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NEWS | April 13, 2023

NSWC Panama City Division gets WISE with Test and Evaluation collaboration

By Shauna Love-vonKnoblauch, NSWC PCD Public Affairs

Personnel from across Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Surface and Underwater Warfare Centers (WC) joined forces at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) as a collaborative effort to share capability, resourcing and knowledge distribution, March 9.

Warfare Industrial Service Enterprise (WISE) is a collaborative effort created to better enable the WC to share work and technical expertise. Technical collaborations are elevating the overall competence of the WCs.

WISE is the brainchild of Barry Mohle, NSWC Dahlgren Test & Evaluation (T&E) director.

“In 2011, as division manager for the Potomac River Test Range, the Rapid Prototyping and Machining Shop, and the Calibration Laboratory, I began to ponder collaboration opportunities that could work across the warfare centers,” Mohle said. “Our Rapid Prototyping and Machining Shop was doing about $6.2M of work per year with about $3M a year going out on contracts. At the next T&E director meeting, I briefed the concept of a rapid prototyping and machining collaboration based on [NSWC] Dahlgren having the ability to share work with other warfare centers as needed. The proposal was well received.”  Eric Spigel, the NSWC Newport T&E director, stepped in to co-lead the effort.

WISE began in 2011 and was going strong but lost a great deal of momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Mohle and his team began to reinvigorate WISE with an event at NSWC Dahlgren in October 2022 and then another event recently held in Panama City. T&E directors, and technical and administrative leadership from Machine Shops, Environmental Testing, Calibration, Additive Manufacturing, