Damir Kolić

Lean Built-up Panel Assembly in a Newbuilding Shipyard

The main shipbuilding assembly processes greatly influence the flow of interim products in a newbuilding shipyard. The panel assembly line is a major process locatedupstreamofalltheothershipyardassemblyprocesses.Inapreviouspaper, theapplicationofleanprinciplesenabledabalancedandsmallertakttimealongthe workstations and yielded significant savings in man-hours. Although a panel consists of butt-welded steel plates with multiple fillet-welded longitudinal stiffeners, a built-up panel is this same panel fitted with longitudinal and transverse steel elements. Since there are many internal structural elements, the man-hours alongatraditionalbuilt-uppanelassemblylinearemultipletimesgreaterthanthatof panel assembly. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and map built-up panel assembly in an actual newbuilding shipyard. Using value stream mapping along with kaizenprinciplesofcontinualimprovementtodeterminethetransformativestepsto make the traditional built-up panel assembly line leaner. This enables significant man-hour reductions of about 60%, which yields remarkable cost savings to the shipyard.

DFP analiza izrade robotiziranih međuproizvoda u brodogradnji

The shipbuilding industry belongs to one of the most complex manufacturing industries in the world. During the last couple of decades efforts were made to achieve optimal production, with minimal waste and maximum results of the final product – a ship. In order to allow for this type of manufacturing approach it is necessary to modernize the production processes of a shipyard on a regular basis by following world trends in shipbuilding. Investments in the advancements of assembly lines is a key and primary move towards achieving savings. In the industrial world there is a constant goal of automation and robotization of assembly processes since the degree of achieving this goal is still not satisfactory. Based on this reason the facilities of most shipyards are still only partially automated and roboticized, which means that there is still a large percentage of manual work. This paper analyzes the fallbacks of the assembly processes of a specific shipyard with the aim of providing insight into the realistic possibilities of optimizing the assembly phase of shipbuilding.

Izrada gantograma dokovanja na plutajućem doku

Vessels and other types of maritime objects after spending a specific amount of time in exploitation, or due to some special circumstances such as accidents, must undergo repair in a repair yard. Vessels are usually docked due to the execution of different types of work related to the underwater part of the hull or due to periodical inspections by classification society experts. Examples of those works include repairs of damaged hull, propeller work, rudder work, anti-corrosive treatment of the underwater hull part. Repair is usually performed on the floating docks upon which the vessel or some other maritime object is relatively easily raised from the sea. With the help of floating dry-docks, repair work can be performed relatively easily and efficiently. This paper explains the detailed process and activities needed for succesful execution and suggests realistic improvements to improve the efficiency of the entire dry-docking process.