TRANSFORM Another element of the NNSFORWARD Strategy focuses on business transformation and leveraging shipbuilders’ collective talents to work smarter, not harder. That means better understanding the interaction between shipbuilder and machine, and identifying new ways of doing things to make shipbuilding more efficient. Think of email versus mail. It’s not about digitizing today’s processes—it’s about discovering how to do things differently. The shipyard is moving from traditional paper blueprints to digital formats, making work easier to understand and visualize. It’s called Integrated Digital Shipbuilding (iDS), and as the name suggests, it’s an integration of digital technology across the shipyard. Laser scanning technology was also used to make shipbuilding more efficient during the planning of the USS George Washington (CVN 73) Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH). Laser scanning is being used to analyze existing ship spaces during ship checks and develop visual work instructions, which significantly reduces the cost and the time it takes to plan work for RCOHs. Also making its mark on the shipyard is industrial Augmented Reality, which allows shipbuilders to see digital information like safety warnings or the placement of future structure overlaid onto their physical surroundings – well before anything is permanently built. And shipbuilders are printing metal ship parts, a process also known as additive manufacturing (AM). In 2019, the first certified 3D-printed metal part—a prototype piping assembly—will be installed on USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Creativity isn’t limited to the current workforce working inside the yard. NNS is also hiring and training new shipbuilders who are already wired with a technological mindset, and the shipyard is working to leverage the skills of its supply chain. Shipbuilding is a team sport; it requires a team approach.
Pipefitter Joshua Hux (X42) is one of hundreds of John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) craftsmen who have received mobile devices to use in their daily work, and shipbuilders are building the early structural units for the new Enterprise (CVN 80) right now almost completely digital.
Foreman Tyrone Armstrong (X11) uses a tablet to check progress on the construction of John F. Kennedy (CVN 79).
Inspector Crystal Adams (O38) uses a visual weld locator to detect imperfections in a weld. The visual weld locator is a revolving tablet that displays a 3D visual work instruction to help locate weld joints on a large component.
Blake Penix (X33), who is working on the refueling and complex overhaul of USS George Washington (CVN 73), said that Integrated Digital Shipbuilding (iDS) is making the entire process more efficient.