Welding is a major shipbuilding activity requiring a large amount of labor-intensive documentation. Not only is the time required for preparing, documenting and validating welding procedures costly, but in many instances improper documentation results in significant delays in the production schedule. Shipbuilders recognize that productivity could be enhanced through computerization of welding procedure information, as demonstrated by letters received from five major U.S. Shipyards which support the proposed effort. WeldWare proposes to develop an Intelligent Shipyard Welding Procedure (ISWP) system to reduce both costs and construction delays which result from improper welding procedure documentation submitted by suppliers. The proposed system meets the needs of the "Technology for Shipbuilding Affordability" topic by: ·Providing a means for electronic transfer of procedure data within shipyards and throughout the supply chain, ·Mistake-proofing the welding procedure generation and submittal process, and ·Reducing non-value added activities by automating the labor-intensive procedure checking process. The Phase 1 work will involve developing a preliminary system design, a demonstration of the technical feasibility of the design, and an estimate of the financial return-on-investment from deploying the system. In Phase 2 a pilot system will be constructed and deployed at Newport News for Aircraft Carrier procedure control. Benefits A user-friendly Intelligent Shipyard Welding Procedure (ISWP) system would have an immediate impact to reduce procurement costs throughout the shipyard supply chain. An ISWP system would eliminate significant labor expenditures and production delays which result from the inefficiencies of the current paper-based welding procedure control system. The ISWP would enable shipyards and their suppliers to accurately and quickly prepare procedure qualification records and allow the procedure users (i.e., planners, engineers, production trades) to easily identify the proper procedure for a given application. The following additional benefits would be realized by developing and deploying an ISWP system: ·Reduced supplier cost by providing an efficient means for procedure development, revision, searching, and submittal, ·Fewer delays in suppliers obtaining shipyard approval for welding procedures, ·Fewer shipyard production schedule disruptions due to rejection of supplier procedures, ·Better accuracy in preparing welding procedures, ·Automated review of vendor procedures will reduce the shipyard labor cost associated with the current review process, ·Improved consistency in procedure format between shipbuilders will support the NSRP data-sharing initiatives, ·Automatic searching for the proper procedure for an application will reduce the risk of selecting the wrong procedure and will provide greater degree of confidence in satisfying specification requirements, ·Reduce or eliminate need for paper copies of procedures. Keywords intelligent, expert system, welding procedure, database, shipbuilding, supply chain, cost reduction
