Over 40 people attended the discussion group titled "Information Systems and Data Processing Problems." There were seven shipyards represented as well as several areas within the Navy and a few other organizations. The yards represented ranged from small organizations with only about 30 people in data processing to very large organizations with over 200 people in data processing and a budget greater than $20 million per year for data processing services. Six out of the seven yards represented stated that they had two or more IBM systems in their data processing organizations. Other systems mentioned were a Univac, a Honeywell and some mini-systems for unique applications.

The major shipyards that utilize SPADES and Call and Associates have organized a user group. Annual two-day SPADES user meetings are held in danuary of each year to discuss problems and improvements to the system. The SPADES steering committee meets just after the user meeting and again in dune (in conjunction with the REAPS meeting) to make official decisions on problems improvements or changes. At these sessions, priorities for Call and Associates to work toward are established. A problem identification form and a suggestion and improvement form were designed and adopted with a procedure for informing Call and Associates and all SPADES users about changes or problems within the system. Call and Associates assigns a unique identification number to these forms and submits comments. The Steering Committee serves as a catalyst to Call and Associates for constant improvement of the SPADES System.

SPARDIS provides NASSCO with a tool to use one of its most valuable resources - information. SPARDIS is designed to provide various levels of management with the information they need to better perform their function. It is intended that the task of providing this information be accomplished with the least amount of paper work. To do this, all of the SPARDIS information is in the form of on-line, real time, data inquiry and update. Data is collected, updated and maintained for the system through a network of communications terminals. These terminals are located where data is originated, the system user area. The communications terminals are located throughout the shipyard at strategic locations for both inquiry and update. Responsibility for data input is placed in the area organizationally responsible for its creation and maintenance. The teleprocessing system permits decisions to be made based on the latest information available. As a management tool for planning and scheduling SPARDIS provides: .Explicit Schedule and instructions to make parts, assemble components install. equipment, etc.

With shipbuilding capacity worldwide well in excess of demand and competition for orders extremely fierce, shipyards must ensure that all resources are used effectively. Each man on the shop floor, each foreman and manager must be able to carry out the work required of him - which means that he must be provided with all the required information on the work to be done and the means to carry it out. The competition for orders, quite apart from resulting in shorter lead times, has resulted in shipyards building a wider range of products than was envisaged even a short time ago. The potential. variety of individual operations within a shipyard in this situation is much higher than in the case of a single product facility. The information channels used in this production system are similarly going to require greater capacity, speed and accuracy. SPCS is a flexible and uncomplicated approach to production control, aiming to supplement management rather than to replace management decision making by black-box decision rules. It consists of a set of inter-tied modules, each of which is executed either manually or by batch computer processing or on-line, depending on local circumstances.

When the decision was made to proceed with the development of the Interactive Graphics version of the SPADES System, a list of requirements and goals was made. One of the major considerations was to have total interchangeability between the graphic and the batch mode of the System such that rework could be processed easily, whether the original work had been done through the 'CRT' or in batch. As much as we would like to think otherwise, experience has taught us that changes and revisions are an ever present way of life during the ship design and construction process. The requirement was also set that none of the SPADES management and control features would be compromised because of the graphic. In order for the graphic version to be a useful production tool, the user would have the capability of totally checking parts and/or burning tapes generated through the CRT without having to wait for a drafting machine drawing and/or computer printout. It was also decided that the user would have the capability of switching from one program to another directly from the tube without re-initializing any program at the central computer. The plans called for four CRTs to be on simultaneously, and for at least one batch SPADES program to be also running at the same time. This requirement caused the only major modification of the then existing SPADES System in order to allow different programs to read and write records from the same data base at the same time. By combining the use of virtual memory capability of the computer and judicious use of overlay, all the applicable programs have been linked together in one executable module.

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