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Lean Manufacturing News

05 Jul 2023

Mack Boring Names Henkin COO

Jonathan (Jon) Henkin has been promoted to the role of Chief Operating Officer for Mack Boring & Parts Co. Image courtesy Mack Boring & Parts Co.

Jonathan (Jon) Henkin has been promoted to the role of Chief Operating Officer for Mack Boring & Parts Co. Most recently Henkin was Director of Operations since 2010, and has led the integration of lean manufacturing principles into our operations, implemented his second ERP upgrade in 2020, planned and led a facility move from Union, NJ to Somerset, NJ and has been instrumental in the many systems Mack Boring has developed internally to manage its 400+ dealers and eight major product lines.Henkin joined Mack Boring in 1999…

19 May 2023

Austal USA Awarded US Navy TAGOS-25 Contract

(Image: Austal USA)

Mobile, Ala. shipbuilder Austal USA announced it has been awarded a contract potentially worth more than $3 billion for the detail design and construction of new TAGOS-25 class ocean surveillance ships for the U.S. Navy.The $113.9 million fixed-price incentive (firm target) and firm-fixed-price contract includes options for detail design and construction of up to seven T-AGOS 25 class ships which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $3.195 billion.Austal…

14 Nov 2022

Torqeedo Opens New HQ and Production Facilities

(Photo: Torqeedo)

Marine electric drives manufacturer Torqeedo GmbH celebrated the grand opening of a brand-new 8,300 m2 building near Munich where all company activities, including research, development, and production, will now take place.Fabian Bez, Torqeedo's chief executive officer, said, Whether by road, rail, air or water, sustainable forms of propulsion are needed to achieve the climate targets. In the transport sector, in particular, there is still a lot to be done. As Torqeedo, we recognized this trend early on and developed battery-electric drives for watercraft.

27 Oct 2022

Starrett Appoints Wells Director of Ops

The L.S. Starrett Company appointed Matthew Wells as Director of Operations and Continuous Improvement. Photo courtesy L.S. Starrett Company

The L.S. Starrett Company, a manufacturer of precision measuring tools and gages, metrology systems and more, appointed Matthew Wells as Director of Operations and Continuous Improvement, responsible for Production, Planning, Production Control and Purchasing, Inventory Management, Warehouse and Shipping, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Facility, EHS, Maintenance and Continuous Improvement. Wells reports directly to Mr. Emerson Leme, Vice President, Starrett Industrial Products, North America.

31 Aug 2022

Shipbuilder Austal USA Partners with USV Firm Saildrone

(Photo: Saildrone, Inc)

Shipbuilder Austal USA and has formed a strategic partnership with Saildrone, Inc to build cutting-edge, autonomous uncrewed surface vehicles.The partnership  ensures that production of the autonomous and uncrewed Saildrone Surveyor will accelerate to meet the growing demand of the U.S. Navy and other government customers for the cutting-edge solution for maritime domain awareness, hydrographic survey, and other missions requiring persistent wide area coverage. Autonomous vessel capability has been identified as an area of strategic importance by the U.S. Navy.

20 Jun 2022

Austal USA Inks $128m Deal for Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock

Austal USA won the Detailed Design and Construction (DD&C) contract on June 17 valued at $128 million for the U.S. Navy Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock Medium (AFDM), which marks Austal USA’s second steel vessel program for the U.S. Navy. The AFDM will be built in Austal’s modern steel panel line in Mobile, Ala. The design incorporates features to improve operability and maintainability based on the company’s experience and lessons learned from owning, operating, and maintaining a similar dry dock at its repair facility at Austal West Campus.Austal USA President Rusty Murdaugh said.

12 Apr 2022

Austal USA Opens New Steel Facility

(Photo: Austal USA)

Mobile, Ala. shipbuilder Austal USA hosted a ceremony to celebrate the opening of its new facility which adds steel shipbuilding capability to the company’s well-established aluminum shipbuilding expertise.“We are so excited to see our plans to add steel to our capabilities come to fruition,” said Austal USA President Rusty Murdaugh. “The addition of steel capability is a game changer as it opens up our capability to support the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and other customers with high-quality ships.

17 Mar 2022

Svanehøj Bags Fuel Pump Order for 15 LNG Dual-fuel Containerships

(Photo: Svanehøj)

Danish marine pump specialist Svanehøj announced it secured a new order from Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding to deliver fuel pump systems for a series of 15 newbuild 7,000 TEU dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) container vessels.The total of 30 deepwell fuel pumps will be delivered from August 2022 to January 2024, Svanehøj said, noting the order ranks among its largest relating to LNG fuel to date.The deal marks the second time within the last year that this customer has chosen Svanehøj as the supplier of LNG fuel pump systems.

