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Minimization of production cost by use of an automatic cost assessment method and simulation

Abstract:

This paper will present different ways to minimize cost in shipbuilding industry. Amongst them we have the production simulation methods, the cost assessment methods and the optimization methods. Nowadays, cost assessment is a key task of an integrated ship design. The various methods to estimate the production cost differ with the known information (input data). The less information is detailed, the earlier a method can be used in the design process. The more information is used, the better. We can assess the differences between design alternatives. The methods presented here and the 'design for production' concept promise to increase the productivity through the following points: a more accurate cost estimation, an improvement in the deadlines planning and the production schedule, a progress in distribution of the workload between the various production workshops, a better knowledge of the individual costs that will permit to reduce the global cost. In order to illustrate our work, we present in this paper three methods to decrease the global cost of a ship.