seatec - Finnish marine technology review 1/2005 | Page 9

Rauma-class.The series of four missile boats for the new “Squadron 2000” are called the Hamina-class. Aker Finnyards also has an own Lifecycle Services department, through which the yard wants to support the cruise operators to ensure that year after year cruise customers receive the state of the art experience onboard that they are used to. In June 2004 an agreement was made with Royal Caribbean International Ltd. on a revitalisation and lengthening project of the luxury cruise ship M/S Enchantment of the Seas.The project is regarded strategically important for the yard in the growing market of cruise ship conversions. Piikkio Works, the 100 % owned subsidiary of Aker Finnyards specialises in the building of cabin areas based on the concept of prefabricated cabin and bathroom modules for the ship building industry.They do design, consulting, manufacture and installation. Human resources The number of per sonnel at Aker Finnyards amounts to some 4,000 employees. The company‘s “assembly yard” concept means employing directly these “own” people and lots of others in cooperation companies, thus boosting the whole surrounding economic regions. The shipyards within the company have for several years adapted this concept, utilising a network of advanced partners. A lot of outfitting work is out-sourced to them, and the network of suppliers today form an integrated part of the shipbuilding activities. The co-operating companies have adapted their own production to seamlessly fit into the projects of the shipyard. With the highly qualified workforce and network of advanced partners combined with Aker Finnyards´ highly qualified production and project management, the assembly yard philosophy leads to the shortest possible throughput time, excellent quality and overall economy. Facilities The shipbuilding capacity of Aker Finnyards is distributed to three shipyards in Finland. The three yards situated in Helsinki, Rauma and Turku are amongst the largest yard facilities in Europe. The modern and efficient units have benefitted from several investment and development programmes. The Turku shipyard is one of the largest and most modern in Europe. The dimensions of the newbuilding dock (365 x 80 x 10 metres) enable the construction of virtually any type of vessel and the dock is equipped with a 600 tonnes gantry crane. A recent large investment programme at the yard included increased automation of the steel production line and new indoor production facilities including halls for steel production and block assembly. Production at the Helsinki shipyard is carried out in a covered newbuilding dock, measuring 280.5 x 34 x 9.5 metres. It allows the construction of full-sized Panamax vessels. Recent investments include a new paintshop, and increasing the lifting height and lifting capacity, to 450 tonnes, in the covered newbuilding dock. In the 260 x 85 x 9 metres newbuilding dock of the Rauma shipyard it is possible to build vessels up