Study of the ship design process model for collaborative design

Jourmal of Marine Science and Application, Vol. 4 , No.3 ,Septermber 2005Study of the ship design process model for collaborative designHE Ze, QIU Chang-hua, and WANG Neng jianSchool of Mechanical and Elecrical Engineering , Harbin Engineering University ,Harbin 150001 ,ChinaAbstract: The ship design process model is the basis for developing the ship collaborative design system under network environment.According to the characteristics of the ship design, a method for dividing the ship design process into three layers is pat forward, that isprojeet layer, design task layer and design activity layer, then the formalized definitions of the ship design proces model, the decom-posing principles of the ship design process and the architecture of the ship collaborative design ( SDPM) system are presented. Thismethod simplifies the activity network, makes the optimization and adjustment of the design plan convenient and also makes the designprocess easier to control and change, at last the architecture of the ship collaborative design system is discussed.Keywords: ship design; ship design process model; design task; design activity; ollaborative designCLC number:U662.9Document code:AArticle ID:1671 -9433(2005)03 -0024 -06Ship products belong to large comprehensive prod-INTRODUCTIONuct, with complex structure, high technical content,At present ，computer-supported collaborative andgreat difficulty in product development and design ,concurrent design is the basis for the further develop-long cycle and large outfit items and there exists largement of such technologies as virtual manufacturing, ag-amount of information for the ship products, in particu-ile manufacturing and network manufacturing. Concur-lar. The design stage is one of the key factors that de-rent design is a kind of integrated design method. Itermine the cost, quality and cycle of the product.emphasizes the reengineering of the process and theFurthermore, due to the diversity of the product andimprovement of the flow and requires to consider fullythe urgency of the design time, it often needs to designwhether the subsequent work can be achieved while inseveral products simultaneously, so ship design in-the prior stage of the product design，avoiding the ma-volves many organizations and companies ，includingjor modification between different design stages. Col-ship agent, shipyard, ship-maintenance plant, ship-laborative design inherits the essence of the concurrentowner, ship design institute， classification society,design, and it adopts the computer technology，multi-material supplier, ship equipment manufacturer and somedia technology and network communication technolo-on. Using network technology to construct the distribu-gy to support the designers ’work communication tech-ted collaborative design system which supports the shipnology to support the designers ’systematic work, mu-design can realize the sharing of the resource, maketual negotiation and cooperation in the sharing environ-the related designers ，technologists, ship-owners andment and forms distributed integrative design system.all kinds of experts overcome the difficulties on theSo adopting collaborative design technology to improvespace and time, by constructing the platform whichthe design system of the ship products is one of the ef-supports remote product collaborative design, they canfective measures to boost the competitive ability of the中国煤化工ship building industry.FYHCNMHGandmaingoupoftheReceived date:2005 -04 -15.ship work breakdown structure ( SWBS) will be de-Foundation item: Supported by Harbin Engineering UniversityFund Project ( NO. HEUFT04006 ) and Heilongjiang Scientificescribed. The concept and the design method of theResearch Project( NO. WC05A01 )code structure for the modern ship work breakdown.HE Ze ,et al:Study of the ship design process model for cllaborative design●25●structure ( MSWBS) will be introduced. The advanta-Based on this, in Ref [ 1]，the modem SWBSges and the defects of SWBS in the ship design processhas been put forward according to the conception ofwill be shown, and then the requirements and the us-zone construction, middle product and hull - outitingage of the ship design process during the practical de-- painting integration. Meanwhile， the theoreticalsign will be discussed. At last a new SDPM and its for-frame，developing principle， concrete investigatingmalized definition will be put forward, and its rationali- method of the information systerm of the project practicety has been proved through the development of the shipand management for the ship and ocean engineeringcollaborative design system.have also been established. The code structure isshown as Fig 1.2 SHIP WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURExXXXX一X_X xx-xXXXXX_X( SWBS)Project name codeProduct structure codeIn the 1970' s, American Navy put forward theOrganization Structure code Schedule structure codeconcept of the SWBS, which decomposed the ship ac-Fig. 1 MSW BS code structurecording to its function system, while in terms of theAccording to the project ’s internal structure orconcept of the zone construction, middle product andimplementing process， the work breakdown structurethe hull - oufiting - painting integration, MSWBS was( WBS) decomposes itself into the sub - projects thatput forward.are easy to manage, and then into the activities. WBSThe SWBS is used throughout the entire ship lifehas the advantages that it is intuitionistic and easy tocycle