The Impact of Producibility on Cost and Performance in Naval Combatant Design

Will the US Navy take producibility seriously in the next surface combatant? It is not easy to challenge yesterday's design paradigms and standards. Combatant ship designers have been conditioned to optimize performance and minimize risk. Producibility enhancements can cut cost, but some compromise in performance is expected, and change implies risk. A rational approach to producibility requires that we understand the total impact of producibility enhancements on cost, performance and risk. This understanding must be applied through concurrent engineering from the very beginning of the ship design process. Engineering and cost models must be reliable, practical and sensitive to the cost and performance impact of producibility enhancements. This paper describes a concept design case study which evaluates producibility enhancements in hull form and primary structure. A comparison is made between producible DDG design variants and DDG-51, but conclusions are directed at future combatant designs such as SC-21. Conclusions emphasize areas for further research and the need to address producibility in concept design as part of a total ship design approach using Navy-industry integrated product teams (IPT's).