Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Vice Adm. Thomas Moore awarded Southwest Regional Maintenance Center (SWRMC) employees John Rocks and Christina Bowman the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award, Feb. 13, in San Diego.

Rocks and Bowman received the awards for their outstanding contributions in process improvement in SWRMC’s contracts department. Specifically, they challenged themselves to improve SWRMC’s processes for simplified acquisitions procurement (SAP) and long lead time materials (LLTM) purchases. They presented their results to Moore during his visit.

“We are proud to showcase the good work for our employees in support of on-time delivery of our ships,” said Capt. David Hart, SWRMC’s commanding officer. “John and Christina’s yearlong process improvement efforts highlight the dedication of SWRMC employees to refining our business and providing unsurpassed support to our mission and the fleet."

To achieve the milestones, Rocks and Bowman used to the improvement kata approach. Fundamentally, kata refers to movements in Japanese martial arts, attributed to basic form, routine or patterns of behavior. In the business world, the term refers to two linked behaviors called "improvement" and "coaching."

Adapted from the study of Toyota, the improvement kata process is a four-step process being used by SWRMC to support high-velocity learning. The four steps are: (1) Understand the direction or challenge; (2) Grasp the current condition; (3) Establish the target condition; and (4) Move toward the target through experimentation. This process can be repeated as necessary.

Starting in January 2018, Rocks and Bowman came up with the following challenge: to provide SWRMC with an empowered and efficient LLTM/SAP team, capable of supporting on-time delivery with a daily work in progress (WIP) of 65-75 purchase request submissions, or actions, by January.

After they worked to understand their current condition, they continued to establish and meet target conditions moving toward the challenge.

In December 2018, Rocks, Bowman, and the rest of the project team wrapped up their last target condition, reviewed the metrics from their past target conditions and realized they didn’t have any mechanisms in place to track their progress and know when they were falling behind.

"Using data from our past target conditions, our team was able to develop a work-in-progress (WIP) report and refine our workload tracker; giving us the ability to more effectively track and report workload, to be transparent and provide work status to our customers and readily obtain metrics for future planning and process improvement needs,” Bowman said, describing the plan-to-track progress.

"The WIP and tracker reports now have mechanisms in place that will flag us if we exceed our procurement acquisition lead times (PALTs), allowing us to investigate when and why it is taking longer than should."

According to Rocks, the past year has been a huge success.

“Using Kata has given us the tools to know when there is an issue, how to correct it and how to work with our customers proactively to greatly improve our processes,” he said.

SWRMC leadership has adopted the improvement kata approach across the command, with many departments reaching successful milestones to support Moore’s Campaign Plan mission priorities of on time delivery and culture of affordability.

SWRMC’s mission is to provide superior ship maintenance, modernization, technical support, and training for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

For more information on SWRMC please visit http://www.swrmc.navy.mil/.

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