from early design and cost studies through pro-decompose. But when the complexity of the project in-duction and subsequent layup, including cost, weight,creases, the applicabilty of the WBS will decrease.specifications, system function and effectiveness, de-sign, production, and maintenance. All cassificationDifferent person will decompose the project diferently,so it will lead to the instability of the decomposinggroups are defined by a three- digit numeric code ac-structure tree of the WBS, which is harmful to the ac-cording to functional system, for example:cumulation and reuse of the knowledge. For the rela-000: General Guidance and Administration; 100 :Hull Structure; 200: Propulsion Plant; 300: Electrictionship between different activities is close, the localPlant; 400: Command and Surveillance; 500: Auxilia-adjustment after the decomposition will affect the struc-ry Systems; 600: Outfit and Furnishings; 700: Arma-ture of the activity network graph, then need the re -ment; 800: Integration Engineering; 900: Ship As-planning, when there are too many activities, it willbring difficulty to planning and controlling.sembly and Support Services.As to the project about the design， because of[ Group] 100 - Hull Strueturestrong innovation in the design process, it needs chan-[ Element]101 - General Arrangement - Struc-ges in different level , so the ship design process modeltural Drawingsis required to possess local adjustability. At the same[Subgroup] 110 - Shell and Supporting Structure[ Element ]111 - Shell Plating, Surface Shiptime，concurrent and collaborative design needs tomark all kinds of relations and startup conditions be-and Submarine Pressure Hulltween中国煤化工BS is incapable of112 - Shell Plating, Submarine Non- Pressure Hullthis,I:YC N M H Ggn process decom-position method and model which are easy to decom-[ Subgroup ]120 - Hull Structural Bulkheads121 - Longitudinal Structural Bull-pose, able to be adjusted locally and convenient for theflow control by computer.heads●26.Jourmal of Marine Science and Application, Vol. 4 ,No.3 ,September 2005Ship product data3 THE ANALYSIS OF SHIP DESIGN PROCESSDesign process dataSh ipyardAt present, when the ship building plan is madeClassification societyHistorical datain the domestic ship building enterprises，the primary,ShipownerShip designDesigning toolsecondary and detailed plans and schedules are madeManufacturing conditiorOutlay restrictionManaging personnelaccording to the experiences of the director withoutTime rstriction_Technical personnelhaving hierarchical decomposition of the ship buildingtask. Thus, though the planning system of the shipDesign requirementbuilding seems to be decomposed hierarchically andFig.2 Function diagram of Ship Designclearly from the top primary plan to the ultimate biShip design resource includes management, tech-weekly rlling operating plan, the absence of necessarynicians , design tools , historical design data and so on.mapping between each layer results in that the priorIn the ship design process, ship product data and de-plan can 't restrict and guide the subsequent plan, andsign process data are generated, ship product data isneither can the subsequent plan feedback to the priorthe description about one or a group of facts, concep-plan initiatively. So， it will be difficult to implementtions, related processes and requirements， while de-the dynamic management of the plans and it is necessa-sign process data derives from design product data.ry to have the research on the ship work breakdownUsually all the activities among the design task arestructure according to modern ship building mode.serial in sequence, such as establishment， verifica-Ship design includes three stages, that is, prima-tion, modification, auditing, confirmation and so on.ry design, detailed design and production design, andBut there are continuous modification to form local cir-it involves numerous design departments， personnelculation. Some design activities need to be treated con-and needs to produce large amount of drawings and re-currently，see Fig. 3, some design activities of screwports. Except for the sequence between the drawings ，propeller are parallel. It should make the design activi-continuous coordination is needed among the designty parallel to shorten the developing time, and the de-work in different specialties and departments, for ex-sign activities of similar design task are generallyample，before determining the hull block，need the co-fixed.Vacuole checkordination among the unit assembling requirements, theHydrodynamicDesignconsideration of the pre oufitting, block constructionAnalysisDesign Antensity analysisevaluatiocondition, working field and so on，any change comingTechnical designfrom goods reservation, ship-owner and ship inspectingagency must be coordinated in time. Coordination willFig. 