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Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Completes Record Breaking Availability on Alexandria

NAVSEA News Wire

1/17/2003

By JOC David Nagle, Naval Sea Systems Command Public Affairs and Alan Robinson, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Public Affairs

KITTERY, Maine -- Christmas arrived early for the Navy's submarine force, as USS Alexandria (SSN 757) returned home to Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., following a depot maintenance period (DMP) at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Kittery, Maine.

Portsmouth also sent another gift along with Alexandria - a new benchmark in submarine maintenance, as the shipyard delivered Alexandria to the fleet more than two months earlier than scheduled.

Alexandria, originally scheduled for a 13-month DMP, received approximately $125 million of maintenance and modernization and returned to the fleet in 10.8 months. PNSY's record-setting accomplishment bested their previous record for a DMP completion by seven weeks. Their previous record was set in February 2002, completing a DMP on USS Miami (SSN 755).

"The significance of this accomplishment cannot be overstated," said Capt. Kevin McCoy, PNSY commander. "At a time of war, the nation has a front-line submarine back on-line, in top condition and well ahead of schedule."

PNSY's latest maintenance success is the result of its focus on continuous improvement, both in the availability planning and execution phases. The shipyard continues to refine its processes, reduce costs, shorten schedules and is taking the lead in exporting its proven processes to the other Naval Shipyards.

The shipyard used the Baseline Project Management Plan, a submarine community initiative that provides a "cookbook" approach to planning submarine availabilities. The plan requires the project team to look at how all the required jobs fit together and ensure there is no down time between tasks.

On the Alexandria, PNSY minimized production work stoppages by planning product problems, that resulted in direct support savings, improvement in production cost performance and schedule gains during the execution of the DMP.

"We are a vital part of the CNO's Sea Enterprise initiative to reduce life-cycle costs and reinvest those savings to recapitalizing our Navy," said McCoy. "The men and women at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard are committed to eliminating waste from our processes and searching for new and innovative ways to provide better service at reduced costs and with shorter cycle times. We understand this is exactly what the Navy needs from us right now."

McCoy added that other key elements in this latest success were teaming with Alexandria's crew and a spirit of patriotism shared by the shipyard employees.

Naval shipyards are maintaining and refueling nearly 20 percent of the submarine force through fiscal year 2008. As a result, there is a greater emphasis on completing submarine maintenance as efficiently as possible so submarines can return to service and carry out their missions.

"Our Naval Shipyards are not just working harder, they are working smarter, and that boils down to people" said Vice Adm. Phillip Balisle, commander, Naval Sea Systems Command. "Portsmouth is a prime example of that and should feel justifiably proud of the Alexandria effort."