Hyundai extends Siemens collaboration to shipyards

HD Hyundai has announced that will collaborate with Siemens to integrate digitalised manufacturing practices in its shipyards. As part of the deal, the two companies will jointly develop a digital platform to streamline its shipbuilding process from design to manufacturing.

The integration of digitalised automated production processes is expected to improve production efficiency, increasing productivity and lowering costs, the shipmaker noted.

HD Hyundai announced that it plans to introduce robots for steel plate moulding and welding at HMD by 2025. Concurrently, the Korean company will establish a cyber-physical system related to design.

The group will then combine its digitalised automated production system with a next-generation design platform being developed by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.

While HD Hyundai’s press release focused on the production and manufacturing efficiencies offered by the integration of digital technology into its shipbuilding processes, citing the goal of creating a smart shipyard by 2030, The Motorship notes that Siemens has provided wider benefits to the Hyundai auto manufacturing following the agreement of a digital partnership in 2021. In particular, Siemens noted that the integration of digital twin technology offered wider benefits for product design.