The total design and production of a new product is particularly a problem for large projects, for example special purpose ships and offshore structures, where a close co-operation and control is demanded by owners, classification societies and officials in general. In today's situation, lacking as it is in new orders, the builder is often forced by the terms of the contract to spend only a very short period of time on design activities. Shortening the leadtime for design and work preparation is as very important for the ability of a company to compete. Preferably this shortening of lead- time must not induce extra costs or be at the expense of product quality. Based on our experiences in the use of EDP as well as our plans for further development, we will focus on what has been done and what may still be done to strengthen our competitiveness in this area.

Proceedings of the REAPS Technical Symposium. Paper No. 16: AUTOKON-76/79-An Affordable Implementation on Prime Minicomputers. The version that is about to be implemented on the PRIME mini computer is basically AUTOKON-79 which may be defined as AUTOKON-79 with some improvements as well as several major new features. The very rapid development of the computer industry with steadily falling prices have changed the outlook with respect to computers and their uses. It is presently feasible to use inhouse computers even for very small operations to run the entire AUTOKON system with its present capabilities as well as the developments that are about to be implemented. The traditional way of processing in a batch made with a waiting time for turnaround have given way to an interactive mode of processing where results come much sooner. Gone are also keypunching, job submission, etc. No longer is it necessary to have large number of pages printed out. Output can be examined by means of an editor, i.e. a system program enabling the user to go through print files as well as other files.

REAPS AUTOKON has emerged over the last three years as a valuable production tool in shipbuilding. Having its roots in the AUTOKON-71 System developed by Shipping Research Services (SRS) of Norway, REAPS AUTOKON consists of twelve independent computer programs communicating with a common database.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate to its readers that it is possible for a shipyard, the size of Zigler, to maintain a small but an effective engineering group provided it is supported by a powerful tool like PRELIKON. Further, an inhouse engineering department in a shipyard reduces communication gaps between engineering and production, thus giving rise to increased productivity.

Proceedings of the REAPS Technical Symposium. Paper No 3: Navy Manufacturing Technology Program.

The planning environment in American shipyards has undergone a change[of technique and attitude with the upswing in use of computers. Traditional planning mechanisms have given way to PERT networks and sophisticated data collection and reporting computer systems. This transition has not been as successful as was intended as evidenced by the planning and scheduling problems faced by many of these computerized yards. Data processing was moved from the basic accounting arena into operations research and massive production-oriented systems which has diluted the planning effort. This is caused by planners which have not evolved from production, a planning attitude that the computer can solve all problems. and management's inability to recognize the shortcomings of computer software. Technology is available to assist the shipyard with total planning and complete ship's plans and schedules. However planning. in itself, must be adapted to use this computer technology and not be driven by it.

Proceedings of the REAPS Technical Symposium. Paper No. 12: Network Scheduling of Shipyard Production, Engineering, and Material Procurement.