International Journal of Latest Research in Science and Technology ISSN (Online):2278-5299

Volume 2, Issue 6: Page No.85-89,November-December 2013

http://www.mnkjournals.com/ijlrst.htm

AN INTRODUCTION TO APPLICABILITY OF
LEAN IN SHIPBUILDING
Sandeep Phogat
Mech. Engg. Deptt. , DCRUST Murthal, Sonepat, Haryana.

Abstract- Lean principles in shipbuilding environment is quite restricted due to the novelty and the restriction of the concept. Lean
Shipbuilding is a very specialized, limited division of application of Lean and is considered to be ‘’one of the extensions beyond Lean
Construction’’. Lean Shipbuilding refers to cost reduction through elimination of waste, non-value adding processes and inventories, for
the improvement of customer’s satisfaction. It is anticipated that by implementing Lean manufacturing principles in shipbuilding, the
productivity could improve by at least 45% and the built time by 85% . Statistics show that for the period from 1965 to 1995 Japanese
shipbuilding industry improved its productivity by 150%, which is due to the development of some of the Lean principles at the same time
as Toyota Production System.

Keywords:- Lean design & construction, shipbuilding, TPS, NSRP.

I. INTRODUCTION tools as value management, function deployment

and simulation.
The term ‘Lean’ goes back to the 1990s when a book called 2. Map the value stream – the consequence of
“The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean processes required to make a product is defined as
Production’’ introduced the term ‘lean production’ (Holweg value stream, and mapping of those processes will
2007). The book follows up transfer of manufacturing ideas help understanding how the value for the customers
from craft production to mass production to Lean production is build through the processes.
(Poppendieck 2002). It origins come from the automotive 3. Create flow of the processes – the aim is to create a
industry and the Toyota Production System (TPS) in value stream and one-piece flow, as well as to avoid
particular but nowadays it has been applied in other lines of or reduce the batch and queue, if possible.
businesses such as Lean Design and Lean Construction. The 4. Establish Pull – adjustment of the production to the
objective of Lean is to eliminate waste, to increase customers’ needs and requirements, i.e. produce
productivity and efficiency, to add value, to reduce costs, as when and what the customers want. The production
well as to increase the competitive performance. All that aim processes should be supported by JIT and
at bringing customer satisfaction (customers, being the center standardization.
of Lean). 5. Seek perfection – once the above-listed actions are
performed, they should be supported by continuous
improvement, evaluation of the changing processes
and waste elimination in a repetitive manner in order
to consolidate the changing processes.Furthermore,
the following methods are sound supplement of the
above-mentioned key Lean principles for Lean
production.
6. Implement a plan-do-check-act (PDCA)
improvement framework to achieve results fast.
7. Use metrics and performance feedback to improve
real-time decision-making and problem solving.
8. Approach improvement activities from the
perspective of the whole enterprise or system.

Lean practices help organizations to improve

fundamentally their competitiveness, by cost reduction,
increased quality and response to customer needs. Rationale
behind the implementation of Lean is typically strong
Figure: Principles of Lean business drivers, and successful implementation of Lean
requires significant transformation of the organization’s
1. Identify the value – investigate the processes from culture and practices. Lean practitioners assert that time of
customers perspective i.e. define the needs of the crisis is when changes are most successfully fostered and
customers out of the processes. It can be done with

