wide data and will implement Business Policy
Management Procedures using a mediated Knowledge Base Management
System. The project consortium includes the National Industrial
Information Infrastructure Protocols Consortium of Stanford,
Conn.; Marine Machinery Association of Arlington, Va.; Carnegie
Mellon University of Pittsburgh, Pa.; General Dynamics, Electric
Boat of Groton, Conn.; Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine; Todd
Pacific Shipyard of Seattle, Wash.; Avondale Industries of New
Orleans, La.; and National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. of San
Diego, Calif.
*Ship Factory Transformation - The goal of this project is
to dramatically improve the pre-production design and planning
process to facilitate rapid response to customer inquiries for
new ships. This project will define the product attributes and
logic that drive pre-production processes and products. It will
identify core manufacturing competencies and product structure
cost variables that influence product variation; define design
and planning quality criteria and metrics; and re-engineer
workflow as required. This project will build on experience to
date in rationalizing shipyard production processes; leverage the
strengths of the project partners in key systems and operations
technology areas; and take advantage of other, ongoing MARITECH
initiatives such as the Ship Building Information Infrastructure
Project. The project team includes National Steel and
Shipbuilding Co. of San Diego, Calif.; Anderson Consulting of El
Segundo, Calif.; Computervision Corporation of Bedford, Mass.;
First Marine International Ltd. of London, England; Kockums
Computer Systems Inc. of Annapolis, Md.; and W. Miller & Co. of
Boise, Idaho.
* Internationally Competitive Fast Ferries and Composite
Ship Technologies - The goal of this project is to develop an
internationally competitive, high-speed passenger ferry using
advanced hull forms and materials. This project will integrate
initial foreign export orders to requirements of registration
that meet both Det Norske Veritas and International Maritime
Organization high speed codes; refine and further integrate the
XP-300 composite hulled catamaran design into Gladding-Hearn
shipyard production processes; further develop the low-wake
catamaran design and its integration into Nichols Brothers
production processes; research
production methods at International Catamaran licensee shipyards
in Australia; further incorporate the use of Zone Outfit Logic
Technology into the manufacturing process at both yards;
implement computer enhancements in business systems such as
networking isolated shipyard departments together; and introduce
bar-coding as an inventory control tool throughout the
engineering and production processes. The project will also
develop advanced composite materials technology to reduce costs
and increase vessel performance, as well as research vital areas
involving combustion, fire spread, and structural fire
protection. The project team includes Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding
of Somerset, Mass.; Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Whidbey
Island, Wash.; International Catamaran of New South Wales,
Australia; University of California, San Diego of La Jolla,
Calif.; TPI Inc. of Warren, R.I.; Worcester Polytechnic Institute
of Worcester, Mass.; VTEC Laboratory of Bronx, N.Y.; The United
States Coast Guard of Washington, D.C.; Avondale Industries of
New Orleans, La.; Trans-Science Corp. of La Jolla, Calif.;
National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. of San Diego, Calif.; and
University of Washington of Seattle, Wash.
*Organization of Work in a Second Tier U.S. Shipyard - This
project will transfer state-of-the-art manufacturing and business
practices from a small, innovative European shipyard and a major,
internationally competitive U.S. equipment manufacturing company
to a small Gulf Coast shipyard. This project will review,
analyze and integrate new processes and procedures for material
handling, production control, product identification, and
information/data dissemination, use, and exchange. The project
will also evaluate and test laser cutting and welding technology
and provide connectivity between shipyard information and
robotics test platforms. The consortium includes Bender
Shipbuilding and Repair Co. Inc. of Mobile, Ala.; Caterpillar
Inc. of Mossville, Ill.; Cybo Robots Inc. of Indianapolis, Ind.;
Thompson Power Systems of Mobile, Ala.; Flensburger Schiffbau-
Gesellschaft of Flensburg, Germany; and Colton & Co. of
Arlington, Va.
