Page 53: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 1999)

Gulf of Mexico worth yard in Pasadena, we got the best inland pushboat facility in the area, bar none. With the Galveston Island facility now a dedicated barge new-construction facility, we were able to go back to cus-tomers and offer a full package of boat, barge and cleaning. On the shipbuilding side, Walker says there have been "hundreds of little opportunities we've capitalized on," as the company continues to establish its own "best practices," and then, improve on those new standards. "When we bought the old Trinity facil-ity at Greens Bayou, which had built a lot of barges, it had a reputation of being an efficient yard," says Walker. "We were able to increase the efficiency by doubling the module size produced in the shop before going to the field for erection. We took more advantage of the automatic process in the shop, and cut the amount of man-hours needed to build a barge by 10 percent, which is a substantial savings in the newbuild world." With six facilities in the area ? the West and East Pelican Island facilities are adjacent, and the Galveston and Houston facilities are all within 15 min-utes of each other ? the furthest ride is from the Houston group to the Galve-ston group, which can be done in under an hour. "That geographic proximity allows us to maintain a stable labor base," says Francis. "If business gets soft at one facility, we can ship our labor around. We're able to retain our good work-force." "We shift our resources quite frequent-ly," adds Walker, "and we can pull our resources from a number of yards quick-ly. We can meet special turnaround requirements and resource needs. When we've had big rig jobs, we've taken man-power out of our inland division and sent them to Galveston, and the process works in reverse, as well." struction business will grow this coming year, as well. Obviously, given our loca-tion, OSVs are always a possibility for booming growth. "Currently, we do everything but mili-tary work, although, we're pursuing that now, as well," Francis says. "There's a lot of opportunities in custom fabrica-tion. We have substantial fabrication capacity, and we're in the process of developing a separate business line, for customers both inside and outside the marine industry. We have a large crane capacity, a large fabrication space under-roof, and a large coverslip, so shipping large structures is not a prob-IHIMK lem. Additionally, that will be one more facet of our business." And as the company expands its mar-ket focus, its areas of business and, potentially, its geographic presence, it is now starting to expand and increase its efforts at marketing and affecting public perception. Mat dMh MACHINE & FABRICATORS.. Specializing in Deck Equipment ? CAPSTANS ? MOORING WINCHES ? WINDLASS'S ? CRANES ? LIFEBOAT SYSTEMS ? RESCUE BOAT SYSTEMS ? DAVITS AND WINCHES USCG / ABS / SOLAS APPROVED SEE US AT THE INTERNATIONAL WORK BOAT SHOW BOOTH # 2854 Ph: (904) 428-3215 Fax: (904) 423-9480 202 N. Flagler Ave. / P.O. Box 358 Edgewater, Florida 32132 E-Mail: [email protected] Circle 238 on Reader Service Card Unsure where to get USCG Approved Houston Marine Training Services is now offering a new 70-hour approved 6MDSS course ? Meets STCW requirements ? FCC license ? Experienced, examinations qualified also available instructors Expansion Still Planned Newpark Shipbuilding still anticipates growth. "We want to diversify geo-graphically," Francis says. "We've done ? and we're still doing ? a good job of diversifying by product line, now we want to diversify geographically. "However, the expansion has to fit our culture. We're not just going to run out and buy a yard because it's for sale. We're still exploring opportunities that complement our existing yards. There are opportunities out there in ship repair and tank barge conversions, ocean barge conversions. We'll continue to do a good business in barge construction and barge repair, and we think our tug new-con-November, 1999 Circle 266 on Reader Service Card ? Personalized instruction with limited class size ? Other USCG approved and license exam prep courses available Circle 263 on Reader Service Card HRPfor optimal manoeuvrability DECK-MOUNTED PROPULSION UNITS For cargo barges, ferries, hopper dredgers, pontoons. WELL-MOUNTED PROPULSION UNITS For ferries, passenger vessels, tugboats. RETRACTABLE AZIMUTH THRUSTERS Additional propulsion for research vessels, hydrographic vessels, offshore vessels, and any application with D.P. control. HRP BOWTHRUSTERS Transverse tunnel thrusters for fishing craft, coasters, luxury yachts, dredgers. Use our expertise for your application. 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