Development of Lean Manufacturing Spatial Planning and Analysis Tool for U.S. Shipyards

"The last several decades have witnessed a dramatic decline in the international competitiveness of the remaining handful of large U.S. shipyards. As a result, these domestic shipyards are almost entirely reliant upon construction contracts from the U.S.Navy for their continued survival. This is highly undesirable for reasons relating both to national defense and the loss of significant economic opportunities to foreign competitors. Recent years have seen the widespread integration of Lean Manufacturingprinciples in U.S. industry as a whole but only to a relatively limited extent in the U.S. shipbuilding industry. Under principles of lean manufacturing, manufacturing operations are viewed as an integrated whole and are scrutinized for opportunities tofurther activities which contribute to the ultimate value of the manufactured product and eliminate sources of waste. Waste can take a variety of forms, including the production and storage of inordinate amounts of inventory, multiple handlings of productand bottlenecks due to the layout of production processes, and excessive transportation of product components. One means of identifying wasteful practices is spatial analysis, which tracks the production areas dedicated to various functions. Acomputerized Spatial Planning and Analysis Tool holds great promise for promoting shipyard efficiency and competitiveness. Delivery of a spatial analysis tool will allow U.S. commercial and go