We, The TTSP-ians

By: Vance Madelo    With TTSP, marking its 30th year since its first inception from a small eight-man design office in Cebu City, I could only marvel at how much it has grown into its current 500-man plus workforce in a 1000-capacity design center clattering with keyboard taps, mouse clicks and chats to design ships that are mostly of giant bulk carrier types. The now-staggering 321 overall ship count already delivered to owners amazes me on the resilience, hard work and craft of Filipino shipbuilders amid the challenges they faced throug the decades, thanks to the significant assimilation of Japanese craft and shipbuilding technological prowess through the Tsuneishi Group of Companies. Further down the history lane, I tried to dig deeper into the Filipinos’ knack in sea-related trades. I found it all started with the “Balangay”, a wooden boat employed by the Filipino ancestors in coming over and settling down in the Philippines. Accordingly, about 5000-6000 years ago...

By: Vance Madelo    It is a noteworthy trait among Filipinos to pro-actively help each other particularly when the situation demands. The “Bayanihan” spirit had been deeply ingrained in the Filipino culture having its roots dating back during the pre-colonial and colonial era. Historically, the Bayanihan was a common practice in the community wherein everybody lent hands and took turns in carrying and transferring a member’s movable bamboo hut to another place. On other occasions, the same spirit is demonstrated in activities of communal farming and fishing communities, also evolving into community cooperation related to affairs in preparation of religious festivities and other celebrations. As times changed and advancement taken place, the same trait is still very evident but adapted in different situations where teamwork is important. All, still in a mood of caring for one another. In ship designing, where planning a ship entails thousands of drawing tasks and te...

By: Vance Madelo    The Tsuneishi Technical Services Philippines, Inc. (TTSP) detail designing activities of ship’s piping systems generally cover essential piping systems such as the ship’s fixed fire extinguishing systems and water/fire extinguishing systems for most type of ships. However, the bulk of its piping detail design activities are applied in merchant vessels, particularly, but not limited to piping systems of machinery, hull, deck, interior and accommodation sections of Tankers and Bulk carriers. The general piping design service of TTSP comprises the groups under which, are teams with specific design specializations under the broader scope of a ship’s general piping systems. These teams’ piping detail design specializations fall under the Machinery Piping group, Accommodation Piping group and finally, the Hull Piping group - all of which work in continuous collaboration with each other during the design process.

by: Vance S. Madelo    Construction of a ship involves tens of thousands of drawing plans before physical works commence because every customer has unique needs for each ship ordered. TTSP seriously takes the customer requirements into consideration and treat these as critical input data into the planning and designing process. In the downstream level of ship designing, planning involves drawing plans that take into account the minutest details of each ship section. Detailed designs of ship sections include its electrical systems, piping systems, outfitting of machineries and equipment, interior accommodation works, ship completion, and painting plans that are integrated into the ship as a whole. Each section is dedicated to specialized design groups in cross-functional collaboration with each other. With “cost-efficiency” being part of its corporate vision, TTSP is further involved in production planning and design, scrutinized purchase and utilization of raw materials i...

by: Vance S. Madelo    When the clock strikes 11AM before lunch time the PA system automatically sets off with a chime before a manly voice that calmly says, “Always wear face mask, wear face shield on top of face mask when riding the bus and when in public areas….”, announcing among other COVID-19 health protocol reminders inside the TTSP ship design center . The same announcement is repeated an hour before work ends in the afternoon when everybody is about to leave the place, and others to ride the company buses (50% capacity each) taking them home. TTSP’s COVID-19 PA system is only one of the preventive implementations in place. Floors where employees convene like the log machines, ATM machine and the Canteen areas have been marked with distancing stickers. Canteen tables have been re-arranged meters apart each and to accommodate only two persons at a time to opposing corners. With employees numbering more than 500, they have been divided into two batches to take turns ...

