Today’s ship design process is best described as people burning money iterating changes through design documents and models. Naval Architect’s mission is to free people from the burden of manual data synchronization to keep them focusing on the design and engineering tasks that are actually adding value to the project.
The Naval Architect platform drives a process based on a shared model on which the various stakeholders collaborate on. Each change is automatically applied to the entire model which leads to maximum process automation. Clients do not only benefit from time savings, but also from an increased level of reliability when it comes to cost, weight, and other estimations.
Interview with Sebastian Greshake, CEO & Co-Founder at Naval Architect.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Sebastian Greshake: We are the experts to create the software tools needed by professionals in the shipbuilding industry. We know how to build first-class software products and understand the specific problems our clients are talking about. In that sense, we are a software provider specializing in the shipbuilding industry.
On the other hand, we love to join forces with companies sharing our vision of a model-based ship design process. Then we think about ways to leverage the Naval Architect platform to maximize the overall process efficiency. In those moments we are as much consultants as we are software engineers.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
S.G: One thing that sets us apart from any other product in our industry is that we don’t have releases. We update the platform roughly every two weeks and constantly publish improvements and new features.
What many clients are eagerly waiting for is the support for components, in particular equipment installed aboard such as engines, cranes, and others. This will be the next big feature being released.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
S.G: We offer a Sandbox Version (free trial) as well as Basic and Professional Versions for organizations. Our product is a cloud-native application, so no download is required and we take care of maintenance and updates.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
S.G: The disruption in the maritime industry is overdue. This change is especially driven by a lack of digitalization and the shift towards decarbonization. It will steadily increase the demand for new builds, retrofits and climate friendly technologies in the near future. The maritime industry needs to not only implement these technologies on a larger scale and faster, but also more cost-effectively. These challenges require a modern underlying tech-stack and this is where Naval Architect comes into play. Our collaborative ship design software platform challenges the status quo of how ships are designed and built.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
S.G: Our target market is characterized by the following trends:
Decarbonization: The shipping industry has set a target to reduce emissions by 50% by 2050. This trend towards zero-carbon shipping requires shipbuilders to leave familiar ground behind and to focus on latest technologies representing significant design risks ahead. Naval Architect helps shipbuilding companies to minimize risks and is therefore a success factor when it comes to decarbonization.
Digital Shipyard 4.0: The digital shipyard agenda strives for improvements in productivity, efficiency, reliability, quality and safety over the lifecycle of vessels via new digital solutions. The digitization of the maritime industry begins not at sea, but right at the beginning of a ship’s lifecycle, in the design process and at the manufacturing stage. Making information accessible is the heart of digitalization and this is what the Naval Architect platform brings to the table.
Cloud-based collaboration: The CAD market is moving from traditional standalone software to cloud-native applications enabling new ways of collaboration. Furthermore, growing appreciation for online collaboration is now even more enhanced as a result of the Covid pandemic.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
S.G: Our Sandbox Platform is a free public testing environment for all interested in ship design. It has been launched in mid 2022 and has been received well by the maritime community. It is a one-of-a-kind software to enhance the way ships have been designed and we have received great feedback on this.
E.E: What estimations do you have for the rest of 2022?
S.G: We are working day and night to publish the long awaited components feature in 2022. This feature will enable increased level of detail for modeling as well as for reports (e.g. weight and cost calculation).