Flexible Standards: An Essential Innovation in Shipyards

Abstract

Following a pattern established by Japan after World War II, a number of Asian countries are encouraging labor-intensive shipbuilding as a means to develop their economies. For them, low-cost labor abounds. As a consequence, established shipbuilders elsewhere in the world cannot compete in the market to build ordinary ships, even multiple ships of the same type. Their only alternatives are to become organizations that routinely ferret out and solve new problems arising from custom-designed ships, or to diversify by producing products other than ships (i.e., flexible-system production). An indispensable feature of effective flexible-system production is a file of standards that can be adapted to changing requirements, including requirements for modernizing naval ships, while at the same time permitting re-application of significant corporate experience. This paper addresses such flexible standards and their significance.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA444508

Entities

People

  • Louis D. Chirillo

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Digital Information
  • Engineering
  • Flexible Materials
  • Manufacturing
  • Manufacturing Engineering
  • Marine Systems (Military)
  • Materials
  • Naval Architecture
  • Procurement
  • Production
  • Production Control
  • Shipbuilding
  • Shipyards
  • Standards
  • United States

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  • Software Engineering