Smart European Shipbuilding

Europe is a global leader in the construction of complex vessels, such as large cruise ships, offshore support vessels, ferries and mega-yachts. Shipbuilding is a key industry in a number of EU Member States, strongly connected with the excellence of the European waterborne transport infrastructure. In this context, the EU-funded SEUS project will create a framework for European shipyards by developing an integrated platform that combines the most modern shipbuilding life-cycle management with computer-aided design, manufacturing, engineering and product data software. SEUS will develop novel practices for human-centric knowledge management, data-driven AI design elements, intelligent technology and an Industry 5.0 concept for shipbuilding. The overall goal is to improve efficiency in all production stages – from engineering to assembly and construction – at European shipyards.

The Smart European Shipbuilding project (SEUS) aims to create a framework for European shipyards by architecting and developing an integrated platform for a combined solution incorporating CAE, CAD, CAM, and PDM software and testing it at shipyards. The new platform solution will be built with the best EU shipbuilding expertise provided by academic and industrial consortium participants. It will develop novel practices for human-centric knowledge management, data-driven AI design elements, intelligent technology, and Industry 5.0 concept for shipbuilding.

The consortium partners represent state-of-the-art development in three main areas: computational tools development, industrially applied research, and the end-users of the new technology – shipyards.

The ambition is to achieve up to a 30% time-saving in engineering and up to 20% time-saving in assembly and construction at European shipyards. The elimination of gaps in digital information flows and the optimisation of work processes present the area for time and cost optimisation, providing significant economic impacts on shipbuilding.

Identified impacts include development of computational platform solution, facilitation of digital transformation of shipbuilding, traceability and integration of early design impact the design process, competitive advantage for EU shipbuilders through time savings in design and production stages, expansion of shipyard’s exposure to ship’s life cycle: for retrofit, revitalisation, use of data from operation and maintenance, human-centric shipbuilding knowledge management, and EU workforce skills and expertise development.

Each work package contributes to the main goal – the development of the new computational toolset, taking into account the target user groups’ needs, new research in industry and technology, integration and interoperability aspects of the platform, the novel human-centric approach, and the needed support processes for project management and dissemination.

More information about the project can be found at the project website.