*Transitioning to a 21st Century Advanced Manufacturing
Facility - Phase II - This project will develop and deploy a
state-of-the-art design, manufacturing, and information system,
with concentration on the engineering and material control
aspects of the system. Leading edge design and manufacturing
technologies used in the automotive and aerospace industries will
be evaluated and adapted to a small shipyard operation. Software
for materials tracking and control, for prediction of material
and resource requirements, and for anticipation and resolution of
emerging conflicts will be developed and implemented. The
project will also develop procedures for an extended enterprise
with suppliers via electronic commerce, purchasing marine
equipment using just-in-time principles and a vendor rating
system. The team comprises Marinette Marine Corp. of Marinette,
Wis., and Grant Thornton LLP of Appleton, Wis.
*Advanced Technology Demonstration Project - This project
will try to dramatically improve practices and processes used for
the design and construction of ships through new and revised
organizational concepts, the development of a state-of-the-art
CAD/CAM/CIM system, and the development and implementation of
advanced facilities. This project will develop and demonstrate
integrated software that will rapidly develop a commercial ship
design concept and
costing to a level suitable for marketing and bidding. The
project will evaluate and implement innovative human resources
software to improve workforce management and training
capabilities. An advanced CAD/CAM/CIM system will be integrated
with a state-of-the-art shipyard simulation modeling tool to
improve planning, costing, and scheduling. The project will
incorporate an advanced accuracy control system based on best
Japanese and European practices and develop and implement the use
of a modern steel fabrication and assembly facility and a new
launching system. The project team includes Alabama Shipyard
Inc. of Mobile, Ala.; Atlantic Marine Holding Co. of
Jacksonville, Fla.; Imabari Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. of Imabari
City, Japan; Proteus Engineering Inc. of Stevensville, Md.; Sener
of Madrid, Spain; and Decision Dynamics Inc. of Bethesda, Md.
*Delivering an Internationally Competitive Shipyard - This
project will create an enterprise-wide real-time information
processing system that will fully integrate production and
engineering. It will apply a total systems approach to
overhauling work flow, leading to a highly effective,
dramatically improved fabrication and installation process. It
will conduct an analysis of performance management measurements
for production, engineering, and administration and will
restructure the data collection and reporting systems to
continually measure and improve processes. The project will also
develop an enterprise-wide application for acquiring, processing,
and distributing customer profile data for improved responses to
market opportunities. The consortium consists of Todd Pacific
Shipyard of Seattle, Wash.; Maritech Engineering Japan of Tokyo,
Japan; Total Transportation Systems of Newport News, Va.; the
University of Washington of Seattle, Wash.; L.D. Chirillo of
Bellevue, Wash.; and Ernst & Young LLP of Seattle, Wash.
*Electronic Data Interchange and Electronic Commerce
Between Yards and Suppliers - The major thrust areas of this
project focus on the promotion of a computer culture in the
supplier industry and the establishment of electronic links
between suppliers and shipyards. This project will demonstrate
the business advantage of electronic commerce between U.S. marine
suppliers and shipyards by developing, testing, and evaluating
electronic business practices. This will be accomplished by
developing digital catalogues for 18 marine suppliers. These
digital product catalogs will be made available to shipyards via
the Internet or on CD ROMs. Shipyards will be asked to evaluate
the digital catalogs for form, content, and usefulness. Shipyard
feedback will be rapidly incorporated into the digital catalogs
and sent back to the shipyards. Through this iterative process,
the project will promote discussion and collaboration between
suppliers and shipyards and will continually improve the use of
electronic media for more effective business practices. The
consortium consists of The Marine Machinery Association of
Arlington, Va.; Newport News Shipbuilding of Newport News, Va.;
M. Rosenblatt & Son Inc. of Arlington, Va.; Intergraph Corp. of
Huntsville, Ala.; Kockums Computer Systems of Annapolis, Md.; and
Computervision Corp. of Bedford, Mass.
