Hi everyone; it’s Kevin. Today is Friday, August 28th.
It’s been a busy time for us here at Electric Boat. Last Friday, we hosted Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite and our congressional delegations from Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Secretary toured the Building 9 complex in Quonset Point, Building 260 in Groton and the South Yard Assembly Building site. He was impressed by the quality of our people and our progress since his last visit just a few short weeks ago. He thanked us for our commitment to our nation’s defense. Thanks also go to our congressional delegation for the work they do to ensure that Congress and our government leaders understand the vital role we play in defense of our nation and that they fund it appropriately. I also want to thank our union partners for their support at the event.
We had good news last week with the announcement that the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, known as SENEDIA, has been awarded a two-year contract by the Department of Defense Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program for $18.6 million dollars for submarine shipbuilding workforce development. I’d like to again thank our congressional delegation along with SENEDIA and our training partners for success in securing this award. EB continues to collaborate with our regional partners to create training pipelines in support of our vital mission. This award will expand these programs and provide a skilled workforce to meet the need for increased hiring at Electric Boat and at our critical supply chain partners.
On Monday morning the EB team had the honor of welcoming Mrs. Terry Stackley to Quonset Point for the keel-laying ceremony for PCU Idaho, SSN 799. Terry is the sponsor for Idaho, the 26th ship of the Virginia class. Due to the need for physical distance, the group watching Quonset Point’s Tim Cashman weld Terry’s initials onto the keel plate was fairly small. Special guests included Terry’s children and husband Sean, the former Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Quonset Point’s Master Shipbuilders—employees who, this year, celebrate 40 years or more of service to Electric Boat—were at the ceremony and it was an honor for me to thank them for their service. I encourage you to check out the photo story capturing the great event—it’s posted on both Homeport and EB Landing.
Immediately after the keel laying on Monday morning, I returned to Groton where, this week, Naval Reactors has been conducting their yearly audit, which concluded today. We were well prepared and energized, and the feedback we received demonstrates that our efforts to improve teamwork and communication are beginning to make a real difference. We have a lot of work ahead of us as we continue to improve, and I am energized when I see the entire EB team coming together. We are building some momentum that will be critical as we grow the team and the workload. Admiral Caldwell told me our nation and our Navy need us to be successful!
A few weeks ago I highlighted the great strides the Groton Pipe Shop was making in raising their radiographic weld acceptance rates. Over the past seven weeks, from July 11 – August 27, they’ve had an acceptance rate of 99%. In fact, they’ve had only one pipe joint reject out of almost 100 attempts. That is world-class performance achieved with help from across EB including NDT, welding engineering and others. This is what first-time quality means. We are seeing less rework, and we are creating opportunity for even more improvement. Over the last 17 weeks, the Quonset Point pipe team has improved their weld acceptance rate from around 90% in April to 95%. Congratulations to all involved for the teamwork this required and please keep up the great work!
Over the last few months at the Subase, the Nuclear Regional Maintenance Department partnered with the crew of USS Hartford to successfully execute a complex radiological maintenance evolution. This evolution involved multiple EB departments from the shipyard matrixed into the NRMD who engineered, planned, and executed multiple maintenance tasks. Working side-by-side with the USS Hartford crew and Navy personnel, our EB employees demonstrated the collaboration and teamwork with the Navy which will be a key for success during the Engineered Overhaul for the Hartford that our company was recently awarded. That will take place later next year.
In other good news, last week at our test facility in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where we are testing the full-scale electric drive propulsion system for Columbia, we successfully completed the full-power heat run on the Main Propulsion Motor.
One of the biggest technical risks of power dense electric motors is their thermal performance, where an inadequate design can lead to significant overheating. In the case of the Main Propulsion Motor, an inadequate thermal design can result in the ship not achieving its design speed. The Main Propulsion Motor heat run shows the design is performing as expected, and we have retired a significant technical risk for the Columbia propulsion system. On Tuesday I received a note from Admiral Caldwell congratulating EB and everyone involved—in his words, Bravo Zulu, or well done to everyone who contributed to this important milestone.
This past week, on SSN 795 PCU Rickover, we performed two hull butts simultaneously—Section 2A to 2B and Section 5 to 6. The last time we did this was almost a decade ago on SSN 782, USS Mississippi. It takes a team of linesmen and transfer car operators, along with Engineering and Accuracy Control folks to align the hull butts to drawing requirements. Once the hull butt is aligned, the Steel Trades, shipfitters, welders and grinders, lock the hull butt in place. Once Quality Assurance accepts the fit-up and fairness of the hull butt, we install strip heaters for welding, and the Equipment Control Center installs the tracks used to run the automated welding machines. The whole process of welding a hull butt takes an average of about 33 days. We’ll be done with both welds next week. Thank you for a great team effort.
It’s a pleasure to have so much good news to share with you. The term “root cause analysis” is most closely associated with stepping back to figure out why something went wrong. But I think it’s even more important to step back and analyze why we’re getting it right. Simply put, it comes back to our core values – valuing each other, behaving with integrity and purpose and committing to excellence. The teamwork and mutual support I’m seeing is something I ask each of you to demonstrate to each other each day. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our values and our mission.
Have a great weekend. I think I’m going fishing.
Kevin
