Award

The objective of this study has been to demonstrate that the Dimensional Management System (DMS) can be successfully used within the shipbuilding industry. The purpose of dimensional management is to improve quality and reduce rework and the overall costof ship production. By using computer simulation, the time required to generate and interpret geometric dimensioning and tolerancing scheme will be greatly reduced; the design intent of tolerance controls will be clearly communicated to the Design /Quality / Engineering / Fabrication groups resulting in greatly reduced rework and improved quality and production efficiency.The present capabilities of DCS's dimensional simulation tools are completely applicable and operational within the shipbuilding domain. These tools were used to model and analyze the assembly of a ship's double bottom blocks, and to model weld shrinkageand distortion, the principal sources of dimensional variation in shipbuilding. The potential applicability of DCS dimensional variation modeling, simulation, and analysis processes and tools is already very high within the shipbuilding industry. However,during Phase II the improvement of dimensional variation modeling capabilities associated with weld shrinkage and distortion modeling, the refinement of dimensional management processes to suit the industry, and the involvement of U.S. shipyards in thedevelopment and evaluation of these processes and tools, will greatly improve the potential applicability of dimensional management practices within the shipbuilding industry.