On New Year's Eve, people around the world set resolutions for the year ahead. Many of those resolutions would be broken in a matter of weeks. But that wasn't true for employees in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Mechanical Group (Code 930).

In January 2018 Code 930 chose to focus on improving three areas that affect the shipyard directly: injuries, delinquent tools, and "no shows" for training and medical appointments by using the S.M.A.R.T. goal concept, commonly attributed to Peter Drucker's "Management by Objectives."

"These goals impact the entire shipyard," said Code 930 Superintendent Chad Waldroup. "Many shops and codes at NNSY rely on Code 930 to lead various projects, and if we don't get our work done on time, that affects whether other departments get their work done on time."

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym that can be used to make sure goals are clear and reachable. Each goal should be Specific (Simple, sensible, significant), Measurable (meaningful, motivating), Achievable (agreed, attainable), Relevant (reasonable, results-based) and Time-bound (time-based, time-sensitive).

Code 930 was specific in setting its goals. "We had a very high number of delinquent tools," said Code 930 deputy superintendent Keyonia Smith. "We were in the 1,000 range of delinquent tools each week. The last 12 weeks we set the goal at 450. We were below 450 all but one week."

In order to reach one's goals, they should be measurable. How much, and how many, how will I know when it is accomplished? Each of Code 930's goals had a specific target number. In addition to 450 delinquent tools, they set the target number of one for the number of safety incidents each week.

"If nine of the 12 weeks we went no more than nine incidents and no more than one incident each week, we would cut our safety injuries in half. We did better than that," said Waldroup.

Waldroup said the Code 930 workforce was surprised at first, because setting these kinds of specific goals had not been done in the past. Like with every new thing, there are always lessons learned.

"The training and medical 'no show' goal wasn't achievable," said Waldroup. "I missed the 'A' on S.M.A.R.T. This is a lesson learned. I didn't factor in people having sick leave and all the stuff that comes up that we had to mitigate as managers."

The goals that Code 930 did achieve are relevant to two of Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Vice Adm. Thomas Moore's priorities: On-time delivery of ships and submarines and the culture of affordability.

"Fewer delinquent tools means readiness for our mechanics to go to work," said Shop 31 Superintendent Justin Hayden. "Reducing injuries, missed medical appointments and missed training that could cause our people to lose their qualifications helps our workforce and the production on the waterfront. It helps everybody across the board."

One mistake people make when setting goals is either giving themselves too much or not enough time. Waldroup saw how well quarterly achievements were reached with Big Rocks. He decided to adopt the 12-week (quarterly) time span.

"I think if you give people goals, give people a finished line, they're going to drive to that finish line naturally," said Waldroup. "Being able to celebrate the wins and understand where we need to go is key in being successful at the shipyard."

Hayden mentioned this first round was more about Meeting the Mark. "In round two we are Raising the Bar. One example of this is that the target number of 450 for delinquent tools is being lowered to 250."
"Having the goals increases the morale and helps us understand how we affect the mission and helps us be an effective partner to return the ships to the fleet."

One reason Code 930's S.M.A.R.T. goals were successful is because the goals and results were visible for the entire code.

"You can go out and see the folks and ask them questions about our [S.M.A.R.T. goals] and they can produce what the goals are," said Hayden. This impressed Hayden because in the course of his more than 17 years at the shipyard, he has seen many initiatives that didn't really take hold.
"It makes us proud that our team took this on," said Smith. "Those guys and girls worked really hard to meet these goals. You see them as a team saying 'Hey man, go turn in that tool.' It was putting responsibility on each other and not just coming from the supervisor or manager."

Code 930 will continue to strive towards excellence using S.M.A.R.T. goals as its guide. Waldroup said other areas of the shipyard stand to benefit from similar initiatives. "I challenge all shops and codes to get S.M.A.R.T." he said.

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