Leveraging the digital twin for shipyard infrastructure optimization
As part of a major shipyard infrastructure optimization and modernization project, the US Navy is using modeling and simulation tools to improve the layout of its facilities and boost productivity.
When people hear the term “digital twin”, they often think about a digital representation of a product or asset and how it behaves or is manufactured. While that is often true, one of the overlooked elements of a true digital twin is the process by which an asset is sustained.
Siemens is actively working with the United States Navy to create a digital twin of their depot facilities to monitor their status during the maintenance cycles of their assets. By utilizing Tecnomatix Plant Simulation from Siemens Digital Industries Software, the team is actively building a process model to understand what takes place at those depots during maintenance of their aircraft carriers, submarines and aircraft. This digital twin will provide a robust understanding of how the maintenance teams operate today but will also provide a foundation for the future. As the United States Department of Defense looks to modernize their repair facilities, this same digital twin will be deployed to model improvements of both facilities and processes and understand what their impact to the overall repair process is. In essence, these models can be used to quantify the spend for those improvements and provide a deep understanding of what the return will be.
For more information on the US Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan (SIOP) click here.
Tecnomatix Plant Simulation provides our customers the ability to simulate, visualize, analyze and optimize their production systems and logistics processes. Using Plant Simulation enables them to optimize material flow, resource utilization and logistics for all levels of plant planning, from global facilities and local plants to specific production lines. In times of increasing cost and time pressures in sustainment of assets along with highly distributed supply chains, logistics has become a key factor in the success of an asset. The need to deliver on time and in sequence, introduce lean manufacturing principles, plan and build new production and repair facilities, and manage global repair networks requires objective decision criteria to help evaluate and compare alternative approaches. For more information on Tecnomatix Plant Simulation click here.
