Grand modulization
Moving dock work upstream into a grand-module factory. At Okpo it cut the dock cycle from twelve weeks to eight.
Beneath the 900-tonne gantry crane at Okpo lay a large outdoor area used for unsystematic block enlargement and storage. It was reorganized into a dedicated factory for grand modules (the engine-room part, the flat part, the curved part), each delivered to the dock nearly complete.
A TACT linked assembly, block outfitting, block painting, grand-module assembly and erection. The workforce that had cycled between peak load and idleness in the dock was redeployed upstream, and the dock stopped being the exception to flow.
An example: The dock, before and after
Two decades later, continuous improvement carried the same dock cycle down to six weeks. The foundational leap was the eight-week cycle of 1991.