Shipbuilding Industry of Korea

Since the start of the latest shipbuilding boom in 2000, ship orders have flooded into Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI). Yet, the orders only provided a moment of pleasure for SHI because docks to build the ships were in very short supply and expansion of production facilities would not be easy due to the limited available free space at its shipyard. Faced with objections from Europe and Japan based on restrictions set by the International Shipbuilding Association, moreover, SHI was not able to construct new docks either. To resolve the problem, SHI solicited management innovation ideas from all employees in 2001.

The Production & Operation Team submitted a creative idea, suggesting - ‘build ships on the sea utilizing barges’ as well as the then-idle 3,000-ton marine crane at the company's Goeje Shipyard. Nevertheless, doing welding or painting work while dealing with the high waves of the sea was difficult work. Furthermore, ship owners did not have confidence in building ships at a dock floating on the sea. At that time, a CoP (Community of Practice) composed of inter-company experts began to pursue breakthroughs.

After thorough and scrupulous checks of problem areas pointed out by ship owners that could potentially occur with such a shipbuilding process by field, such as design, research, production and quality control, the CoP started to suggest answers. The CoP members met frequently and exchanged and shared ideas and knowledge. SHI’s research institute also added a theoretical foundation to the ideas to prevent even a small error in the process of building ships on the sea through analysis of ship structures, 3D simulations and tests. Consequently, SHI succeeded in building better quality ships on the floating dock than those built in land. Here, the CoP’s strength in creating knowledge played an important role.

Led by the Korean Cooperative of Shipbuilding Technology Research, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), STX Shipbuilding and Korea Marine Equipment Research Institute plan to develop various technologies for next-generation, high value-added ships. These technologies are related to interpretation of functions, low vibration/low noise, safety, interior infrastructure, equipment & materials, etc.

The project's first-phase is scheduled for 10 months, running from September 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. In May this year, the participants will announce implementation results and launch a fact-finding survey on the Korean shipbuilders’ plan to further spur development of technology, the original source of competitiveness, while pursuing activities to prevent the overseas leakage of their shipbuilding technologies as well.

Five shipbuilding companies have been involved in technology development tasks of a third-phase project (July 1, 2007-June 30, 2008) led by the Korean Cooperative of Shipbuilding Technology Research, with DSME responsible for ship block internal pre-treatment & post process automation; SHI ship block internal painting automation system; HHI for ship block internal painting drying automation system; and SHI for new concept painting/methods and pre-treatment process.

VOCABULARY

28. Practice saying the following words.

competitive [kəm'petɪtɪv]	consumer [kən'sjuːmə]
dredger ['dreʤə]	dynamic [daɪ'næmɪk]
environment [ɪn'vaɪər(ə)nmənt]	finance ['faɪnæn(t)s]
genuine ['ʤenjuɪn]	leadership ['liːdəʃɪp]
purchase ['pɜːʧəs ]	recent ['riːs(ə)nt]
turnover ['tɜːnˌəuvə]	yacht [jɔt]