HD Hyundai, Siemens to jointly build smart shipyard

South Korean HD Hyundai Co. and Siemens, a Germany-based global smart engineering company, will jointly develop a data platform for building a smart shipyard.

HD Hyundai on Wednesday said its shipbuilding affiliates HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries signed an agreement with Siemens on the joint development of a manufacturing innovation platform integrating design and production at HD Hyundai’s Global R&D Center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

Under the deal, HD Hyundai will set up a digital automated production system that uses a unified platform to oversee data on everything from vessel design to production. The system’s purpose is to reduce inefficiency from disconnection of data between processes and innovate productivity.

The first step is for Hyundai Mipo Dockyard to incorporate by the end of 2025 automation equipment such as robots to form steel plates and weld panels into its internal processes and complete a cyber physical system linked to design for digital automation of such processes.

The next step is integration of the system with a next-generation design platform under development by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Samho to manage data on items from design to output on a unified platform. This will complete an integrated innovation platform based on a digital twin usable by all HD Hyundai shipbuilding affiliates.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com