• Military Menu                       

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

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Surface Ship Community Pilots Integrated Project Teams on all Waterfronts

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS111003-02
10/3/2011

By Susan Lawson, Commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center Public Affairs

NOFOLK (NNS) -- The commander of Navy Regional Maintenance Center (CNRMC) kicked off the initial Integrated Project Team Development (IPTD) event for USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19) at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Norfolk, Va. Sept. 13-16.

The event brought together the Mesa Verde project team and key stakeholders from the maintenance and modernization community to build an integrated team that will successfully execute their upcoming maintenance availability.

"These facilitated planning events enable the availability project teams to conduct comprehensive pre-availability ship assessments, critical analysis of availability work packages content to better identify project risks, critical path jobs, and develop project team strategies with the goal of completing maintenance and modernization availabilities, on time and on budget," said Rear Adm. David Gale, CNRMC commander.

"The work our project teams are doing on all waterfronts is forging a vital link between maintenance policies and practices, and applying lessons learned across all surface ship availabilities Navy-wide. Our teams are demonstrating the flexibility, responsiveness, and resolve required to address the emergent challenges inherent in today's maintenance and modernization environment," said Gale.

Until now, there has not been a deliberate process for building and integrating project teams in preparation for surface ship availabilities as is done in the Carrier and Submarine communities. The focus of the IPTD program is to assemble integrated project teams, develop project plans and strategies for each availability, and ensure roles and responsibilities of each member are clearly understood and communicated, and promote relationships needed to ensure a high probability of success.

Participants include ship's force, port engineers, shipbuilding specialists (SBS), RMC project manager, prime contract program manager, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA 21) program manager representative, as well as other key project team members.

"There are inherent challenges in maintaining and modernizing the Navy's fleet of surface ships. Within the maintenance community, it is our collective ambition to be a strong partner with the Surface Force by developing an ever-increasing level of quality support, responsiveness, and improved availability execution, leading to better quality, schedule and cost performance," said Gale.

Ships scheduled for Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Availabilities will undergo four to five IPTD events prior to the start date of the availability. IPTD events are tailored to meet the needs of a ship's maintenance team, and are instrumental in helping maintenance organizations transition from independent to integrated management methods. As the program evolves, it will become a continuing forum for developing the relationships between the many organizations of the Surface maintenance community.

RMCs throughout the Navy are supporting the IPTD initiative. In Norfolk, the USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) event is underway, while in San Diego, IPTD events on USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) and USS Harper's Ferry (LSD 49) are in progress. RMCs in Mayport, Fla., Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Northwest are also holding IPTD events, and Japan will begin their IPTD participation later this year.

Additional IPTD events for the Mesa Verde will occur throughout the planning and execution phases of the ship's availability. The IPTD team will also present critical paths, mitigation plans, challenges and successes during their periodic lessons learned conferences (LLCs), and during the ship's phased availability conferences at the 25, 50 and 75 percent points.

"With so many stakeholders involved in an availability, we have interdependencies with one another that cannot be overstated. These events provide valuable opportunities for our teams to refine business processes, improve overall performance, and assure our ships receive a better executed availability," said Gale.