• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

New Project Management Approach Pays Off at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard

NAVSEA News

07 March 2003

By Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Facility Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR -- A unique approach to managing submarine maintenance projects is bringing positive results at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (NS&IMF).

The shipyard's Fleet Maintenance Availability Project for Submarines (FMB) is using critical chain project management to improve schedule and performance on submarine availabilities.

For years, critical path project management has been the standard for Navy shipyards and industry as a whole. In the critical path process, a schedule is developed that allots enough time for jobs so that they, and consequently the project, will finish on time with a 90 percent probability.

In critical chain project management, the duration of jobs is shortened so that half of the time they will finish late. The time that has been cut from these jobs is placed in buffers in certain strategic points of the schedule.

"It's a change in the way we execute and plan work," said Cmdr. Kent Kettell, Assistant Operations Officer for FMB. "It minimizes chaos and firefighting."

Although at face value, the idea of deliberately starting a project late seems counterproductive, critical chain management actually helps the shipyard meet or beat project end dates. In critical path management, even if a job finishes early, the next job in line doesn't begin immediately because it's either still scheduled to start at the original date or a resource isn't available. Critical chain schedules encourage a "relay race" behavior, where workers finish a job as quickly as possible and, without delay, pass the baton to others on the next job. The intention is to capture gains in schedule and pass them on.

Since critical chain project management was implemented last year, FMB has improved its schedule performance, finishing its last 13 availabilities on time. The average number of jobs done per upkeep has also risen while lowering the number of man-hours required.

Metrics comparing performance in fiscal year 2002 before and after the inception of critical chain project management show 11 percent more jobs done per upkeep while using five percent less man-hours. There was also a 13 percent increase in job completions. All of this was accomplished while the average length of availabilities was reduced 5.6 days.

Shipyard workers see and feel the results. "I've seen the difference," said Roxanne Bataya, a shipfitter supervisor. "We aren't bouncing around like before."

Shipfitter Richard Donald agreed. "It seems like we do less jobs at one time. It's more organized."

Due to the success at FMB, critical chain project management will be expanded to the Selected Restricted Availability on USS Louisville (SSN 724).