Shipping

October 2005

Sumitomo Heavy Unit To Cut Midsize Tanker Construction Time
Sumitomo Heavy Industries Marine & Engineering Co., a shipbuilding subsidiary of Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., is set to introduce a system to shorten the construction time of building a midsize tanker to six months, two-thirds the current levels, by the end of fiscal 2005, company sources said. The company will attempt to build the system by introducing Toyota Motor Corp.'s efficient auto-making methods, such as through cutting parts/components inventories. The move is intended to raise its profitability and better compete with South Korean, Chinese and other ship-making rivals by making its production processes more efficient, the sources say. The company has introduced Toyota-style production control methods from Kanto Auto Works Ltd., an auto-assembling company affiliated with Toyota, since February 2003. Its lines for assembling ship hull blocks, each weighing several hundred tons, as well as for assembling ship pipes have already adopted Toyota methods. The company plans to introduce Toyota methods in its ship painting processes in the current fiscal year and in its ship rigging and other operations in and after fiscal 2006, the sources say. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, October 15, 2005)