Report 1

Goal and methods for improving

the efficiency of shipbuilding

COV777 – Efficient Shipbuilding

Professor: Jean David Caprace

Kazuhiro Aoyama

Student: Rogerio de Assis Dias Guahy

RIO DE JANEIRO

2021

1
 Goal and methods for improving the efficiency of shipbuilding

Shipbuilding has been systematically undergoing an evolutionary process over

the decades. This evolution finds its motivation in the relentless search for the
delivery of a product of high quality and value, employing diverse resources and
in the most optimized way possible, which can be translated into a search for
maximum productivity in all stages of shipbuilding.
Several technological improvements involving materials, tools and construction
processes, combined with management processes that focus on the careful and
accurate planning of all stages of the construction of a ship have been
implemented in the shipyards of the main world players in shipbuilding, among
which stand out Japan, Europe, South Korea and China.
Among the various methods implemented to improve the efficiency of
shipbuilding we can mention the “Modular Construction Method”, where the
different blocks that will compose the ship are built and even in different locations,
and then, finally, united and erected in the contracted shipyard, originating the
final product, which is the ship. This method was first devised by Henry J. Kaiser,
inspired by his experience of building the “Golden Gate Bridge”. It is a method
that requires a precise planning of the various logistics involved and that offers,
when well applied and controlled, a reduction in construction time and a great
economy of scale.
Aiming to reduce idleness in the use of the dry dock after the keel is hit and
before the launch of the ship, the “Semi-tandem method” was developed where
the blocks of different ships, following a pre-supplied sequence, are built
simultaneously on the dike dry
South Korea's shipyards, needing to increase their deliveries in a short period
of time and not wait for the construction of new dry dikes, have developed an
innovative way of operating their existing dry dikes. To this end, it combined the
use of floating cranes with block conveyors, following the principle of maximizing
prefabrication up to the maximum capacity of the crane. This method is known
as the “Giga-block method”.
Several other methods have also been created and are being used to improve
the efficiency of shipbuilding, however, we cannot fail to mention that it was the
use of steels in the construction of ships, in substitution for wood and using weld
as a joining technique in substitution to the rivet, which provided the great initial
leap towards a more efficient production of ships and which today is completed
with the use of automatic and autonomous equipment and tools of high precision
and productivity, operating according to an accurate planning process that aims
to extract the maximum result with the least possible resources.