Top Lessons Learned from a Giant Rubber Duck
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Date
The yellow rubber duck that floats in baths of families the world over started appearing in harbors around the globe in 2007 — but not in their usual small size, but as giant floating structures. To the delight of many, waterways worldwide were being turned into a huge baths. Bath time reached Taiwan officially in 2013 at Kaohsiung City’s Glory Pier.
Requirements Management
This traveling sculpture display Rubber Duck was an international art show by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. It has been built and displayed worldwide with the aid of two volumes of installation guides and specifications. The books offered details ranging from the materials of the sculpture's construction to the patterns those materials needed to be cut into and how they should be sewn together. They also included calculations of the sculpture's buoyancy and weight to help with moving and securing it.
Lessons Learned
In addition, these books recorded the best practice of each construction of the Rubber Duck. In each new city the sculpture appeared, lessons learned were recorded. This meant that each new appearance of the sculpture would feature an accumulation of experience and insight in how best to manufacture and exhibit it.
Regardless of where it appeared, the Rubber Duck technically should have looked the same. But in reality, some cities’ ducks just looked prettier; while others’ had crooked mouths, tilted bodies or looked lethargic overall. Even if you have extensive lessons learned in hand, as well as basic guides to materials and construction, success comes down to the local project managers’ precision and quality control.
In the case of Taiwan’s Rubber Duck, erecting and placing the sculpture would be a challenge due to its size: At 18 meters (59 feet) high and 1 metric ton (2,205 pounds), it was the biggest in Asia at the time. Even more challenging were the threats of typhoons and earthquakes. Ayu Cheng, the project manager of the Taiwanese team, said they had to work on several issues, including:
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How to combine the hose and skin in the ducktail to ensure no leakage of air and pumping on a 24-hour basis to ensure the duck's features never sagged.
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How to assemble and sew the parts in order to make them more wind resistant than previous sculptures.
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How to ensure the floating platform the duck body was fixed upon was properly concealed, floating just 1 centimeter (.4 inch) beneath the water's surface and not bobbing uncontrollably or looking like it was sinking.
Risk Management
The Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. and Airglow Co. Ltd. worked together to overcome these challenges. All the production teams, the project manager and the Kaohsiung Municipal created two precedents:
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The platform which the duck body was fixed to could now be disassembled into four parts for transportation and re-assembly elsewhere
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The initial inflation of the sculpture to take just seven minutes, a dramatically shorter time than the usual time of around seven hours.
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During the exhibition in Kaohsiung, risk response procedures were also used due to Typhoon Usagi. The sculpture was lifted and placed on the ground and deflated. Then after the typhoon passed, it was re-inflated and placed back in its position. The exhibition program, along with its risk management and quality control measures, helped Kaohsiung's Rubber Duck survive Typhoon Usagi. (For example, the Rubber Duck in another Taiwanese city, Taoyuan, exploded due to the natural disaster.)
Mr. Florentijn has said because the world’s seas are connected, the Rubber Duck connects everyone's happy childhood memories. As simple as that idea is, it could not be realized without the elaborate program management and the cooperative project work behind it.
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Have you worked on a program where you had to use lessons learned, requirements management and risk management together?
Posted
by
Lung-Hung Chou
on: November 06, 2014 06:22 AM |
Permalink
Comments (2)
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Thank you so much for this article.
Manas De Amin
Director| Computer Technology Group Kolkata
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
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