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followed in (Ross&Associates Environmental Consulting which tools and practices are associated with Lean
2004). Production (see Appendix 1) have been expressed, however,
With the necessary adaptation, the principles of Lean have some common concepts are recognized and in order to give
expanded its applicability from the production, to service insight into Lean Production some of them will be discussed
industry, the military, and in construction processes, which below.
speaks about the universality, and efficiency of the concept. Implementation of Lean in the production or in the various
Liker (2004) clams that every type of organization business levels of an organization needs to be supported by
can benefit from Lean not by imitating the tools used by establishment of Lean environment. This can be done through
Toyota in a particular manufacturing process but rather, by five processes for achievement of standardization, effective
developing principles that are the right ones for the work place organization, and continuous improvement known
organization or businesses and by practicing them, to achieve as the 5S - short-stands from the Japanese words for sort, set
high performance that continues to add value to the in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.
customers and society.
Sort - organization and tidiness has to start from elimination
2. LEAN PRODUCTION AND LEAN TECHNIQUES of the unnecessary items at the work place. This will remove
the excess, broken or obsolete materials, and will clear up
The foundation of TPS tools and techniques laid ground of floor space. Useful practice for sorting is the red tagging. The
Lean Production. Just as in the original concept of Lean, the redundant items are tagged with a red paper note, and then
principles behind Lean Production aim at minimization of taken out to a central holding area where they are further
resources, and by this minimization of waste in the context of evaluated. The items which are considered useful are kept in
mass production, i.e. less human effort, less manufacturing an organized storage, while the rest of the items are
space, less inventory, less defects (NSPR 2004). discarded.
Accordingly, Lean production aims at meeting customers’ Set in Order – all the materials has to be well organized, and
expectations by delivering quality products and services at an efficient and effective storage methods should be
the right time and at the right cost (Ross&Associates established. Strategies for effective storage of the items are
Environmental Consulting 2004). painting of the floors, outlining working areas and locations,
There is a common interchangeable usage between the terms shadow boards, etc.5
Lean Thinking, Lean Production, Lean Manufacturing and Shine– after the clutter has been removed and the work
TPS, which is due the a lack of a common agreed-upon environment organized, the working area has to be
definition but defying one is difficult since Lean is thoroughly cleaned and keeping it clean has to turn into a
considered constantly evolving (Pettersen 2009; Demeter and regular practice.
Matyusz 2008). Standardize – having achieved the previous 3S’s it is
While the traditional mass production involves required to standardize the best practices in order to further
predetermined production of large lots of products referred to sustain the processes.
as ‘batch and queue’, the production processes in Lean Sustain – it is hard to change the ossified processed, so
Manufacturing are organized in such a way that processing sustaining the changes is considered the most difficult ‘’S’’
steps are adjoining each other in a continuous, one-piece flow to implement and maintain. Resistance typically accompanies
(Lean Thinking and Methods). Such production processes the changes, and the personnel easily turn bacback to the
need to be closely controlled in a well maintained, ordered status quo, therefore understanding and promoting the
and clean operational environment, which incorporates JIT changing processes is essential.
production principles. Moreover, shift to Lean production
requires system-wide, continual improvement with the Even though not common in the literature, a sixth S has
participation of all employees. been recognized by some practitioners (DiBarra 2002). It
The extent to which Lean concepts in production systems stands for Safety and is positioned between Shine and
have been adopted in various manufacturing industries brings Standardize. It refers to the safety of the work place and
in question the universality of the concepts of Lean in respectively of the employees. It is arguable whether the 6th
manufacturing. The doubt in the universality of Lean S can be regarded as supplementary pillar to the 5S tool, or
Production is supported by the fact that achieving production rather as an aspect of each of the 5S pillars, since safety is
leveling and consequently the fundamental JIT for Lean considered inherent to the concept of 5S. Bicheno (2004), for
manufacturing, dependent upon various factors such as example, claims that safety procedures and their
business conditions or buyer-supplier relationship. When standardization should be developed, maintained and audited
these conditions are not met, batch or mass flow may be a as part of the 5S program (Bicheno 2004).
better manufacturing practice. However, the adaptation of
some of the Lean production practices in batch and mass The idea behind the 5S tool is that well-organized
flows does not imply that they are ‘in transition’ to Lean environment contributes to the optimization and productivity
production.’’ (Cooney 2002, p.1145). by: Creating and maintaining organization and orderliness;
Lean production exists on both strategic and operational Using visual cues to achieve more consistent operational
level. The strategic level refers to the customers value and result; Reducing defects and making accidents more less
identification of value stream, while the operational level likely; The 5S principles refer to Manufacturing Management
deals with various tools and practices that lead to waste but are more popular in Lean Manufacturing Processes.
elimination and support continuous improvement (Demeter However, this standard approach for housekeeping appeared
and Matyusz 2008). Accordingly, different opinions on to be applicable in various activities, such as data

