It is estimated that more than 80 percent of a naval ship's ultimate acquisition cost is locked in during concept design. For many class of ships, this means tens of billions of dollars tied to a design that may not meet the original objective without new design changes. An "ad hoc" process for making critical design decisions is unacceptable. Without Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) early, and throughout, the ship design process, designers cannot make accurate decisions and they definitely cannot make the decisions early enough in the process to avoid the cost and schedule growth evident in the industry today. The Engineous team has developed a solution that will meet and exceed the Navy's requirements by delivering a: o Agile design environment that facilitates rapid design creation and modification. o The integration of all commercial and legacy ship design tools with MDO technology. o Robust designs developed in the face of uncertainty of data input. The methodology described in this proposal does not replace imagination and experience. It provides a practical tool to manage a complex total-system problem that cannot be managed by experience and intuition alone. It represents an essential change in how we do naval ship concept design. Benefits from the Engineous proposal: o Integrated mission effectiveness, ship performance and ship design tools with MDO capabilities o Designs that account for uncertainty in input data o Reduction in time to develop a feasible design. o Exploration of multiple design's in the same or less time than it takes today to develop single design o Robust designs o Reduction in development cost o Reduction in schedule creep o Better design collaboration with partners and contractors o Built in security With a system like the one proposed in our solution the American shipbuilders would have a new tool to help them compete in the world ship building industry. With offices in Japan, Korea, China, Great Britain, France and Germany, Engineous is the only MDO technology vendor that has the ability to support our manufacturers worldwide.
Keywords: MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGN OPTIMIZATION, MISSION EFFECTIVENESS, AFFORDABLE SHIP DESIGN, ROBUST
