Situation
The Royal Navy has taken delivery of two new Aircraft Carriers, HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and HMS PRINCE OF WALES. The aircraft carriers were built by a consortium that was closed in early 2020. ShareAspace is being used to hold the design data and other documentation coming from the consortium so that it is available to the multiple organizations (both inside and outside of the Ministry of Defence) that need controlled access.
Problem
The Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), the consortium that built the new generation aircraft carriers, has been closed and its IT applications, including PLM, have closed with it. The Royal Navy wanted a standards-based approach to hold and share the design data from the ACA over time. The problem was to move the data from the ACA into a new repository organizing it ready for the support of the carriers, an activity that will involve many organizations for the next forty or more years.
Solution
Eurostep has been working with BAE Systems Maritime who provided the secure infrastructure. A data pipeline was established to import the data for the aircraft carriers. This included the different compartments (over 3000 on each ship) and their grouping into zones, the installed equipment, where the same equipment item may be installed in multiple places within the ship, and the associated documentation. Three different ShareAspace spaces have been used: one for the current documentation, one for documents subject to special control and one to archive the versions of documents that are no longer applicable, allowing access to the design history when needed.
Benefits
- Continuity – The closedown of the ACA will have no effect on the availability of the data and documentation for support.
- Accessibility – It is easy to search for and access the documentation for each piece of equipment on each carrier.
- Controlled sharing – Information can be shared with other parties, such as those contracted to support the carriers, in a secure and controlled manner.
