DECISION-BASED DESIGN - A CONTEMPORARY PARADIGM FOR SHIP DESIGN

Abstract

For decades ships have been designed using the well-known “basis ship approach ” together with the equally well-known Evans-Buxton-Andrews spiral. The two principal limitations of the spiral are that the process of design is assumed to be sequential and the opportunity to include life cycle considerations is limited. It is our contention that in order to increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of the process of ship design a new paradigm for the process of design is needed. In this paper, we review recent developments in the field of design and offer a contemporary paradigm, Decision-Based Design, for the design of ships; one that encompasses systems thinking and embodies the concept of concurrent engineering design for the life cycle.