Exclusive: HII, C3 AI ink agreement to boost shipyard production using artificial intelligence

HII Partners with C3 AI to Revolutionize Shipyard Production Through Artificial Intelligence

In a significant move poised to enhance the efficiency of America's crucial naval shipbuilding efforts, defense contractor HII has announced a strategic partnership with enterprise AI software leader C3 AI. The collaboration aims to deploy artificial intelligence across HII's two primary shipyards, Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, with the explicit goal of dramatically improving production throughput and schedule performance.

This partnership follows a successful six-month pilot program conducted at Ingalls Shipbuilding. During the pilot, teams utilized sophisticated algorithms from C3 AI to analyze and optimize complex work schedules. The results demonstrated substantial promise, providing HII with the confidence to scale this AI-driven approach across its entire shipbuilding operations.

The core challenge AI is being tapped to solve lies in the intricate scheduling and workflow management within the shipyards' various machine shops. Historically, these processes have relied heavily on manual methods, such as spreadsheets and direct communication between teams. Coordinating the flow of work for multiple complex shipbuilding programs, each with its own demands and priorities, presents a significant logistical hurdle.

Eric Chewning, a senior executive at HII, highlighted the transformative potential of AI in this context. "What AI allows you to do is optimize for how the work flows through the machine shops, based on prioritization of output and how the different inputs are adjusting," Chewning stated in an exclusive interview. He emphasized that by leveraging AI, HII can move beyond static, manual scheduling to dynamically manage work, adapting in real-time to changing conditions and priorities across programs like the Ford-class aircraft carriers and San Antonio-class amphibious ships.

Thomas Siebel, Chairman and CEO of C3 AI, echoed this sentiment, describing the production of complex warships as a particularly "fruitful area" for applying advanced AI technologies. C3 AI specializes in "designing, developing, provisioning [and] operating … massive scale predictive analytics applications." Siebel asserted that their collaboration with HII is set to "revolutionize the fundamental foundation of the maritime industrial complex" by applying the latest AI developments to reduce the time required to complete complex tasks, such as the construction of a Ford-class carrier.

This strategic alliance directly supports HII CEO Chris Kastner's stated objective to increase shipbuilding production throughput by an ambitious 20 percent in 2025. By automating and optimizing scheduling and workflow at a granular level within the shipyards, HII aims to remove bottlenecks, reduce delays, and ultimately accelerate the delivery of vital naval assets to the US Navy.

Key takeaways from this partnership:

• Proven Potential: A successful pilot program at Ingalls demonstrated tangible improvements in schedule performance using C3 AI's algorithms.
• Dynamic Optimization: AI replaces manual scheduling with dynamic, data-driven optimization of work flow through machine shops, improving efficiency and responsiveness.
• Directly Supports Production Goals: The initiative is a critical component of HII's strategy to increase overall shipbuilding throughput, aligning with the Navy's needs for faster delivery.
• Scalability: The plan is to expand the AI platform across both major HII shipyards, maximizing the impact on national shipbuilding capacity.
• Industry Leadership: This collaboration positions HII and C3 AI at the forefront of applying advanced AI to complex heavy manufacturing environments like defense shipbuilding.

The integration of AI into shipyard operations represents a significant step towards modernizing the defense industrial base. By moving towards more intelligent, automated, and dynamic scheduling and process management, HII aims to not only meet but exceed production targets, delivering crucial capabilities to the Navy more quickly and reliably. This partnership provides a practical model for how AI can yield demonstrable benefits in highly complex, critical manufacturing sectors.