The new Atlantic lifeboat workshop at the RNLI's Inshore Lifeboat Centre in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, was officially opened by RNLI President The Duke of Kent on 16 April. The workshop will see the building and refits of the charity’s Atlantic 85 rigid inflatable lifeboats, and the refits of their predecessors, the Atlantic 75s like that pictured below right.

The workshop was finished last October, under budget, and is now in use. A new ‘lean manufacturing’ approach means that there is now a single production line for new construction and refit, which has cut refit times from 18 weeks to 12. This means that fewer relief boats are needed and nine can be sold.

The D class relief fleet is also being reduced dramatically thanks to lean manufacturing, from 52 craft in 2007 to just 20 by the end of 2010. The time taken to refit a D class lifeboat has been cut from 9–10 weeks to just 2 weeks, without compromising quality or safety, thanks to the new more efficient working methods.

As well as precious time, these processes stand to save the RNLI £2.6M initially, and another £160,000 a year in refit costs.

The space and time saved has also led to the Inshore Lifeboat Centre’s boatbuilders now being licensed to produce the Arancia inshore rescue boats (IRB) used in surf by RNLI lifeguards. A prototype built in East Cowes performed just as well if not better than the real thing, made in New Zealand. All future RNLI IRBs will now be built by the RNLI, making a saving of 50% on the cost of importing these inflatables.