3 Activity diagram of design task of propellrdirectly afect the design cycle and quality of the ship.4 SHIP DESIGN PROCESS MODELFrom Fig. 2, it indicates that ship design is aprocess which is under the restrictions of the time, out-The goal of ship design process model is to sup-lay, quality and the manufacturing conditions, usesport multi-role coordination, collaborative design andcertain resources and cooperates with ship-owner, clas-so on. Comouter suDort collaborative design is a novelsification society and shipyard according to design re-中国煤化工、mode put forward re-quirements to generate ship product data.JMHCN M H Gy many freign and do-mestic institutions and manufacturers. At the sametime, it is also a comprehensive modern design tech-nique. The core of collaborative design is task coopera-HE Ze ,et al:Study of the ship design process model for collaborative design●27.tion. At the beginning of one task, it need to considerFor example， as to two design activities， thethe possible problem that may occur in subsequentsemi-sequence relationship stands for group(Tp, T,tasks, and provide proper task decomposing and dis-D), T, and T, stands for two subtask or subtask set,tributing methods , send the task to the proper person attheir semi-sequence relationship indicales T, can not beproper time, and have communication between differ-executed until Tp is finished, D stands for the intervalent departments in time.between Tp and T, Tp =0 indicates after Tp is fin-Following is the formal definition of the ship de-ished, T, executes immediately.sign process model supporting collaborative design :AND relationship stands for group ( T, T;, Tp,Definition 1 ( project goal ): Project goal G T, D )，T and T; represent two subtask or subtaskstands for group(S, E, T)set. That T; and T; possess AND relationship indicatesS stands for the actual description of the projectit is not until all of them are finished that subsequentgoal;subtask can be executed; Tp and T, represent the priorE stands for the economic index of the projectand following subtask of T and T, D represents thegoal, which indicates the outlay restriction;time limit between T; and TjT stands for the time index of the project goal,OR relationship stands for group ( T, T, Tp,which indicates the time limit of the project goal.T, D ), the difference. to AND relationship lies in thatDefinition 2 ( design task ): design task Tanyone of T and T is finished can lead to the executionstands for group ( M, D, A, w,Q,Z )of the following operation T,M stands for the person who is in charge of theCirculating relationship stands for group ( T, N,design task ;D), T represents the subtask or subtask set that is exe-D stands for the time limit of the design task ;cuted circularly ,N represents the circulating amount ofA stands for the design activity set of the designT,D=( D, D2, ... D,) describes the interval be-task;tween diferent circulations respectively.W stands for the input document set of prior de-Definition 5 ( project ): project P stands forsign stage of the design task ;group(G,r,M,E,P,P,R,H)Q stands for the reference document set of similarG stands for the project goal to be achieved ;products of the design stage;T stands for all the design task sets belonging toZ stands for the output document set of the design the project;task.M stands for the administrator of the project;Definition3 ( design activity ): design activity AH stands for the members of the project team;stands for group( H, D, R,K )E stands for the abnormal exit set when errors oc-H stands for the missionary set for executing the cur during the task execution ;design activity;Pj stands for parent project;D stands for the time limit of the design activity ;P: stands for subproject set;R stands for the resource set which is distributedR stands for project relationship ，including par-to the design activity ;K stands for the relationships of the design activity.ent-son中国煤化工，ion above, P,=φ! relationship.Definition4 ( design activity relationship ): de-indicatMHCNMH GP: = φ indicatessign activity relationship can be divided into four clas-the project is basic project.ses: semi-sequence relationship, AND relationship,Definition 6 ( ship design ): ship design SOR relationshin and circulating relationship .stands for group( G, P, r, W,R )●28●Journal of Marine Science and Application, Vol 4, No.3 ,September 2005P stands for all the subproject sets involved ;tain the managing personnel, designing personnel andT stands for all the design task sets involved ;auditing personnel simultaneously. The project teamW stands for all the design task relationship setsand design group and be able to establish the responsi-involved;bility and the organizing relation.R stands for all role sets participating in the whole5 THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SHIP COL-work.LABORATIVE DESIGN SYSTEMAccording to the above definition，the decomposi-tion of the ship design can be executed on the level ofThe goal of the integrated ship collaborative de-project, design task and design activity. From the defi-sign frame is to realize the remote design and manufac-nition of the design task, each design task may includeturing of the product, resource sharing and to supportseveral input documents and reference documents ,the cooperation between different enterprises and pro-constitutes the collaborative relationship of latitude ,vide one collaborative working platform for the design-namely current design, and longitude, namely histori-ers dispersed in different places and to manage allcal record, and at the same time expresses the anfrac-kinds of product data and store them in proper struc-tuous association between different projects.ture, at last, to respond to the users’data request inThe process of project task decomposition and rolethe best way and fastest access speed.distribution is also the process for the establishment ofFig.4 shows the system for the integration of thethe project team. Through optimized algorithm, workship collaborative design and development, it providescan be arranged reasonably to corresponding person.the function of resource sharing and information inte-Because the role-design activity is time-related, by thegration for ship