A Multi-Case-Based Assembly Management Method for the Shipbuilding Industry

This article describes a method for planning the assembly of ship hulls that focuses on a welding sequence, takes into account subassembly processes and makes use of a previously built database of structures. Different degrees of similarity between structures are taken into account. The described research led to the development of an intelligent hybrid sequencing method for structure assembly that uses fuzzy clustering, case-based reasoning and evolutionary optimization. The method is called ‘Multi-case-Based Assembly Planning (MBAP)’. The method is developed to provide satisfactory solutions with low user effort. The analyses carried out show that the calculations are highly time-efficient. The developed evolutionary algorithm converges on sub-optimal solutions. The MBAP method can be directly implemented by any shipbuilder that assembles hulls. Apart from this, fuzzy clustering integrated with case-based reasoning can be applied in practice. The integration of fuzzy clustering and case-based reasoning has been taken to a level higher than previously described in the literature.