by: Vance S. Madelo    Getting up shortly after sunrise on Mondays, Eddie puts on his accessories after a quick bath to start his long motorcycle ride from Cebu City to Balamban via the Transcentral Highways. He doesn’t take the company bus rides because he has good reasons not to, and so for some of his buddies who live in Balamban and neighboring provinces. Practicality aside, they simply love to ride. These guys work as Ship Design Staffs of Tsuneishi Technical Services (Phil.) Inc. (TTSP) by week days. They get in and out of the workplace vicinity by riding their motorcycles along with hundreds, if not, thousands of other riders employed by companies inside the West Cebu Industrial Park (WCIP) special economic zone. On weekends, holidays or even after office hours Eddie’s group would go on a joy ride as planned or as agreed simply by impulse when weather permits. “It’s just one of the few ways we relieve ourselves from the demands of technical detail designing and ...

By: Vance Madelo    It was one clear, sweltering start of summer, in the closing days of February 2019 when all of TTSP’s operations had to stop. All data processing units were down and unplugged from power sources. The once bustling building of mouse clicks and key taps had completely turned into a different sound and scene. The occupants were clothed differently that time. They didn’t wear uniforms. They were dressed something else, because for two days they wouldn’t be designing and they wouldn’t be in their usual business activities. They came in simple clothes to pack their things. Obviously, TTSP was on to something – something bigger, and people from the workplace had to leave. The realization of a plan that took more than a year in the making finally came – the ground was dug and it took another year to put the structure into fruition. It was quite a long wait. Thus, on the 5th of March 2019, the workforce celebrated with a simple but heartwarming occasion of ...

By: Vance Madelo For the second straight year, TTSP was chosen as the winner in the CADMATIC 3D Visualization Contest conducted last Sep.12, 2018. This contest is one of the highlights of the CADMATIC Users Meeting held at the Joki Visitor and Innovation Center in Turku, Finland. It showcased the capabilities of the software from the viewpoint of users. The TTSP entry was done through the dedicated effort of Mr. Reymart Paredes, CESSD member, with contributions from other capable colleagues who provided inputs on improving the effortless comprehension of the content including the enhancement of the audio and video aspect. As a CADMATIC user, TTSP further utilized the opportunity to learn more about the features of the product through customer presentations and workshops about tools tailored to improve the user's workflow; design optimizations in the different stages of design; consistency checks to ensure error-free pipe manufacturing; and finally, the utilization of digital...

By: Vance Madelo We cater to ship customer’s specifications. The Tsuneishi group in Balamban, Cebu, Philippines design and build international merchant vessels in the form of Tankers, Bulk Carriers, and Containers. These ships are designed and built in strict adherence to international and maritime standards. The tanker vessels come in different types and sizes as Aframax, Kamsarmax, Handy, Panamax and Cape type. Deadweights for bulk carriers come in tonnages ranging from 35000, 38000, 45000, 58000, 64000, 76000, 82000, 98000, and 180000 respectively. It also caters to smaller vessels such as tugboat and other vessels. Currently it is expanding to include other types of smaller, local merchant and passenger vessels. While Tsuneishi already have template designs for these ships it accepts customization according to customer or ship owners’ preferences and needs. Its affiliate ship design company, The Tsuneishi Technical Services, (Phi.) Inc. or TTSP in short, caters to ship ...

By: Vance Madelo What many people know about TTSP is that we design ships at the detail production level. That is, we draw design plans for the inner, more intricate structures of a ship including but not limited to piping, electrical systems, machinery outfitting, cutting plans, interior accommodation, hatch cover and painting, internal finishing and completion touches among others. The majority of the detail-designing tasks are usually for ship owners that are also customers from our mother company in Japan, the Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company as well as the Tsuneishi Heavy Industries in Cebu, Balamban, Philippines. However, TTSP also accept subcontracting services for non-captive markets locally and globally through its ancillary section, CAD Engineering Services Subcontracting Department (CESSD) . We have designing projects other than our own (Tsuneishi vessels) that involved 3D modeling and 2D detailing using licensed designing softwares to include CADMATIC, BricsCAD, Auto...

