Comparing Drawing-based and Model-based Workflows at Aker Solutions

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Aker Solutions is a global provider of products, systems and services to the oil and gas industry located in Norway. The company creates solutions to unlock energy safely and sustainably for future generations and is comprised of a team of 14,000 employees in 20 countries and 46 locations with 175 years of experience.

Shigeo Kimura is a senior design engineer at Aker Solutions. He has been driving the Model-Based Definition (MBD) implementation at Aker along with a team of engineers in the past several years. Shigeo focuses on the 3D annotations and potential benefits, especially in the manufacturing processes.

In this blog post, Shigeo shares his observations in regards to Aker Solutions’ MBD implementation and how the company has experimented with 3D annotations and summarized the differences between the drawing-based and model-based workflows across multiple phases in an effort to cut overall project time at Aker Solutions.

MBD at Aker Solutions

When it comes to manufacturing, we always look forward to new technologies to serve customers better. For example, we have realized paperless manufacturing processes to improve the operation efficiency. All the manufacturing shops are equipped with personal computers to support the digital information flow.

 

The recent development of model-based definition (MBD) certainly caught our attention. Today, one of the most time-consuming manufacturing activities is the process centered around 2D drawings. In order to cut the overall project time, we experimented with 3D annotations and summarized the differences between the drawing-based and model-based workflows across multiple phases.


Despite the above advantages, a successful MBD implementation requires multiple steps. It can’t happen overnight, and we need a gradual transition. The new enhancement in SOLIDWORKS MBD 2018 to reuse MBD views in drawings will help us build a solid step during the transition. It will allow us to shift the focus from 2D detailing to 3D annotations and 3D views. Then the 3D content can be easily reused in 2D when drawings are needed.

We look forward to our MBD rollouts and would love to hear your comments as well.

Shigeo Kimura

Shigeo Kimura

Shigeo is a design engineer at Aker Solutions, a global provider of products, systems and services to the oil and gas industry. Its engineering, design and technology bring discoveries into production and maximize recovery.
Shigeo Kimura

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