17 Feb 2022

Digitalization: From Stem to Stern, Ship Design in 3D Digital

Image Courtesy of Robert Allan

3D digital design can save ‘dollars on the deck plate’ during construction while maintaining safety, says to Patrick Ryan, Senior Vice President, Global Engineering and Technology, ABS.Last year ABS, Robert Allan, Signet and USCG collaborated on a project that would be the first commercial vessel in U.S. history to be produced using only 3D models in design and construction for all structures. While the process used to deliver this RAL-designed Advanced Rotortug (ART) is historic…

15 Sep 2021

VIDEO: Installation of Innovative Floating Wind Turbine Foundation - TetraSpar

Credit: Bourbon Offshore

Offshore vessel operator and installation services firm Bourbon Subsea Services has recently completed the installation of the 3.6 MW TetraSpar floating wind turbine prototype at a test site in Norway.The TetraSpar Demo project is developed by Stiesdal Offshore Technology, TEPCO Renewable Power, Shell, and RWE and has been described as the world’s first full-scale demonstration of an industrialized offshore foundation.The TetraSpar foundation concept is the modular “building block” arrangement: each foundation is assembled from tubular steel modules…

23 Jul 2020

New CEO Takes the Helm at RMK Merrill-Stevens Shipyard

William Clewes (Photo: RMK Merrill-Stevens)

Industry veteran William Clewes has been appointed CEO of Miami yacht repair yard RMK Merrill-Stevens, charged with leading Florida's oldest shipyard through a period or redevelopment, reopening and beyond.“I am excited about building a team and a new facility to bring the RMK Merrill-Stevens facility back to its former glory and beyond,” said Clewes in January after accepting the position. Clewes will lead the North and South yards, which straddle the Miami River, the ongoing redevelopment of both…

26 Feb 2019

Ecochlor Opens New Factory

Ecochlor opened a new factory in North Haven, Connecticut for production of the chlorine dioxide generator for its ballast water management system (BWMS).Due to a surge in orders, ProFlow, Inc., Ecochlor's manufacturing partner, was able to quickly increase production capacity and efficiency by simultaneously incorporating LEAN manufacturing procedures and maintaining itsISO 9001 certification. ProFlow's production space has surpassed 30,000 sq. ft. and the new factory will be exclusively used to manufacture the generators.ProFlow has been building the Ecochlor BWMS generator since 2001.

16 Aug 2018

Shipbuilding: Oman Drydock CEO Aims to Triple Revenue by 2021

"I’m looking for go-getters. I’m looking (for the types of people) from the ‘wild west’ bars, the kind that kick the doors open with their boots and get to work."
Said bin Homoud Al Maawali, CEO, Oman Drydock Company (ODC). Photo: ODC

Said bin Homoud Al Maawali, CEO, Oman Drydock Company (ODC) means business when he aims to triple revenue by 2021, but it’s anything but business-as-usual at ODC. A neophyte to the shipyard world, he is a veteran business man with a long resume in multiple industries, a turnaround specialist. He sees potential at ODC, but bigger picture, he sees the shipyard as a means to help Oman broaden its business and revenues outside of the traditional energy industry.As the global shipbuilding community shakes off a historic slump, new thinking is creeping into a space steeped in tradition.

17 Feb 2017

Tony Bon: From Yarn Handler to CEO

Tony Bon (Photo: Samson)

January of 2017 saw the retirement of one of the veterans of the Samson family. Tony Bon, CEO through 2015 retired as of December 31, 2016. Bon shares his impressions of the time he’s been with Samson and the high points of both the company and the industry it serves. In the Navy they have an expression to describe a captain that moves up through the ranks: “He came up through the hawse pipes.” Bon’s journey to the corner office at Samson is a similar story. In 1974, after leaving Berklee College of Music in Boston, Bon needed a job.

04 Dec 2015

Reintjes: Changing Gears

At Reintjes, the quality of engineering & product is a given. Deleroi aims to make the company more customer focused.  “The customer is front and center. Always.”

Reintjes is a name known well in maritime circles, a German engineering and manufacturing company which has designed and built some of the most rugged gearboxes on the waterways. Klaus Deleroi took the helm at Reintjes in January 2015, and he is in the midst of steering a change in mindset at the company: a mindset that is more customer-centric to better understand and fulfill the needs of the people and companies that own and operate vessels. We met with Deleroi in his Hameln, Germany, HQ for insights on the path ahead.

