The Water Taxi
During a trip to India there was an opportunity to travel to Bangladesh to visit Shipyards. Western Marine in Chittagong City gave us an invitation to discuss welding automation and how to implement improved productivity solutions in their shipyard. Upon our arrival we were told that the only way to the yard was by water taxi which was provided by Western Marine.
As we got closer to the yard, however, the low water levels made it impossible for the water taxi to go any further. We would have to make use of a row boat to get us the last 500 meters to the dock. When we arrived we were greeted like dignitaries. One of the most memorable journeys to a shipyard I have experienced.
Their challenge was that their manpower was at the maximum for their size and were looking to automation to increase the productivity of the existing manpower they had. After walking through the shipyard we identified some bottle necks in their production and found two areas where great improvements could be made. We sold them some muti-pass weld oscillation carriages and track automation to suit their needs. The great thing about this solution for them was that the KAT® Oscillator could be used for a variety of different applications and could be equipped for cutting applications if necessary. By automating the welding process great improvements to the weld quality were achieved eliminating much of the rework as well as minimizing stops and starts which vastly improved the arc on time of the welding process. These two improvements alone helped the shipyard to reach their goals and get back on schedule.