Hi everyone; this is Kevin. Today is Tuesday, November 16th.
In a recent podcast I focused on the progress we’ve made over the last few months at Groton. Today we’ll focus on Quonset Point.
The leadership team has several initiatives underway across the site focused on improving our performance and driving down our work order delinquencies. An example is an effort to improve structural fitting and welding performance at QP. This cross-functional improvement strategy is focused on streamlining structural processes, reducing delinquent work orders and providing deck plate support to supervisors and the trades. There are a number of elements to this strategy that include:
- Ensuring Engineering and Planning deck plate support to work through first-time designs and fixtures and work instructions using our new NX design tool.
- It’s great to see a lot of engineers and a lot of planners on the deck plates at QP helping out.
- We’re providing Gap training for Trade Supervision, which includes technical and soft skills training.
- We’re also improving magnetic particle testing, or MT, by ensuring our welders learn from MT inspection Unsats so they can get it better each time they pass through another inspection process.
- We’re also providing some discrete weld performance goals including arc-time and cost per joint in each of the work centers.
- And as I mentioned previously, we’re focusing on delinquencies and really focused on closing the oldest orders first.
- We’re doing some work with advancing our weld performance by increasing the use of mechanization and robotics and we’re now investigating COBOT technologies, which are teachable welding devices.
In addition to that, the QP team has reached several important milestones in the past few weeks. The first two-pack VPM cylinder has gone through the new tube pairing and tube installation processes utilizing the Tube Pairing Fixture (TPF) and the Tube Insertion Fixture (TIF). We encountered quite a few challenges with this new build process resulting in significant schedule delays, particularly in the TIF fixture. A cross-functional team led by Carla Hall and Steph Woloshin is working hard to reduce our span time back down to 79 days so we can support the goal of building two Virginia-class VPM submarines a year. I met with them this past Friday, and I’m absolutely thrilled that we’ve got them on the case. I think they’ve got a good plan to get that span time down to as low as possible.
On Columbia, the first quad-pack is out of the F-Fixture, which proves out our process and further reduces future risk to the Columbia schedule. The department 914 team is now working on getting this module to paint by the end of the year. QP has also received missile tubes 11 and 12 in support of Quad Pack #3 for Columbia. Two more tubes from our tube suppliers are scheduled to get to QP by the end of the year to support Quad Pack #4 and this will complete all of the tube deliveries to support the lead ship missile compartment.
The site continues to grow and expand. On October 1st we started operations in the new 110,000 square foot pipe packaging facility. The team is currently working on the Virginia engine room deck packages for the Block V 803/PCU Arizona and the 804/PCU Barb. The packages are typically composed of large valve and pump packages and missile tube assemblies for the Virginia and Columbia programs.
Construction continues on the advanced manufacturing project. This will enable QP to supplement our missile tube manufacturing capability from across the country right at Quonset Point. The team has completed the foundations for the building and the foundations for some of the equipment that will be installed inside the building. Work continues to prepare the facility for the Ocean Transport Barge Holland: The team completed installation of the pilings and has commenced construction of the offload deck. The transport path adjacent to the new pier is completed, and the new heavy-lift cranes are operational.
And, last and certainly not least, is our continued focus on strengthening how we work together as a team. On Saturday, November 6th, Skip Castro, our Director of Steel at QP, held an offsite event with the Steel leadership team and key leaders and members of support organizations. The Steel group has 59 supervisors who have been in the role for less than a year, along with 54% of the workforce who has been with EB less than one year. The offsite was made up of 180 employees from 15 different organizations. It was a great opportunity for supervisors and managers to meet each other and gain a better understanding of each other’s goals and roles. Feedback from the session was very positive and plans are underway to conduct a similar half-day session in about six months.
That’s it for now, so please stay safe, and I encourage everyone to get vaccinated if you haven’t already done so.
We’ll talk again soon; thanks.
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