SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 — Panama City, FL, based Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. has entered into a license agreement with Spain's SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas S.A. to use SENER's FORAN CAD/CAM System and is to enlarge the ship design office serving its two shipyards.

Contract signing (L to R)  Rodrigo Pérez, SENER Project Manager, Kenneth R. Munroe, Eastern Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Verónica Alonso, SENER North America Area Manager

FORAN is a totally integrated computer system specifically developed for the design, production and engineering of ships. It comprises several main packages (hull forms definition, naval architecture, hull structure, outfitting, electrical), a number of common modules (build strategy, drafting, walk-through design review, collaborative engineering), links with production equipment (cutting machines, bending machines, robotic systems, etc.), interfaces to management systems and its own integrated development environment.

The agreement with Eastern includes the implementation of the complete FORAN System comprising: Forms Generation, General Arrangement & Naval Architecture, Hull Structure, Machinery & Outfitting, Electrical Design and Advanced Design &Drafting.

Engineers and designers from Eastern have received on-site training in all the disciplines of the FORAN System during the summer. Eastern is now using FORAN for the first of two  340 ft multipurpose supply vessels