Sherri Bailey, Code 900F.3 facilities and logistics manager, was assigned the task in 2018 to begin sorting, situating, setting in order, cleaning, standardizing and sustaining (5S) the shipyard property. The shipyard inside and outside of the Controlled Industrial Area (CIA) is divided into 30 zones with a superintendent assigned to each.

Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Code 900 Production Resource Department developed a work team of production excess labor employees, and with the cooperation and progress by Bailey and her team, the shipyard is getting cleaner every day.

Employees are temporarily assigned to this team and go back to their shops when needed. Over the past five months, Code 900 Production Shops have provided supervision and mechanics to help with excess work around the shipyard.

"In order to support the cleanliness of the shipyard, superintendents send me employees that are in standby waiting for a boat to come in, waiting the background check or training, there are a variety of reasons why they come," said Bailey "Having the help really makes a difference in what we need to do to clean up the shipyard."

The current team is made up of 14 employees from Code 900, and they are doing everything they can to clean up and beautify the shipyard. Their pride in the shipyard has lead them to go above and beyond what is on their task for the day.

"I’m really proud of this team. They take a lot pride in their work, even though it is temporary. They are really motivated and their initiative is helping make the shipyard a better place," said Bailey. "While cleaning up the 30 zone areas, they go the extra mile and do something that wasn’t on the list. One of the things they did was while removing some weeds they also removed some old dirt from the concrete area and filled in holes in the yards of some of the quarters houses. They are always thinking of safety of the workforce and ways to help improve the shipyard."

The team also analyzes zones to see what needs to be removed, repaired, and cut. They mow grass, rake leaves, prune trees, remove scrap metal, trash, and weeds, and work with Code 200 Engineering Department to identifying material to see if it should be scrapped or properly stored somewhere else in the shipyard.

In the past seven months, the team has partnered with Public Works Department Portsmouth (PWD) and has removed more than 600,000 pounds of metal from the shipyard. This task of implementing the 5S structured program across the cleanliness zones will require every employee to be a part of this quality control tool.

"We are an industrial area and it is important for all of us to keep our shipyard clean," said Bailey. "Due to the size of the shipyard, we needed to divide the shipyard into zones. This made it easier to maintain and assign cleaning duties."

Not all of the zones in the shipyard are the same and they have different needs. The shipyard clean team ensures each zone is cleaned up and is in a sustainable status and meets the sustainability requirements before it is turned over to the cognizant superintendent.

"Our goal is to go back and check all of the zones and be in sustainment by April 2019," said Bailey. "Once we turn it over, the superintendents will need to make sure their specific zone is maintained and kept in sustainment. I understand that might be difficult while working in a very busy operational and industrial environment, but we need to keep our shipyard clean for many reasons."

Baily explains the shipyard would be easier to maintain cleanliness if there was a designated permanent group that could maintain and sustain the zones while not taking anything or anyone away from operations.

"Our goal is to get into and remain in sustainment," said Bailey. "The shipyard is our home and if we take ownership and keep it nice, I really feel that pride will be contagious and more people will do their part in keeping our shipyard clean while meeting our mission of fixing ships."

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