What has APIs got to do with Shipbuilding?

Shipbuilding till the end of the nineties was still mostly traditional in approach, in the sense that the Information Technology revolution had yet to make any real great impact. Large shipyards, huge manpower, heavy machinery and huge cranes, the primary factor was production capability.

By the turn of the century, Shipbuilding design was slowly transforming, thanks to sophisticated design software with 3D modelling capabilities. Whilst 3D Modelling did make the huge drawing tables with their flexible batons disappear, the process of creating a full detailed 3D Model of a Ship, more so, complex vessels with dense outfitting of equipment and systems was resource crunching and painstaking.

The advent of high speed internet broadband speeds, distributed working spaces, and then later on, cloud technologies transformed the way data management was being handled till recently. Realizing the vital importance of speed and efficiency, including accuracy of data for production, 3D Modelling software makers during the last few years have begun providing "APIs" or Application Programming Interfaces that can extract and in many cases send data from external platforms. This has had the effect of reducing 3D Modelling licensing time, and also, led to reusing the ship design information for automation of various information needed for the Shipyard Production and Quality Control departments.

Thus, skillful utilization of APIs towards deriving significant benefits for the Shipbuilding project such as reducing design cycle time and minimizing rework errors on account of design has just commenced. In the near future, we shall witness many more Shipyards getting into the fray and seeing how APIs can be leveraged for Productivity and in turn, profitability of the Shipbuilding Business.