SENER and China-based Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM) have signed a contract involving the implementation of SENER’s state-of-the-art smart shipbuilding system, FORAN.

One important requirement of the FORAN System is the collaborative engineering functionality. QNLM will use this capability through the Qingdao City Laboratory team and the Fishery Machinery and Instrument Research Institute design team in Shanghai. These two cities are around 750km apart. To improve design efficiency and data security, collaborative engineering must be used to keep the same project data for the two teams.

FORAN provides several collaborative engineering options, including database replication by Oracle Stream technology and remote access through Citrix technology. Citrix technology will be deployed in the implementation at QNLM. There are several successful cases of FORAN Collaborative Engineering with Citrix technology in the world, but the implementation at QNLM will be the first case of this approach in China.

Full features of the FORAN System are included in the license contract covering modules of hull forms, general arrangement and naval architecture, structure design, machinery outfitting, and electrical design.

The Marine Fishery Engineering Research Office Director, Mr Zhixin Chen, emphasised that he expects that the successful implementation of FORAN will highly improve ship design capacity and the efficiency of the company.

The FORAN System will be used by QNLM – a state-owned laboratory jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Shandong province and Qingdao city, with the aim of researching supporting technology and frontier technology responding to the country’s Ocean Development Strategy – and the Fishery Machinery and Instrument Research Institute, which is focusing on researching fishery equipment and fishery vessel design.