The Nauticus Machinery tools are developed in close cooperation with DNV technical experts and with other major users with extensive knowledge of marine propulsion systems.

DNV Maritime has approval centres in Oslo, Busan and Shanghai. Oslo has successfully been using the new release since September 2007. DNV Maritime plans to fully implement the latest Nauticus Machinery solution in Busan and Shanghai within 2008.

Until January 2008, all the machinery calculations for ship newbuildings in Oslo were printed and filed manually in a paper-based system. Since the switchover to Nauticus Machinery, over 200 newbuilding projects and 1,100 calculations have been stored electronically.

Says Terje Sollie, senior approval engineer: “Compared to the previous work process, the time spent for executing each calculation is probably more or less the same, but all calculations are now executed through Brix Workflow Manager, thus the access and organisation of the calculations have been significantly improved.”

He points out the many advantages of using Nauticus Machinery:

• Search and re-use of previous calculations across projects.
• Easy to get the overall picture of project calculations, especially through the tree structure for functions, components and calculations.
• Full revision control and integration of in-house Excel spreadsheets and other calculation files.
• Sharing in-house spreadsheets with all users.
• Possibility to attach figures and drawings to functions and components.
• More than one person may access the same job simultaneously.

In addition, Brix Workflow Manager is a very versatile platform, and may be used for a variety of calculation projects – not only ship newbuilding calculations. Continues Sollie: “The solution will be implemented in our approval centres in Busan and Shanghai in the near future. In this way, all machinery approval engineers will work through the same server, sharing calculations using Brix Workflow Manager, ultimately ensuring efficiency and best practice.”