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Time Wise® Success Stories
(See entire article in The Periscope, Volume 62, No. 5, May 2004)
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s Lean team is sharing knowledge and ideas with private companies as well as with all other shipyards to improve productivity and efficiency as part of the Naval Sea System Command’s (NAVSEA) Shipyard Transformation Plan.
Last month about 25 people from Maine businesses attended the Lean monthly "round table" held at the Shipyard. Mike Desjardins, Lean Manager, gave a brief history of the Shipyard, discussed Lean objectives, and talked about the Ball Valve Repair section in Shop 31 - the model line implemented to get Lean on board at the Shipyard.
During the "round table" Desjardins introduced Captain McCoy who talked about Shipyard business. "Although we employ modern business practices, we are not a business like yours," he said. "We are a military command supporting a nation at war with a large defense bill. We need to find ways to cut costs and we are convinced that Lean works," he said. "Our fleet customers and the taxpayers expect that our ships will come out in shorter durations at lower costs. We are adopting many of the same business practices that your companies are to increase value to our customers. One of the best tools we have in our tool bag is Lean."
Workers from Portsmouth, Pearl, Norfolk and Puget Sound naval shipyards recently attended an introductory Lean awareness course held at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. This course is designed to emphasize Lean concepts that are key to shipbuilding and maintenance/repair.
During the workshop participants were immersed in an exciting scenario as new employees of Time Wise, Inc. The end result was a Lean enterprise with measurable improvement and satisfied customers.