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organization, office housekeeping, measurements and drops in the downstream stage, upstream schedule is not
management systems within the supply chain and factory allowed to slip in. Moreover, in case of production problems
(Sheldon 2008). that interfere the schedule, the workers does not have the
Though Lean practices appear to be easy to grasp, they can authority to halt the upstream production (Koenig, Hitoshi,
be difficult to execute in consistency. Many companies have and Baba 2002).
reached a superficial implementation of Lean and that is due
to the fact that they are concentrated on some of the Lean Lean Shipbuilding in Norway
tools like 5S or JIT, rather than grasp the concept and apply it Norwegian shipbuilding is a complex production, the
as a cultural change throughout the whole organization (Liker performance of which is organized in projects. The industry
2004). Often companies implement only the first 3S but fail is characterized by high degree of outfitting, and at the same
to standardize the processes and in this way doom the time low degree of standardization. The ships are built to
sustainability of the results of the project to failure, therefore order and are often highly customized. Different suppliers
the completeness of the 5S tool is essential. and work force are involved in the execution of the projects
(Aslesen 2007) 31
3. APPLICABILITY OF LEAN IN SHIPBUILDING Due to the nature of the shipbuilding industry, Norwegian
shipyards have adopted a completely new production concept
The available literature on the implementation of Lean of lean shipbuilding, which is blended between Lean
principles in shipbuilding environment is quite restricted due manufacturing and Lean construction (Bertelsen 2007). The
to the novelty and the restriction of the concept. Lean features that characterize the Norwegian shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is a very specialized, limited division of industry are one-of-a-kind product, consistent production
application of Lean and is considered to be ‘’one of the facilities, and fixed position layout (Longva 2009; Salem
extensions beyond Lean Construction’’(Dugnas and Uthaug 2006). In search of process improvement and achievement of
2007, p.60). The sources of information and examples for this competitive advantage, Norwegian shipbuilding companies
thesis come from the U.S., the Japanese, and the Norwegian are developing Lean Shipbuilding based on cooperation with
shipyards. The interest in the matter set the foundation of The Lean construction forums (Longva 2009).
National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) in U.S., Lack of information on any particular case of implementation
and the Lean Shipbuilding Project under the Norwegian of Lean or 5S in any of the Norwegian shipbuilding
Research Council MAROFF-program and the Norwegian companies prevents from presentation of such in this
shipyards. research. However, it is known that lean has been
implemented in Brunvoll AS (Molde, Norway), which is
Lean Shipbuilding in Japan manufacturer and supplier of thruster systems and is part of
Successful application of lean principles puts Japanese the Norwegian Maritime Cluster. The production of the
manufacturing companies, including the Japanese shipyards, company is tailor-made, highly specialized and with the
in the position of ‘role-model’, in terms of productivity, deployment of Lean practices (which includes 5S) in the
product quality and the utilization of human resources. Thus, production and the warehouse department, the company aims
the Japanese shipyards are considered best-examples of Lean at improvement of the processes through efficient value
thinking in shipbuilding (Sanidas 2001; Koenig, Hitoshi, and stream. However, no data on the evaluation and efficiency of
Baba 2002). Research of some Japanese world-class the project has been performed so far.
shipyards shows that the shipyards haven’t applied all of the Source: Interview with Dag Brunvoll, Manager of Logistics
Lean manufacturing principles due to specifications such as and Planning at Brunvoll AS
process time (months-long) and product delivery (very low)
(Lamb 2001). Lean Shipbuilding in U.S.
It is not possible to say to what extend the application of Driven by the mission to establish international
lean principles helped the shipyards in Japan in achieving the shipbuilding competitiveness, and cost reduction, The
high productivity, since Lean manufacturing blurs with Total National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) has
Quality Management and other Japanese development. launched a Lean Shipbuilding Initiative, in order to facilitate
However, they have used some applicable principles, such as transformation to Lean practices throughout the U.S.
one-piece flow, JIT, and Lean to some level. Accordingly, shipbuilding and ship repair industries (NSPR 2004).
quality is built in at the source, rather than inspected in, Research conducted by Liker and Lamb (2000) for the NSPR
processes are highly standardized and timed, raw materials shows that despite the improvements of facilities and process
are brought in on a JIT basis, and all the employees are in the U.S. shipyards, the results are still marginal compared
engaged in work initiatives and carry responsibilities to to those in Japan and Korea. Moreover, at that time the
follow up the processes (Liker and Lamb 2000; Lamb 2001). productivity of the U.S. shipyards has been half that of
In contrast to the automobile industry and Lean theory, the Europe and third of the Japanese shipbuilding. Thus, Liker
production in the Japanese shipyards is driven by pull at the and Lamb (2000) suggest that significant improvement can
top, and fixed schedules at the lower level, i.e. the be achieved through the adoption of lean manufacturing
construction processes cannot start until the customer pulls principles.
the order. Òhe production process can start only after the As part of NSPR – Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise,
previous ship launches, or moves to the next position. Thus, Todd Pacific Shipyard has implemented the Lean program in
the pull-style prevents from overproduction. However, ship 12 areas of the shipyard, as well as onboard ships. The
production from the erection schedule on down is based on practical experience of the implementation of lean shows that
schedule development and conformity. Thus, in cases of it is a powerful tool for cultural change, which is easily

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applicable to the realities of the environments. It is of low approach to the implementation of Lean varies, examples of
cost and could have a substantial payback for the investment which are presented below.
involved. Benefit of lean is that it involves analytical thinking
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