# CMN - Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie

French shipyard CMN masters the most ambitious naval projects. As it continues to design innovative ships, the company is using the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform to secure its knowhow, improve collaboration and boost design and production efficiency.

 ![CMN Ocean Eagle 43 - Dassault Systèmes](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/CMN-OceanEagle43-Hero-banner.jpg)

Designing innovative ships of tomorrow

Sleek and fast, the Ocean Eagle is a 43-metre trimaran designed for carrying out all manner of surveillance activities at sea. As it glides over the surface of the water, the ocean patrol vessel not only consumes less fuel than conventional naval craft but can travel further too.

“Highly innovative and lightweight, the vessel has the advantage of being able to cruise at sea for many hours, accelerate rapidly and deliver exceptional stability, because it’s made of composites rather than steel,” said Frédéric Brehier, chief information officer at Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN), the renowned French shipyard behind Ocean Eagle 43.

Vessels like this encapsulate what CMN stands for as it strikes the careful balance between developing the most innovative vessels at sea and meeting the exacting requirements of its customers.

“Innovation is in our vision, mission and values,” Brehier said. “It’s extremely important because we face competitors who choose to go as far as possible towards standardization. However, we respond to our clients on a case-by-case basis and have the capacity to invent and make a product others can’t.”

As the company maintains a steady focus on innovation, it needs robust systems and technologies in place to support its product development. For years, CMN has relied on Dassault Systèmes’ solutions to support its design and engineering capabilities, helping it create concepts like the Ocean Eagle 43. Now, the company has gone a step further and moved its business processes to the [**3D**EXPERIENCE platform](https://www.3ds.com/3dexperience). The aim – to achieve a continuous data flow from design to production and beyond, all within a centralized environment.

“We started by moving naval architecture to the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform, focused first on our hull design capabilities,” Brehier said. “We are now transitioning the ship’s equipment trades, in other words the piping, fittings, propulsion and electricity. The project management and collaboration aspects will come next and then there will be the provision of tools for production.”

 The main reason we chose the platform is for its versatility. We need technology that enables us bring to life the most imaginative concepts and store a multitude of data in the right place to avoid errors and misunderstandings.

Frédéric Bréhier

Chief Information Officer, CMN

 ![Frederic Brehier, Chief Information Officer, CMN](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/Frederic-%20Brehier-portrait.jpg)

Supporting endless innovation cycles

For CMN, the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform’s rich industry-specific functionality and flexibility is critical, as is the ability to manage data centrally – key as the company takes on more complex projects.

“As we’re working on everything from a 90-meter boat to an underwater tidal turbine, the range of things we have to imagine on the platform is enormous,” Brehier said. “The main reason we chose the platform is for its versatility. We need technology that enables us bring to life the most imaginative concepts and store a multitude of data in the right place to avoid errors and misunderstandings.”

CMN’s longstanding technology partner Keonys is invaluable to the success of this ongoing digital transformation journey. Over the years, the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform specialist has supported CMN with its specific business needs and been proactive giving help and advice.

“Keonys is simply indispensable,” Brehier said. “They support us through the life of our project, and this has always been the case. Keonys is a partner, not a supplier or a subcontractor. We work in complete transparency. As the focus has shifted to installation and maintenance of the platform, we've received quality support from Keonys.”

 [![CMN Ocean Eagle 43 3D model > innovative ships - Dassault Systèmes](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/OceanEagle-3Dmodel-back-image.jpg)](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/OceanEagle-3Dmodel-back-image.jpg)

3D model of Ocean Eagle 43 patrol boat designed by CMN.

An entire ship within a single 3D model

CMN’s design team already develop all steel and aluminum hulls in the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform. Now, the company is looking to integrate other disciplines to gain complete visibility of all the ship’s interconnected systems.

Critically, the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform helps to break down siloes between design and engineering, and introduce best practices and consistency to the way in which they work through [model-based systems engineering (MBSE)](https://www.3ds.com/products-services/catia/products/no-magic/solutions/model-based-system-engineering/). This new approach helps to avoid mistakes and saves time. Having information captured centrally within the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform, CMN also plans to reuse previous designs to efficiently create new concepts.

