Lean Design Optimization in Early-Stage Warship Design: Reduced Work Content and Variation and Design Alignment with Manufacturing

As illustrated in Figure 1, Asian navies are building larger warships that are easier to construct, easier to maintain, and that have greater service life allowances for future combat system upgrade. They are also doing this at significantly lower acquisition and life-cycle costs than US practice. A critical element in their ship design process is the aggressive application of production engineering and lean design optimization in early-stage design. The lean design method was first developed by Ford and Toyota Motors in the 1980's and it has been applied by Japanese and Korean shipbuilders as a strategic design practice since the mid 1990's. In depth interviews with Japanese and Korean shipyard design and production engineering executives identified that they utilize early-stage production engineering and lean design optimization to reduce work content, reduce design variation and ensure design alignment with their highly developed ship manufacturing processes. In fact, Asian shipyard design executives report they have achieved up to 50% reduction in work content and variation through lean design optimization, Jaquith (2017). "We reduced auxiliary machinery, pipe, valves, cable, and automation interfaces >50% over a period of 10 years thru lean design" by Manager Basic Design, IHI "50% of the cost difference in Korean vs. North American shipbuilding is in Basic Design work scope" by Manager Basic Design and Chief Technical Officer, DSME The NEJ article "Asian vs. US Warship Design, Production Engineering, and Construction Practice" by Jaquith (2019) describes the modern warship design and production engineering practices observed in world-class Asian shipyards. This article will address their early-stage production engineering and lean design optimization practices that reduce work content, reduce design variation and ensure design alignment with their warship manufacturing processes. Experience has shown that broad application of these world-class warship design practices offers strategic cost, schedule and quality savings vs. traditional design techniques which minimize weight and space.