Market Context — Why This Technology, Why Now

The global shipbuilding and heavy manufacturing sectors are undergoing a rapid digital transformation, driven by demands for greater efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. Escalating material costs, complex supply chains, and a shrinking skilled workforce necessitate innovative solutions. This technology aligns perfectly with the smart factory and Industry 4.0 paradigms, offering a critical tool for optimizing large-scale production, reducing environmental impact through waste reduction, and maintaining competitive edge in a highly dynamic global market.

Key Competitive Advantages
01

Provides high-precision worker-level simulation, reproducing individual worker movements and equipment operation in a virtual space to identify real-world challenges beyond conventional high-level process management.

02

Optimizes construction costs and project timelines by up to 20%, improving factory layout, production design, and work procedures based on detailed time-series data, eliminating waste to significantly reduce costs and project timelines.

03

Establishes a strong intellectual property for business advantage, offering a dominant technological advantage over competitors and enabling market leadership, supported by a long remaining term of ~15.4 years and an S-rank patent.

Market Opportunity
Shipbuilding Industry
$3.5B globally (AI est.)
Reducing construction costs, shortening project timelines, and improving productivity are urgent challenges for the shipbuilding industry, accelerating investment in digital twin solutions.
Global shipbuilding conglomerates Naval defense contractors Commercial vessel manufacturers
Plant Construction Industry
$6.5B globally (AI est.)
The high demand for process management and resource optimization in large-scale, complex structure construction makes this technology's simulation methods highly applicable.
Large-scale industrial plant builders Energy infrastructure developers Chemical processing facility constructors
Heavy Industry & Large-Scale Manufacturing
$13.5B globally (AI est.)
Demand for digital simulation to optimize production lines and improve quality is expanding in heavy industries with complex assembly processes, such as aircraft and railway vehicle manufacturing.
Aerospace and defense manufacturers Rail vehicle and rolling stock producers Large industrial machinery OEMs
IP Defensibility — Why Competitors Can't Replicate This
What This Patent Covers

This patent protects a robust methodology and program for shipbuilding construction simulation, covering a broad technical scope across 19 claims. It has demonstrated strong patentability by overcoming examiner objections, indicating a low invalidation risk and providing a stable, powerful competitive advantage for business expansion.

Competitive White Space

This patent focuses on the simulation methodology. White space exists in developing hardware-in-the-loop systems for real-time control integration or advanced AI/ML models for predictive maintenance and autonomous operations beyond the simulation scope.

Economic Impact
~$1M/year estimated construction cost reduction per facility (est.)
estimated ROI · USD · AI analysis
ROI Calculation Logic

Assuming an annual construction cost of $100M (AI est.) for a large-scale shipbuilding project, through optimization of production design and process management, reduction of rework, and shortening of project timelines, a conservative 1% cost reduction could yield an annual economic impact of $1M (AI est.). This is achieved by reducing worker idle time and increasing equipment utilization. ($100M annual construction cost × 1% reduction = $1M (AI est.))

Speed to Market
4× faster than in-house development
This technology provides a clear methodology for creating product, facility, and process models for shipbuilding simulation, executing time-evolution simulations, and generating time-series data. By adopting this established framework, licensees can significantly reduce the approximately 4 years required to develop a similar system in-house, enabling rapid market deployment in about 1 year by leveraging existing design and factory IoT data.
Competitive Positioning

X: Production Efficiency Improvement
Y: Cost Optimization Impact

Business Models & Applications
🚢 Software Licensing
Licensing the simulation program to companies for integration with their existing systems. This could be offered as perpetual or term-based licenses.
☁️ Cloud-Based SaaS Offering
Providing simulation functionality as a cloud service, accessible via a browser. This model reduces initial investment and allows for flexible usage.
🤝 Joint Development & Customization
Collaborating with specific licensees to develop and customize simulation models or interfaces to meet their unique needs, enabling deeper integration and advanced optimization.
Adjacent Application Opportunities
🏭 工場・生産管理
Production Optimization for Smart Factories
Applicable to manufacturing with complex assembly processes like automotive, aerospace, and electronics. This technology could optimize production line design, bottleneck analysis, worker allocation, and production planning accuracy, accelerating smart factory initiatives and potentially improving throughput by 15-20%.
🏗️ 建設・インフラ
Process & Resource Optimization for Large-Scale Projects
For major construction projects such as high-rise buildings, bridges, and tunnels, this technology could simulate material delivery, heavy equipment operation, and worker movement. This has the potential to shorten project timelines by 10-15%, reduce costs, enhance safety, and optimize resource allocation.
⚙️ ロボット・自動化システム
Collaborative Robot Motion Planning & Validation
Applicable to planning the introduction of collaborative robots and automated guided vehicles in manufacturing. Simulating human-robot collaboration could enable pre-validation of optimal motion paths, collision avoidance, and maximized production efficiency, potentially reducing deployment risks by 20-30%.
Integration Roadmap — Estimated 15-Month Deployment
Phase 1: Current State Analysis & Data Linkage Design
Duration: 3 months
Analyze the licensee's existing CAD/CAM data, production management systems, and factory IoT data to design data linkage requirements and architecture for the simulation system.
Phase 2: Model Construction & Simulation Environment Development
Duration: 9 months
Construct product, facility, and process models, then develop and customize the simulation program based on this patent's methodology. Conduct initial simulations and validation.
Phase 3: Operational Launch & Performance Measurement
Duration: 3 months
Apply the developed simulation environment to actual construction plans and commence operations. Compare simulation results with real construction process data for continuous accuracy improvement and performance measurement.
Technical Feasibility
This technology defines clear steps for constructing product models from ship design information, facility models from equipment and worker data, and process models from assembly procedures. This enables the technical feasibility of building a software-based system leveraging data from existing CAD/CAM systems and factory IoT sensors. It is estimated that implementation is possible with general-purpose computers and data processing infrastructure, allowing for high compatibility with existing IT infrastructure without significant new equipment investment.
Success Scenario
Upon adopting this technology, it could enable high-precision prediction of costs, project timelines, and resource allocation across various scenarios during the construction planning phase. This may significantly reduce rework and unexpected delays on-site, potentially increasing annual productivity by 15%. Furthermore, continuously pursuing optimal production design and factory layouts could reduce construction costs by up to 20%, dramatically enhancing international competitiveness.
Patent Record
APPLICATION NO.
特願2021-152494
REGISTRATION NO.
7397501
FILING DATE
2021/09/17
GRANT DATE
2023/12/05
EXPIRATION DATE
2041/09/17
PATENT HOLDER
国立研究開発法人　海上・港湾・航空技術研究所
Examination History
2023年04月10日
早期審査に関する事情説明書
2023年04月10日
出願審査請求書
2023年05月09日
早期審査に関する通知書
2023年07月18日
拒絶理由通知書
2023年08月09日
手続補正書（自発・内容）
2023年08月09日
意見書
2023年11月14日
特許査定