How to efficiently manage assembly blocks at shipyard has been a hot management issue in the shipbuilding Industry, because it has significantly influenced on the productivity of shipbuilding process. This paper introduces the real practice of assembly block operations management in Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and the Ship Assembly Block Operations Optimization (SABOO) project that h3s been launched in HHI as an academy-and-industry collaborative project, aimed to diagnose problems, propose possible solutions, and develop a prototype system in order to search ways of improving the assembly block operations management. Through the field interviews, observations, and benchmarking studies, the SABOO project diagnosed the most rudimental and urgent problem and proposed possible solutions. In addition, the SABOO project developed the prototype system that embodied the visual function of monitoring the shipyard on a real-time and the Interactive block assignment function that utilized the assembly block assignment algorithm developed by the project. As a whole, the SABOO project tested the possibility and gained an insight in extending the functions of block transportation/stockyard management system.