606. Application of Electronic Data Processing Techniques to Weight Control of Naval Vessels During the Detail Design and Constr

Paper

Abstract

Weight Control as applied to naval shipbuilding should accomplish exactly what the name implies; ‘Control of Weight.’ In many instances however, weight control procedures have been only marginally successful due to the lack of methods and manpower necessary to cope with the constantly changing effects of contract modifications, design developments, and various other complicating
factors.
In order to better maintain control of weight data during this critical period, quite a number of ship design and construction facilities have adopted electronic data processing techniques. Many of the ‘computerized’ weight control systems now in use however, are in actuality automated hand calculations and make use of the computer only as a semi-automatic printing device. This approach is often more costly than hand methods and although same time can be saved, the weight engineer may have even less control over weight data due to the extra steps involved.
What is needed is a whole new approach to the weight control problem utilizing electronic data processing as a fundamental tool. Procedures must be established that will integrate weih1 control with other allied areas such as plan scheduling and development, material take-off, change order negotiation, and quality assurance. Programming a computer to Co the total job of weight control is practical only after the desired goals have been more concretely defined.
This paper discusses some of those ambiguous areas (at least to a computer’s way of ‘thinking’) encountered while writing a series at ‘weight engineer oriented’ programs for a small scale digital computer. A system that has been established to help integrate weight control with the rest of the design effort is described along with other suggestions for the preparation, manipulation, and extraction of the data needed for the weight engineer to indeed maintain ‘control of weight’.