I heard it on the local radio recently that Korea is now the biggest shipyard in the world. The country is said to have orders to build ships for the next three years at least. In fact, Korea is considering investing in shipyard here in the Philippines, which will make Philippines the second biggest shipyard in the world. You can just imagine the jobs that will be generated from this project alone.
That radio news inspired me to search for Six Sigma in ship or boat building. Good enough, I found an article saying that the axiom “Do the job right the first time” is never more true than in a shipyard’s welding operation. Fabricator.com reports:
The welding process must be optimized for high productivity, yet maintain quality levels required by stringent welding standards.
Even using the most fine-tuned process, a welder can be done in by upstream operations that prepare the material for welding. New welding automation equipment is available that can be used before, during, and after welding to maximize productivity, reduce variability, and ensure high quality.
Six Sigma welding refers to the efforts necessary to reduce the defect rate to less than the acceptable industry level of 3.4 parts per million (PPM). Achieving this standard requires nearly perfect joint repeatability, or as an alternative, intelligent automation. Continue reading…
The article shows the steps on how the processes of the ship and boat welding go. As Six Sigma is implemented, the welding process control is plotted, the shipyard automation categories are identified, and the quality of weld results screen is presented. In this screen, you can see the defective welds and the reasons for the defects. A repair welder can use this information to locate welds that need correcting. The trending capability through the automatic inspection system also tracks defects and generates Pareto charts, which can be used to identify which defects occur most often and the welding process’s overall capability. This capability index can be used in the Six Sigma improvement effort.
I know welding is very crucial in ship and boat building. As the spokesperson on the radio said, the ships or boats are built by parts, which are then joined together; so you can just imagine if the welding or the jointed parts are defective!
