The world's first! 100% No Drawing Shipyard Born

Samsung Heavy Industries announced that starting from October, all shipbuilding operations will fully utilize "3D digital production drawings". At this point, all paper materials such as production drawings and inspection documents required for the ship design and construction process have "disappeared", and Samsung Heavy Industries has become the first "100% blueprint free shipyard" in the shipbuilding industry.

Paper drawings may cause cost losses and project delays due to frequent design changes, drawing damage, or operator misreading of drawings. However, using digital production drawings can intuitively confirm the ship's segmented structure and function, provide real-time communication between design and production, provide accurate information, improve production efficiency, and prevent quality degradation.

Samsung Heavy Industries expects to save 600000 paper production drawings annually by adopting digital production drawings. Based on the outfitting design drawings, it is expected to save 45% of LNG transport ship design time. In order to implement digital and mobile work environments, Samsung Heavy Industries plans to provide 3000 tablet computers by 2025 and continue to promote performance improvements so that workers can easily use them.

Samsung Heavy Industries has been formulating and implementing the "Smart Samsung Heavy Industries" digital transformation strategy since 2019, which utilizes digital technology to promote business innovation throughout the entire shipbuilding process, including design, procurement, and production. The plan is to use new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital twins to further transform into an intelligent and autonomous shipyard ahead of schedule.

3D modeling "is the most representative business in" intelligent SHI ". In the past, employees of Samsung Heavy Industries' production department had to flip through dozens of drawings and imagine what the finished product would look like every time they made a specific part. If you are not an experienced "old hand" in the work, there will often be differences between the finished product and the drawings. Now, employees can view the 3D models of finished products in real time by running the Samsung Heavy Industries' Symphony application installed on their tablets. By referring to this, it is possible to confirm which part of the product the self-made parts are ultimately placed in, what materials are required, and where the relevant materials are stored in the shipyard's warehouse. If there is a shortage of inventory materials, reservations can also be made through this application.

A Samsung Heavy Industries official said, "In the past, for every ship built, the production department needed to use nearly 60000 working drawings, but now there is no need to produce such drawings
It is reported that as early as 2016, Samsung Heavy Industries began to introduce design techniques based on 3D models and apply them to shipbuilding projects. However, in order to obtain certification from classification societies, shipyards also need to remake additional 2D drawings. This is because shipyards must obtain various permits from classification societies that meet the requirements of relevant regulations and rules, and carry out operations based on approved drawings.

In response to this issue, in July 2020, Samsung Heavy Industries signed an agreement with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) to build a "3D model-based ship design certification process". Based on the existing 2D paperless digital 3D model, a new process for design verification and certification business can be constructed, and it will be applied on the LNG ship that Samsung Heavy Industries started construction on that year.

As of 2021, Samsung Heavy Industries has been using both 2D drawings and 3D modeling simultaneously. The company has decided to conduct operational testing only through 3D modeling when producing specific parts in the first half of 2022, and to fully introduce 3D modeling to all departments by 2023.

At the beginning, many workers felt uncomfortable working with tablets in their hands and were unwilling to use them, but after a period of adjustment, everyone has become very natural now, "said Li Zhongnan, Director of Samsung Heavy Industries'" Intelligent SHI "Affairs Bureau

The comprehensive application of 3D digital production drawings is an important milestone in the digital transformation of the shipbuilding industry, "said Li Wanggen, Vice President of Samsung Heavy Industries and Director of Juji Shipyard." The company will continue to expand the application of new digital technologies and build an intelligent comprehensive management infrastructure for the entire company