Japanese yards are consistently able to offer ships at price one-half to two-thirds below American prices; many reasons have been offered to explain this differential. Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange, Texas, initiated studies to identify differences between themselves and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries in engineering, design practices, production planning, control methods, personnel organisation and training, in the building of dry bulk carriers. This was done through a sub-contract with IHI Marine Technology Inc., specifying the areas to be explored and the number and type of IHI consulting personnel. Subsequently, recognising the potential application of this programme to the US shipbuilding industry, a cost-sharing contract was agreed with MarAd, in order to provide documentation and seminars to reveal the findings; the programme is proceeding and ultimately promises beneficial and profitable results.
Abstract : Proceedings of the REAPS Technical Symposium. Paper No. 2: The Shipbuilding Technology Transfer Program. One of the most innovative ideas to come along in the shipbuilding industry in a very long time is the one that inspired the Shipbuilding Technology Transfer Program (TTP). The idea evolved from a long and tedious but finally successful attempt by Levingston Shipbuilding Company (LSCo) to secure a contract for the construction of five 36,OOO DWT dry bulk carriers. These ships were to be built to a modified design of the Future-32 class ships previously designed and built by Tshikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (TNT) of Japan. Because the design was to be modified to provide two medium-size diesel engines instead of the single engine in the original design Levingston contracted with TNT for on-site design engineering support. It was at this point when the idea of transferring Japanese production technology occurred to the Levingston management.
