How the industry 4.0 could affect the shipbuilding world

Abstract

The marine structures are developed with Computer Aided Design (CAD) platforms, but every day we are looking for integrated development of the product involving all its Life Cycle. CAD system integrated with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and from the PLM we can conceive all the design but also control the production and include the use of the vessel. The PLM can contain information of all systems of the vessel and also all its components. If the components are designed for the Internet of Ships (IoS) it will have technology that allows to share their situation, diagnosis, functionality with the PLM system which distributes the initial design. The PLM system can use this information for knowing whether they are working properly or if we can improve its performance. It is also possible to identify whether it is necessary to make maintenance of the object or if it is necessary to replace it because its life ends or because it's working wrongly. It will be possible to determine and evaluate its performance comparing to other similar components or comparing to it different operating periods. It will also be possible to know how their performance affects the functioning of the whole product, i.e., the vessel. Furthermore, if the connection of the objects is realized with its PLM, it would be possible to record their history status, make change tracking, and know what is its function or its performance after realizing programmed maintenance. In case of a vessel, this connectivity will be extended to the commercial mission to act autonomously in operation conditions. A commercial vessel can transmit its navigation situation, load situation, the things to be discharged or to be recharged. All these means a huge amount of information to be managed and analysed. New programs have to be developed to obtain the best use of such information so that the design can be improved from real function information of the design and it can be self-maintained with the connection with this huge cloud information to create method that the objects can achieve certain "Intelligence".The growth of the IoS is linked to the increase of Information and the management of Big Data, with the property that somehow IoS identifies Information and direction and order to a specific purpose, while the concept of Big Data is more generic. The possibilities are countless, but the beginning is the same. It must begin in the initial design. It is necessary to consider what is needed to correctly fulfill the mission of the atomic elements. These requirements must be configurable in the initial design from where it will be extended to relations between each of them with other entities. CAD is one of the first steps, because it is where begins to collect systematically the concept of each component. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to explain why it is necessary to provide CAD tools to carry out the design for IoS