product development. The four layersmanagement of role purview, it is expedient to achieveof this system are described as following:the management of the all kinds of persons. The above1) Database layer: the databases of each partnermodel has following characteristics:enterprise form the distributed product databases and e1) The project can be decomposed recursively in-lectric storehouse through internet; this layer is mainlyto the ultimate relatively independent sub-projects, theresponsible for the permanent access of data.sub-project can be classified as design task and design2) Collaborative service layer: it consists of aactivity，which constitute the activity network graphgroup of servers, including web server, FTP server,with design tasks to have the planning, analyzing,safety server, communication server , system monitoringmanaging, etc. Further detailed work can also be doneserver，database interface server, log server and so on.based on the design activity network graph.It also offers the function of remote sharing of tools and2) Clarify the concurrent relation, sequent rela-data resource, tool integration ，information exchangetion and coordinating relation between the designand etc.tasks, provide the convenience for the development of3) Management layer: it mainly consists of di-the coordinating and concurrent design.verse managing software used by the system administra-3) Design activities between different design tasks tor ，including user management, project management,are independent relatively, under the condition of notmanagement and etc.中国煤化工affecting the whole requirements of the design tasks, itmanagement, systemonly needs to adjust the design activity locally, whileCNMH Ginagement, system mo-need not to re-layout the whole ship design project,nitoring, data backup and system update particularly.and improve the controllable property.4) Ship design layer: it is the platfrm for the de-万芳数锯decomposing of the ship design can ascer-signers to complete the design tasks， with relevantHE Ze ,et al :Study of the ship design process model for collaborative design.29.worktable, all kinds of designers accomplish the corre- [3] KOEING P C,CHRISTENSEN W L. Development and im-sponding work through related aided Agents.plementation of modemn work breakdown structure in navalconstruction;a case study[ J]. Journal of Ship Production,WorkflowProduectElectric K nowldege Basic Database1999 ,15(3):136 - 145.Database databasstorehousestrochousedatabase layer[4] JIN Chaoguang, LIN Yan, JI Zhuoshang. Moderm workbreakdown structure of the ship building[ J]. China ShipBuilding , 2002 ,43(4) :85 - 89( in chinese).Design, test, Web/FTP Workflow Catalog DatabaseSystemcomnutatiom IServer. sche dulinglserverinterface monitor[5] GAO Jiegu, YU Zhaorong. Moderm ship building engineer-computation,aftvserver. Commnunic-server ingsimulation-ation servering[ M]. Harbin: Harbin Engineering University, 1998( in.Collaborative service layer.chinese).Management layerUser | Meeting Product data Knowledge Productpmanage Imanage management pmanagement information |HE Ze was borm in 1977 and received his-ment . mentmodelmanagementB. S. degree in Mechanical Manufacture andEquipment in 2000 and the M. S. degree inMechanical Manufacture and Automation in| PorjectProjectCoordinatingDesignShipmonitoring i managermeetingpersonnel design2003 at Harbin Engineering University re-wordtable worktable worktable worktable| layerspectively, now he is a Ph. D candidate forFig. 4 Architecture of ship collaborative design systemMechanical Design and Theory, his research interest is collabo-rative design.6 CONCLUSIONSQIU Chang-hua was borm in 1944According to the characteristic of the ship designand graduated in ship-internal-combustionengine major from the ship building depar-and the present situation of computer application, onement of the Dalian institute of technology .method is put forward which decomposes the ship de-Now he is a professor and doctoral supervi-sign process into three layers as project, design tasksor in School of Mechanical and Electricaland design activity in this paper and establishes a shipEngineering, Harbin Engineering University, China. He is thedesign process model which supports collaborative de-authors or co- authors of more than 30 papers in national and in-sign and concurrent design， and presents the formal-termational journals and conference proceedings, including 4ized definition of the ship design process model.books. As the project charger, he has finished two national sci-Through the development of the ship collaborative de-entific research task, one of which has won the third award insign system, it proves that adopting the decomposingChinese Ship Parent Company. His research interests includemethod is propitious to arrange the plan and layout theship building, STEP ,CAD and CIMS.schedule, and the design process possesses better al-WANG Nengjian was bom in 1962 and re-terability and is easy to manage.ceived his B. S. degree in mechanical engi-REFERENCES:neering in 1982 and Ph. D in the design andbuilding of the ship and ocean structure at[1] JIN Chaoguang. Study on ship production managenent andHarbin Engineering University respectively ,supply chain inegration [ D]. Dalian: Dalian Institute ofhe has published more than 20 academicTechnology ,2002( in chinese) .papers a中国煤化工s iclude CMS, ol-[2] WANG Nengjian. Studies on the agent-based ship collabora-laborativ:YHCNMHGtive design based on the intermet [ D]. Harbin: Harbin En-gineering University , 2003( in chinese).