08 Sep 2015

Lean Manufacturing Transforms Maker of US Navy Warships

Photo: Fincantieri Marinette Marine

Big investments, lean manufacturing techniques borrowed from the automotive industry, and a more engaged workforce have revamped the Wisconsin shipyard where Italy's Fincantieri SpA builds the Freedom variant of the U.S. Navy's coastal warships for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. Fincantieri invested $100 million in recent years to transform the 1940s era shipyard into a state-of-the-art facility, where seven LCS ships are now under construction, including three that have already been launched into the river.

23 Oct 2014

Caterpillar: Q3 Results Show Improvement

Photo: Caterpillar

Caterpillar Inc. today announced its third-quarter results, in which it reported profit per share of $1.63 for the third quarter of 2014, an increase from third-quarter 2013 profit per share of $1.45. The third quarter of 2014 included a negative impact of $0.09 per share for restructuring costs. Excluding restructuring costs, third-quarter 2014 profit per share was $1.72. Third-quarter 2014 sales and revenues were $13.549 billion, up from $13.423 billion in the third quarter of 2013.

26 Sep 2014

Design’s Future 3D Modeling, Virtual Reality Wave of Design Future

CAD/CAM software can be used to analyze various sections of a vessel.  (Image: SSI)

Rooted in early computer-aided design (CAD) and manufacturing applications, design and construction software is firmly at the helm of most shipyards today, enabling the production of  better designed, more efficient and consistently built ships produced with measurably less waste: less waste of time, materials, man hours and most important, money. The ROI can be substantial, and is traceable throughout the entire process, across all sub sectors such as project management, purchasing, materials, labor and build sequencing.

04 Sep 2014

Bollard Load Test System Ready to Launch

Working with the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) and consultant Ade Walton from Prozeus, Tyne and Wear Marine (TWM) has spent the last year developing the Bollard Load Test (BLT), which uses a powerful hydraulic ram and specialist torque rope to recreate more than 100 metric tons of ‘pull’ when safely testing marine bollards. This breakthrough replaces the traditional method of a tug pulling against the bollard, a method that has previously caused damage to vessels and can be dangerous to the people involved in the test.

08 Jul 2014

Leidos Constructing AUV Anti-Submarine Warfare Tracker

National security, health & engineering solutions company, Leidos, says it has under construction an autonomous unmanned vessel designed to track quiet diesel-electric submarines spanning miles of ocean depths for months at a time with minimal human input, and due for testing at sea in 2015. Construction on the ACTUV (Autonomous Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel) is under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) program for the design, development, and construction of a vessel originally conceived for an anti-submarine warfare mission. "ACTUV's advanced sensor technology should allow for continuous surveillance which, combined with the vessel architecture and design…

04 Jun 2014

Intergraph Introduce Module Fabrication CAD Control Package

Las Vegas-based provider of enterprise engineering software for the process, power and marine industries, Intergraph, says it has released Intergraph Smart Production powered by NESTIX, the offshore and shipbuilding industries. Stephen Furze, Intergraph Process, Power & Marine's executive vice president of Industry Solutions, said, "Intergraph Smart Production powered by NESTIX brings the principles of digital shipbuilding and offshore construction to fabrication shops. This specialized solution controls all aspects of the parts and module/block production process in ship and offshore yards into one integrated package. A new solution within its next-generation Intergraph Smart Yard offering…

27 Feb 2014

On Patrol with the U.S. Coast Guard

Building programs continue, spanning the full range of missions, despite budget concerns. Amidst all the talk of Beltway budget cutbacks and sequestration, the U.S. Coast Guard is quietly investing approximately $30 billion in major acquisition projects to modernize its physical assets. The process of recapitalizing these older and difficult-to-maintain assets has never been an easy task, and the Coast Guard has seen its share of bumps along the way. For example, the initially messy Deepwater debacle initially kicked off what has evolved into today’s more successful recapitalization process, now run by the Coast Guard’s Acquisition Directorate, which stood up in July 2007.

06 Feb 2014

Two Management Changes at Ellicott Dredge

Rob Schettle (left) and Gert de Vries

Ellicott Dredge Enterprises announced two personnel changes to its senior management team. Gert de Vries has joined as Senior Director of Engineering, in which capacity he will be supporting the engineering departments of all of Ellicott's brands, principally Ellicott and Rohr-Idreco. He will also be mentoring the company’s engineering teams. Additionally, Rob Schettle has been promoted to General Manager at Ellicott's subsidiary Liquid Waste Technology. He will now be responsible for running Ellicott’s plant in New Richmond, Wisconsin.