Analysis of the Cost of Variable Workloads on Shipbuilding

• Main Authors: Magnuson ,Allen H, Terry,Robert W
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: Administration and Management; ALLOCATIONS; COST ANALYSIS; Economics and Cost Analysis; JOB ANALYSIS; MANAGEMENT PLANNING AND CONTROL; Marine Engineering; OPERATIONS RESEARCH; PLANNING; SHIPBUILDING; TRANSFER FUNCTIONS; VALUE ENGINEERING; VARIABLES

The effect of shipyard workload variation on the cost of building ships has been analyzed. The results of four efforts are presented. The first major effort consists of an analysis of the effect of work density (i.e. worker crowding) on shipbuilding productivity and cost. The results show that an optimum least cost construction time and work-force level exist as a result of a tradeoff between work density effects and fixed costs. The second effort was an attempt to identify causes of shipyard productivity variation based on interviews with shipyard supervisory personnel. The third effort involved development of a framework for estimating transfer functions to describe how workload variation affects cost. This work is to be based on historical producton and cost data. A description of adapting the Box-Jenkins forecasting methodology to the problem is presented. The fourth effort concerns development of a shipyard planning system to minimize cost of adjusting to workload variations. A review of current approaches to multi-resource/multi-project planning models is given along with a proposed decompostion of the planning problem into strategic and tactical components. The strategic or long-range planning deals with aggregate issues such as organizational goals, long-range manpower planning and facilities expansion. The tactical component is more detailed and involves workforce allocation on a trade level to the various activities composing the construction of each ship. The tactical planning level is short-term detailed planning that takes into account inter-and intra-trade interferences, precedence at relationships proper sequencing) for each task and manpower allocation. (Author)