Jul 11 2014
SCRA today announced three new projects for their Shipbuilding Center of Excellence, the Center for Naval Shipbuilding Technology (CNST).
CNST, managed and operated by SCRA Applied R&D, is a Navy ManTech Center of Excellence, chartered by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop advanced manufacturing technologies and deploy them in U.S. shipyards.
The first new project is a partnership with General Dynamics-Electric Boat (GDEB) and the Institute for Manufacturing and Sustainment Technologies (iMAST) to develop a Trade Friendly Dimensional Locating Metrology System. The project team recently started the 18 month plan to determine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of new measurement technologies to support submarine platform manufacturing processes at the GDEB facilities.
For the other two projects, SCRA/CNST is teamed with Huntington Ingalls Industries - Ingalls Shipbuilding (Ingalls) to support Ingalls’ digital vision and strategy. CNST and Ingalls recently started two complementary projects that are focused on optimizing the use of electronic data to support complex shipbuilding industry processes. The first is a two year project focused on cycle time reduction by combining data entry with mobile scanning devices to ensure visibility, traceability and accountability for all materials throughout the logistics process.
The second project will develop an automated, flexible system that will be used to effectively allocate manufacturing and assembly spaces in the shipyard. This enables planners to adapt to schedule changes and reassign work area much more rapidly than is possible using the current, manual method.
“These recent projects further the Shipbuilding Center of Excellence's mission and are strong indicators of the Navy's sustained commitment to CNST," said SCRA CEO Bill Mahoney. "SCRA has proven that through applied research and advanced technology applications, we can substantially reduce costs and increase efficiencies for our clients such as the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense."
The U.S. Navy sponsors nine Centers of Excellence that develop technologies to assure that the U.S. Navy remains the most technologically advanced Navy in the world. Two of the nine (CNST and the Composites Manufacturing Technology Center (CMTC)) are led by SCRA and headquartered in South Carolina.