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M adrid’s Sener Ingeniería y Sistemas S.A. (Sener) is hoping to regain a foothold via its FORAN CAD/CAM software in the North American market, and to use that opening to crack the Big Six military shipyards, landing at least one lucrative long-term contract. But fi rst, it’s going to have get past its chief competition on these shores, Vancouver-based SSI’s ShipConstructor soft- ware, CATIA from Dassault Systèmes of France, and Nu- pas-Cadmatic, jointly owned by Numeriek Centrum Gron- ingen B.V. of the Netherlands and Cadmatic Oy of Finland. Part of the attraction is the recent uptick domestically in shipyard projects in multiple market sectors. “There are lots of projects on the commercial side – containers and bulk carriers, articulated tug barges and ferries and off- shore supply vessels – there’s a lot going on,” says RADM Joe Carnevale (Ret), a senior defense advisor for Shipbuild- ers Council of America (SCA), which represents over 120 U.S. shipyard facilities. “America in the recent past has had so many opportu- nities,” agreed Verónica Alonso, SENER North America Area Manager, “You need to offer something really good – with added value – to go into this market, and we think we have it.” Moreover, Sener sees military contracting as a large part of the U.S. market, and feels it has gained the necessary ex- perience to compete from its naval contracts in the UK in particular. “We are powerful in the market,” Alonso said. Still, she acknowledged that in America, it is very diffi cult [to break into the military market]. Military Maneuvers “There aren’t that many military contracts out there, and it can take years to get out a bid,” cautioned one veteran naval architect, who asked not to be named. “They’ll have to convince a shipyard or naval architects doing the design, and the naval architect fi rm won’t do it unless the shipyard agrees.” On the plus side, most military ship classes don’t have the length of run of say the DDG 51 class, says Car- nevale, adding that “from class to class, the Navy is willing to look at something new.’ And there are other priorities that could help Sener gain traction with FORAN, an integrated “complete” ship de- sign and construction software platform. Carnevale says 3D CAD has taken a backseat to product lifecycle manage- ment (PLM), pointing out that once a ship is built, it’s the data in the PLM that matters. “A lot of what’s in the 3D CAD, no one is ever going to use again,” he explained. In his view, this leaves the market for 3D CAD wide open, giving Sener as good a chance as anyone else. “The test for FORAN is, is it compatible with Team Center, Siemens’ PLM product? It’s very popular with the military builders in the U.S., and will make them a candidate for ship yards using that product.” Alonso claims Sener is in talks with some interested mil- itary shipyards, giving demos, taking meetings. “There is no signed contract, but we are in a process.” SSI, meanwhile, claims it is used on the “overwhelming majority” of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard pro- grams with a few exceptions, such as Newport News, Elec- tric Boat and GD BIW. There are obstacles to overcome in the commercial market as well. “In the U.S., their biggest competitor is ShipConstructor. It is used at almost all the naval architect fi rms, most small-to-medium size shipyards and even a few of the big ones,” according to the naval architect. “In the really big yards, they’ll run into CATIA or Aveva.” Popular Competitor “ShipConstructor is popular because it is capable and less expensive. All you need is AutoCAD, the ShipCon- structor package and a heavy duty PC with lots of memory and processing power,” he added. CAD/CAM SOFTWARE FORAN Takes a Run at North America Ship Constructor, Military pose some challenges.Ship Constructor Military pose some challenges. By Patricia Keefe October 2014 24 MN MN Oct14 Layout 18-31.indd 24 9/18/2014 3:29:02 PM
