Title: Modeling the next-generation U.S. attack submarine with CATIA
Company: General Dynamics' Electric Boat Corporation, Groton, Connecticut
Case History Source:  http://www.catia.ibm.com/custsucc/appbrf/gdeb.pdf
Case History Author(s): Not given, IBM presumed.
Application:  The design and engineering of naval hardware and components for America’s next generation of fast-attack submarine, called the NSSN.
As-Is Process:  Manual coordination of the design and construction process, including traditional prototypes that require a large number of wooden mockups to be built to test out designs.
To-Be Process: Create the NSSN — from concept all the way through manufacturing simulation — on computers, even before the steel for the first boat is ordered. Electric Boat’s solution goes far beyond simple CAD, which still relies on traditional prototyping. With CATIA Solutions, Electric Boat’s design/build teams comprising designers, production workers, life-cycle support personnel and Electric Boat’s customer, the US Navy, can work concurrently to determine the best place to install pumps, pipes, air-conditioning ducts and other equipment by viewing and manipulating three dimensional digital mockups. Being able to view the entire design in 3D makes communicating ideas much easier and more effective. Product data management (PDM) handle the logistical details of manufacturing, from bill of materials details to ensuring that design changes are correctly sent from the engineers to the shop floor.
To-Be Technology:  CATIA Solutions, Version 4, IBM with PDM.
How-To Process:  Implementation details not included in case history.

ROI: Using CATIA Solutions has allowed Electric Boat to reduce the number of prototyping mockups by 75 percent.  No estimate of the return on PDM.
Other Benefits: Design reviews using the 3D model;  3D virtual model eliminated designs on paper; engineers create and test in a virtual reality CAD environment; guaranteed fit and assembly; detection and correction of potential design or manufacturing problems ahead of time and at minimal cost.  PDM stores, tracks and manages the tremendous number of parts, assemblies and data required to build a submarine.

Rating:  Fair
Comments:  No ROI on PDM, few implementation details, no cost information on on mockups.

Company Contact:

Not Given, quotations from Craig Haines, Vice-President of Electric Boat

Technology Contacts:

Not Given, quotations from Bernard Charles, President Dassault Systèmes (creators of CATIA).

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