Project:

Country:

USA

Client:

Year:

2005-2007

The mission of the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Industrial Policy) (ODUSD(IP)) is to sustain an environment that ensures the industrial base on which the US Department of Defense (DoD) depends is reliable, cost-effective, and sufficient to meet DoD requirements.

First Marine International (FMI) was contracted to work in partnership with members of ODUSD(IP) to carry out a global shipbuilding benchmarking study.  The objective was to compare the processes and practices in US naval shipbuilding yards to leading international yards, analyse the reasons for differences and suggest improvements to the US naval shipbuilding enterprise.

The FMI shipyard benchmarking system was used to benchmark the productivity, processes and practices in thirty-five shipyards in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia.  Each yard was provided with a benchmarking report which included an assessment of the strengths and weakness of the processes and practices employed with suggestions for improvement.  The US yards were also provided with a prioritised list of performance improvement focus areas.  FMI made suggestions for industry-wide collaborative projects and suggested actions for Congress and the US Navy.  The study outputs were well received by all parties and have been used extensively to assist with performance improvement in the shipbuilding industry.