Reducing costs and increasing productivity in ship maintenance using product lifecycle management, 3D laser scanning, and 3D printing

Abstract

The Department of Defense (DOD) spends an enormous amount of money on maintenance. For fiscal year 2011, the DOD spent almost $80 billion. Of this amount, the Navy spent almost $5.5 billion on ship depot maintenance. Going forward, the amount of money available for all DOD activities is expected to be reduced because of budgetary pressures. Unlike the budget, the need for deployed units and the maintenance to keep them operating is increasing. Given this challenge, the Navy needs to find ways to reduce costs while retaining readiness. Reducing maintenance costs is a promising way to help achieve this goal. The purpose of this thesis is to use knowledge value added (KVA) methodology to identify additional cost savings that can be achieved in the ship maintenance (SHIPMAIN) process by implementing information technologies. Specifically, the technologies considered in this study are 3D printing, product lifecycle management, and 3D laser scanning. Using the current process as a baseline, KVA is applied to two notional scenarios, one using 3D printing only and one using all three technologies to reengineer the current process. The KVA methodology establishes evidence indicating that costs would be decreased by nearly $120 million a year and shipyard productivity would increase.