Integrating design and production: A case study of the naval submarine program

Abstract The Japanese have shown the benefits of integrating the design and manufacturing functions. The U.S. Naval shipbuilding program presents formidable challenges to implementing such ideas of integration both between the design and production organizations in a given shipyard as well as between Navy designers and personnel in the several competing shipyards. Nevertheless, this paper describes how these challenges were overcome in the introduction of advanced manufacturing concepts in the Navy submarine program.