“Information is shared at the right time with the people who need it thanks to our collaborative environment,” Brehier said. “We hope that the platform will help us determine which design elements we already have that would be applicable to other vessels, without starting from scratch every time.”

Competition within the marine industry continues to intensify and CMN increasingly finds itself partnering with other stakeholders to win new project bids.

“We link up with other design offices and shipyards for the construction of boats,” Brehier said. “It means we need to be able to work directly with our subcontractors and, if possible, our partners in the platform and benefit from its collaboration capabilities.”

Eventually, CMN hopes to be able to use the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform to involve its clients directly in the design process and achieve a seamless data flow from design to production. This will help to inform and plan the production flow of the entire site, including land use plans and schedules.

“It’s something we’re working on; to be able include our clients’ requirements within the 3D model and then evaluate together all the consequences of any modifications they want to make,” Brehier said. “The aim is to go from a 3D model of the ship design to a version we can use for production.”

 [![Ocean Eagle 43 at sea by CMN > innovative ships - Dassault Systèmes](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/CMN-OceanEagle43-at%20sea-image.jpg)](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/CMN-OceanEagle43-at%20sea-image.jpg)

Equipped with a trimaran hull made of composite material, CMN's Ocean Eagle 43 is a 43.6 meters long and 15.7 meters wide patrol boat, designed for surveillance and intervention missions.

Building ships in the virtual world

One of the biggest values of the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform is that has all the capabilities required to build a full-scale virtual twin of every future CMN vessel and its systems – a completely operational digital replica of the physical ship in the virtual world. This is something CMN intends to take advantage of in the near future, using simulation to save on physical prototypes.

“We could look at elements such as whether we can integrate specific equipment into our structures and the electromagnetic disturbances that can be caused by the hull,” Brehier said. “We would expect to save considerable time in the study cycle.”

CMN hopes to use the virtual twin to manage the entire lifecycle of each vessel and bring together all assets and information related to the ship, including the naval architecture plans and simulation records, which could be delivered as a complete package to the client.

“We’re very interested in the idea of being able to deliver a virtual twin to the client alongside the manufactured vessel,” Brehier said. “It would allow us to follow each boat’s operational maintenance cycle, covering all systems and parts. The virtual twin would be a real plus to our clients once the boat is delivered.”

 [![CMN HSI vessels > innovative ships  - Dassault Systèmes](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/CMN-hsi-arabie-saoudite-image.jpg)](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/CMN-hsi-arabie-saoudite-image.jpg)

CMN HSI 32 interceptors

Future-proofing the maritime industry

Ultimately, CMN’s mission is to harness its expertise and industry-leading technology to develop innovations that respond to the growing challenges of protecting and enhancing the world’s maritime space, and building a safer and more sustainable future.

“We want to contribute to renewable energy production by bringing a new energy production tool, tidal turbines, into the energy mix,” Brehier said. “Like the entire maritime industry, we are integrating sustainability aspects into our product development to achieve the decarbonization objectives fixed by the IMO. This involves research into the types of propulsion and designing boats like the Ocean Eagle, which reduce consumption.”

By being able to connect its multidisciplinary teams on the **3D**EXPERIENCE platform, CMN hopes to continue empowering people to develop breakthrough concepts that change the course of the maritime world for the better.

Focus on Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie

Based in Cherbourg, Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) is one of the leaders in the French naval industry, specialized in design, engineering and production of the most innovative ships worldwide. CMN relies on women and men united by the search for excellence to harness their knowhow to imagine and build unique concepts and deliver associated services worldwide. CMN is a committed player in the energy transition and promotes the potential of the oceans through its subsidiary Hydroquest, a leader in the tidal turbine sector.

 ![CMN logo - Dassault Systèmes](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2022-11/CMN-logo-cop.jpg)

Focus on Keonys

For more than 30 years, Keonys has been a preferred product lifecycle management (PLM) and 3D solutions partner to customers of all sizes and in all industries, helping them develop and manufacture better products and innovative services faster. As a major player in innovation and productivity, Keonys provides value-added business consulting services, PLM project implementation and integration, training and support to its 1,500 customers in France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

 ![Keonys logo Dassault Systèmes partner](https://www.3ds.com/assets/invest/2021-06/keonys-logo.jpg)