contributions to this paper.

As the leading providers of information technology solutions for the global shipbuilding industry, IBM and Dassault Systèmes have worked with many major yards, design companies and consultants, to understanding the shipbuilding process from concept to float-out and to identifying common challenges and devising innovative, end-to-end solutions. Highlights of that effort are offered in a new Thought Leadership Series of papers called Setting the Course and Strategy for Digital Shipbuilding. These papers are jointly authored by IBM and Dassault Systèmes. Each paper examines a different aspect of the challenges currently facing shipyards and the ways in which Product Lifecycle Management from IBM (PLM) has been designed to resolve them. This paper, “Digital Manufacturing: The Virtual Shipyard, ” is one in the series. It focuses on new technologies for production planning, including process simulation, facility design and layout, and digital manufacturing. Other topics in the series will include overviews of shipbuilding economics; IBM PLM Shipbuilding vision; solutions and offerings; best practices; and PDM, digital mockup and collaboration. Some papers in the series will b