By: Vance Madelo The Tsuneishi group, with Tsuneishi Technical Services Philippines (Inc.) being one of the group's affiliates, is responsibly designing and building ships that are in strict compliance of the standards set forth by the ClassNK, a ship classification society that ensures safety of life and property at sea, as well as prevention of pollution to the marine environment. That said, Tsuneishi-made vessels are aptly considered safe for the health of both environment and the crews who operate within the confines of these ships. The TTSP Design Engineers and staffs are constantly informed of the current ClassNK code updates to orient them of the latest developments in the shipbuilding industry guidelines. ClassNk facilitators came over to the TTSP last June 20, 2017 to conduct explanatory meeting of these codes which included the following topics and corresponding sub-topics: 1. Enforcement for Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention • Outline of the convention...

By: Vance Madelo Working in TTSP as a technical design staff, or that which work specifically as Design Engineer, Design Specialist or Design Technician will present an employee a chance to travel to Japan and work there in one of the offices of Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company . It is a yearly regular dispatch program of TTSP for all technical employees to experience the Japanese work culture, exchange technical skills and assimilate these into both parties' local ship designing and building silos. After about a year or two of tenure in TTSP, an employee get this chance to be dispatched for either six months, one year, or three months to Japan. They are being selected from different design teams across TTSP on a rotation basis handpicked by their managers. Good performers usually get the first chance than the others. They travel by batch of 30's to 50's. All travel expenses are paid for by the company (TTSP) and salaries are also paid them by their Japanese employers ...

By: Vance Madelo Situated at the northwestern part of Cebu province and with a pool of engineering and drafting professionals in its employ, Tsuneishi Technical Services, Phils. is the chief ship designer in the Philippines. It has steadily been growing from a humble beginning of eight (8) initial employees in 1992 to over 400 design engineers, draftsman, office staffs, drivers and maintenance personnel combined as for this writing. What most people are wrong about is that they usually associate TTSP as a shipbuilding company. It is not. Though it is an affiliate or sister company of the Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Company (TSC) in Hiroshima, Japan, it only designs merchant ships to supplement the said mother company. It specializes in detail designs of bulk carriers, tankers and other ocean-going vessels. It is also involved in designing details of engineering, manufacturing, oil and biogas plants. Currently, it has plans of gradually expanding its workforce, capability, and office...

By: Vance Madelo Last May 20, 2017 TTSP unveiled and officially commenced its year-long celebration of its 25 th Anniversary – a silver-year of existence and milestone from the grass roots in ship designing. It was a simple ceremony that followed after a morning mass offering in its building lobby with the presence of its president, Engr. Segismundo Exaltacion Jr., its Director, Mr. Teruaki Kambara, the MANCOM, Japanese dispatch staffs and employees. The unveiling ceremony was timed during the closing ceremony of its company Sports Olympics 2017, which also was the official start of activities of the celebration. Everything in the commemorative logo, as shown in this profile photo above, is symbolic of significant strides taken by TTSP over the past years. To name, these are reflected in the said logo-slogan: Designing beyond borders – designing not just marine vessels but in the field of engineering as well; 25 – twenty-five years of gliding through the waves of change and i...

By: Vance Madelo TTSP is Tsuneishi Technical Services (Phils.) Incorporation. For a starter, the post title above is a shoutout to the online world mimicking the traditional screen output, “Hello World”, practiced by developers and software engineers over the years in learning a new programming language. Likewise, in the birth of this blog TTSP greets the online world before anything else. This embarkation is our way of moving one notch higher in our intention to deepen our online reach. Because we, in TTSP believe in the power of engaging visitors and clientele through casual information drive, we have made ourselves visible online through the creation of this blog (in addition to our website ) because we don’t just do business, we do strive to make our brand be known to the global arena of ship, industrial and commercial designing. Designing with us is about cost-efficiency, quality and on-time delivery – which every potential client should consider as a highly-qualified ...