Daewoo Okpo: from bankruptcy to the world's leading VLCC builder in six years
- 14→9
- months of VLCC lead time
- 1.3M→520K
- man-hours per VLCC
- 12→8
- weeks of dock cycle per ship
- 10%
- of world commercial tonnage in 1993, a first for a single yard
A yard that has lost its beat can get it back.
Proper Mediation Inc. rebuilds how shipyards work, so that on-time, on-budget delivery becomes the normal way of working. No new docks, no new cranes, no new workforce. A new operating structure.
From steel cutting to sea trial, one beatOkpo, large crude-oil tanker: 29 workstations in step
Photo: IikaJzuchiN, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
14→9
months of VLCC lead time
−60%
man-hours per VLCC, 1.3M to 520K
7 of 7
naval projects on time, after 0 of 7
14→7
months of system integration
The Okpo turnaround is documented in Harvard Business School Case 9-695-001, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Heavy Machinery (Upton and Kim, 1994).
Our mission
Proper is more. Mediation is everything.
Mediate through proper engagement. That is where the best is brought forth.
- Solve problems from the rootWe hold to one principle above the others: find the cause, not the symptom.
- Design for the whole and the futureEvery project is shaped for the whole organization and for the years after we leave.
- Release the potential withinPeak performance comes from the people and organizations already there, not from outside.
- Make new behavior lastWe build the structure that carries new thinking and behavior into lasting habit and culture.
Who we are →Photo: IikaJzuchiN, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)
The problem
Most yards run late for the same reason.
It is rarely the people.
By Suh Wan-Chul's estimate, more than 90 percent of the world's shipyards run late and over budget. In the yards he has worked in, the drawings, the equipment and the workforce were seldom the constraint. The structure was: no shared beat, no clear task for the day, trades colliding in the same compartment, and teams waiting on one another.
Performance = Potential− Interference− Hesitation
Hesitation
Interference
Performance
- HesitationNot knowing what today requires, so people wait to see what others do.
- InterferenceTrades in the same space, work waiting on drawings and material, crews remobilizing every shift.
- PerformanceWhat reaches the ship.
- Zone-based plan: one team, one compartment
- Procedures written by the teams
- One visible TACT beat
- Daily briefing and closing meeting
Performance=Potential
- Same people, drawings and equipmentWe add nothing to the potential. It was on the floor all along.
- ×4Outfit-installation rate at Boustead in 2014, with the same workforce.
After The Heartbeat of the Shipyard, §9.5. Proportions in “Today” are illustrative.
The approach
One beat for the whole yard,
and four structures that hold it.
Synchronized TACT Production sets one visible rhythm for the yard. It is back-calculated from the delivery date and built up from the working teams' own procedures. Four structures make keeping that rhythm the easiest way to work.
Four wheelsone driveEach produces what the other three need.
TACT OperationSupplies the common rhythmA fixed, visible beat. The other three wheels are keyed to it.EPP IntegrationSupplies work that can be doneEngineering and procurement deliver to the beat, so the plan is filled with executable work.WORKOUT ProgramSupplies learningThis week's bottleneck becomes next week's standard, so neither the beat nor the plan hardens.Go-and-Check ManagementSupplies presenceManagers on the floor at fixed hours, keyed to the daily TACT. Without them the other three stop turning.Three wheels of four does not give three-quarters of the effect. The yard holds for a year or two, then drifts back.The Heartbeat of the Shipyard, §3.5
The ground beneath
Permanent In-house School: the basics for everyone, taught by trainers grown inside the yard.The record
Same docks. Same drawings. Same people.
A different structure.
Boustead Naval Shipyard: seven late projects, then seven on time
- ×4
- outfit-installation rate, same workforce
- 14→7
- months of system integration on SLEP-2
- 49→32
- months of total production for the corvette class
- 7 of 7
- projects delivered on time through 2017
Shin Yang Shipyard: a stalled naval refit recovered, and a new production system installed in one year
- 75%
- of all pipe spools installed in two weeks
- 78
- outstanding items closed with the Navy in fifteen days
- 3.5 mo
- from engine installation to delivery of a 47-year-old patrol boat
- 6-day
- TACT for hull erection on a UAE training ship
Photo: IikaJzuchiN, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Hiroki.loh.st, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Photos: Suh Wan-Chul, Shin Yang Shipyard, 2019.
Who we work with
Organizations that build, repair and own ships.
Commercial shipyards
Newbuilding yards that must deliver on time, cut man-hours and hold their place in the market.
Naval yards and MRO
Yards building, repairing and upgrading warships against fixed contract dates.
Navies and governments
Programme owners and policymakers who need new capacity to turn into delivered ships.
Heavy industry
Offshore, onshore EPC, power and process plants with project-based production.
The book behind the method
The Heartbeat of the Shipyard
Bringing a Yard Back to Life and the Structure That Keeps It Beating
Fifty years of shipyard practice in one method: two recoveries told from the inside, and the operating system drawn from them.
Contact
Start with a conversation about one yard.
Tell us where the yard is today and where it needs to be. We will tell you plainly whether we can help.
- propermediation@gmail.com
- +82 2 564 0700
- Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Send an enquiry