Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 1998)

INVESTMENT IN DESIGN

The recent launching of 33,500- dwt Queen of the Netherlands at the Verolme Heusden yard on the

River Maas further illustrates

Dutch strengths in depth. The ves- sel will be a sister to the 1997- delivered WD Fairway, the world's largest trailer dredger in service.

The embodied design is distin- guished not only by its 23,425-cu.- m. hopper capacity, but also by a relatively shallow draft which con- fers considerable operating flexi- bility in channel dredging and land reclamation schemes.

Across the border, the Krupp

Group's success in attracting the deal for a new titan, a 33,0000-cu.- m. trailer dredger for Belgian con- tractor Jan De Nul, adds a finer edge to international competition and gives added reason for the entire absence of industrial com- placency on the part of the Dutch.

Condensing Time, Expanding

Potential

Time and available resources are fundamental considerations influ- encing every sector of the maritime business of late. Growing expecta- tions as to product standards, tech- nical precision and contractual performance, against a backcloth of reduced lead times, smaller establishment levels and increased project complexity, call for unerr- ing attention to ways of improving working methods.

Recognizing the competitive pressures faced by its client indus- tries, Lloyd's Register (LR) has developed a new software tool which promises to enhance effi- ciency in ship design and speed up the plan approval process. Known as ShipRight IS, it is an exemplary case of a classification body har- nessing new technology to serve practical, commercially related needs while strengthening the society's technical capabilities.

Scheduled to be installed this month in 14 plan approval offices around the world, the system's introduction follows the 1994 launch of the ShipRight package, which addressed ship safety issues at the design and construction stages and throughout a vessel's service life. The new ShipRight IS system provides the market with an integrated software system tak- ing full advantage of the latest IT (information technology) develop- ments. It has been devised to run all the ShipRight procedures from a central database, ranging from structural design and fatigue design assessment to hull condi- tion monitoring. But it will also assist shipbuilders to reduce the time from drawing board to ship launch, and thus to market, saving man-hours and strengthening competitiveness.

Key elements of the new system include a modular software archi- tecture and common database accessible by all calculation mod- ules, allowing closer integration with commercially available ship design systems. Use of the

Microsoft Windows operating sys- tem makes for a flexible interface.

ShipRightIS is therefore seen as a major step forward in the devel- opment of the society's services to owners and builders, offering scope

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