Assembly block storage location assignment at a shipyard: a case of Hyundai Heavy Industries

摘要

It is not a trivial issue how to manage assembly blocks at a shipyard. Based on the project experience in Hyundai Heavy Industries, currently the largest shipbuilding company in the world and the leader in the Korean merchant shipbuilding industry, this study points out the difficulties on the block stockyard operations, formalises the assembly block storage location assignment problem, and develops the assembly block storage location assignment algorithm, the purpose of which is to reduce the number of unproductive block moves. Through simulation experiments for various situations, this study demonstrates the usefulness of the assembly block storage location assignment algorithm. In addition, this study examines the impacts of block move sequence rules and of block stockyard layouts on the block stockyard operations.