NSSA Improves the Work Certification Process

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Norfolk Ship Support Activity (NSSA) completed initial phases of a piloted Master Integrated Schedule (MIS) on USS Ross (DDG 71) and USS Nitze (DDG 94) in Norfolk, April 19.

NSSA's Integrated Test Coordination Branch, under direction of Commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center (CNRMC), conducted the work during the ships' Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) repair availabilities.

"The Naval Supervising Authority (NSA) is required to ensure that work is inducted, instituted, executed, documented, reviewed and certified for the required key event, unless waived by appropriate technical authority," said NSSA Integrated Test Coordination Branch Division Head Ken Walker.

"This includes all work and deficiencies discovered during the course of the availability," said Walker, "It also includes all required Objective Quality Evidence documentation that supports work accomplishment. The NSA is the activity that has responsibility for oversight and execution of the availabilities executed on naval ships by private shipyards."

USS Ross is undergoing its availability in BAE Systems shipyard, while USS Nitze's is taking place at Marine Hydraulics International (MHI) shipyard.

In an effort to consolidate, streamline and standardize the work certification process, an integrated schedule is essential. This schedule supports the execution of surface ship maintenance availabilities within cost, quality and schedule parameters.

Work certification provides assurance that products and services have been planned, executed and tested in accordance with correct technical requirements. It ensures that any non-conformances have been adjudicated by the local technical warrant holder. It also confirms that any incomplete work tasks have been jointly reviewed by the technical warrant holder, maintenance team project manager, and agreed upon by the ship's commanding officer in support of availability key event milestones.

There are six key events identified in the work certification process, including undocking; Propulsion Plant Production Completion Date (PCD); Combat System PCD (AEGIS Light Off for AEGIS configured ships); Dock Trials; Fast Cruise/Sea Trials, and Availability Completion.

"The purpose of these events is to measure the progress of work at points in the availability that correspond to the key events." said Walker. "We track each event on an Event Readiness List (ERL), to make sure all work that is tied to a specific key event is complete before the ship enters the next phase."

Reports are made by all activities that do work on the ship during the availability, including NSSA Quality Assurance Department, the contractor/Lead Maintenance Activity (LMA), the NSSA Project Manager and the NSSA Project Support Engineer for each key event during an availability.

Each ERL identifies what work item is tied to the specific key event, what the piece of equipment is, and the status of that work. The NSSA Project Manager, NSSA Integrated Test Engineer (ITE), NSSA Project Support Engineer and ship's commanding officer, at a minimum, sign off on each key event.

NSSA Chief Engineer, Mark Palsha, is the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA 05) Technical Warrant Holder for NSSA. He holds the technical authority to confirm that a ship is ready to go to the next key event or agent for Commander, NAVSEA, to ensure repairs are made in accordance with navy standards. NSSA's Commanding Officer Capt. William Galinis, is the NSA who certifies that the ship is ready for sea trials and completion of the availability.

NAVSEA Standard Items provide direction for the LMA to develop, maintain and submit multiple schedules, plans and reports. These products are typically developed and submitted individually, in a format that is cumbersome and time consuming. Information is often inconsistent between products.

Similarly, the NSA's review of these products is time consuming and fragmented between departments, making it difficult to appropriately manage and validate that all technical and quality standards have been met.

"We recently worked through a lean process to figure out how to best identify work improvement, along with any issues," said Walker. "Each shipyard does things somewhat differently, so we sat down and looked at what worked within each yard. As a result, there are three improvements we are working on including identifying all work, testing, and work certification. We have identified our way ahead, the 'as is' process and the 'to be' process."

According to Walker, to ensure consistency across the command, NSSA is developing standardized processes in support of CNRMCs Work Force Development program standard operating procedures and instructions. To support, NSSA is revising work certification instruction, and developing a roles and responsibilities instruction for their ITEs that fully supports CNRMC's 'One RMC concept' that aligns and standardizes processes, policies and positions across the RMCs.

Implementing an MIS will enable NSSA to better plan work, prioritize resources and evaluate the remaining work to be done by quickly identifying obstacles and predicting schedule, quality and certification challenges.

Project managers will be able to accurately assess risk and identify areas needing attention or corrective action. It will also provide an accurate and consistent basis for evaluating cost and schedule impacts resulting from growth work, new work or deferred work.

"The goal is to validate the work. The new process with the MIS, that allows us to implement the pilot programs on Ross and Nitze from start to finish, helps us manage the availabilities in such a way that we have valid objective quality evidence and the ability to safely put the ships back in the water," said Palsha.

"My expectation of this program," said Palsha, "is to ensure that all work and testing accomplished inside the availability is validated to meet technical requirements, in order to ensure we have safe and reliable ships operating in the fleet."

"CNRMC has instructed us to complete the pilot aboard Ross by early summer," said Rob Chatham, NSSA ITE for USS Ross. "We will then submit a report to CNRMC, covering all the elements that are directed in the pilot directive memo, which will incorportate all work into a single-source tracking document including recommendations for process improvement."

The Navy's ability to provide the level of maintenance support necessary for ships to meet their planned service life is the driving force behind these types of efforts. With continued process improvement, the Navy has an opportunity to better support the requirements of the fleet without compromising current safety and maintenance needs, while ensuring long term readiness of its surface force.


For more news from Norfolk Ship Support Activity, visit www.navy.mil/local/nssa/.