Original Date: 02/10/2003
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Company, Inc. developed and implemented a key materials spreadsheet to collect and display information pertinent to the management of materials that are critical to the success of its ship construction process.

Key and critical material are defined as any material that may significantly affect the build strategy for a project. This includes materials required for the construction and support of the project as well as major support contracts and capital equipment/facilities development. The largest cost drivers of Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Company, Inc. are the materials required for the vessels it manufactures, accounting for more than 50% of its total revenue. Approximately 88% of these materials are classified as key and critical to the construction process, thereby, if not managed effectively and reliably, constitute a significant impact on the overall cost, delivery, and quality of each vessel produced

In 2000, Bender took on the challenge to improve its methods of managing its key and critical materials. At that time, material was identified, procured, and delivered based on Bills of Material (BOMs) developed during the production drawing process. The BOMs that became part of the production drawing were the only historical data that was developed. Vender performance was not tracked from contract to contract, and standardization from project to project was far from optimized.

The solution to improve its methods of managing materials was the development of a company-wide database enabling engineering, planning, purchasing, and production to have access to a common Key Materials Spreadsheet (KMS) tool. This continuous process improvement initiative was started with the establishment of a source selection board to review and approve how Bender bought its materials. A policy was set for acquisition of key and critical materials and supporting technical data that now resides on the Bender intranet. The spreadsheet draws on data from the BOM and the WinShip system through information provided by engineering, planning, purchasing, and production. Order date, item number, description, quantity, price, vendor, requisition date, delivery date, and all action information pertinent to the material management are posted on this spreadsheet. The department responsible for each action is posted and color highlighted. The KMS tool is provided for each Bender project and managed by a single project material coordinator. A proactive materials acquisition team, composed of representatives from engineering, material control, planning, and warehousing, has been established to meet daily to correct issues and problems, make adjustments to the KMS tool, and measure improvements.

This comprehensive KMS tool provides significant improvement in the overall management of material at Bender. KMS provides reliable data, tracking, traceability, and standardization from project to project, and greatly improves the overall cost, delivery, and quality of vessels manufactured.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.