Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2019)

HISTORY DESIGN EVOLUTION -isfaction ratings, our highest quality re- er…once again proving if you take care you look at the evolution of ship the ? eld of naval architecture. We were cordings and the highest Employee Sat- of the people, the people take care of the design, what do you count as the an early adapter of CAD and helped ad- isfaction scores in the 15 years of these customer. most in? uential/important technical vance its evolution since the late 1970’s. surveys. In an extremely tight job mar- advance? Since those early days we have seen ket, our attrition rate remains well under The manner in which ships are Computer Aided Design (CAD) con- various CAD programs mature, and the 10% per year. New employees have re- designed has evolved mightily since tinues to be the most in? uential and ability to model production information ferred to us as a “destination” employ- G&C opened its doors in 1929. When transformational technical advance in directly into plate cutters, pipe bending machines and other production tools has been the most in? uential technical ad- vance in the industry. In looking to the future CAD ? rms are developing Aug- mented Reality applications, and within the next decade we can see data being accessed by Arti? cial Intelligence appli- cations.

Gibbs & Cox has had a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Navy, a customer with high demands and expectations. What’s the secret for building and maintaining a strong relationship with this demanding customer?

I don’t see it as a secret, but a detailed understanding of the speci? cation, past performance and expert knowledge goes a long way. The Navy has done an excellent job rebuilding its internal world class capability since its engineer- ing workforce was gutted 25 years ago.

NAVSEA is respected worldwide for its depth and breadth of talent, capabilities and facilities. Our niche with our Navy customer are peer-level discussions.

Since we support the shipbuilding indus- try around the world, our detail design and production support capabilities offer a unique perspective to Navy programs and other government teams as well.

The U.S. Navy is unique in that it must project decades in advance its operational requirements, while maintaining a focus on today. What is the trick for a Gibbs & Cox to help design vessels that are – from cradle to grave – ef? cient and successful in their mission.

No tricks, it is always about customer alignment. Like any industry, listening to the customer is critical. For the Navy and future combatants, energy loads and how to most ef? ciently supply that en- ergy to future weapon systems (lasers, directed energy and electronic attack systems) is in? uencing today’s concepts.

Even for the Navy’s nascent surface ship autonomous missions, relating speci? ca- tions our commercial and recreational markets provides fresh insights to warf- ighting speci? cation tradeoffs. Naval ar- chitecture is very much an evolutionary business, and our breadth and depth offer a unique perspective for creative design and support alternatives. As such, we’ll have a number of 30+ year employees say “we did something like that in 1999, 42 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • OCTOBER 2019

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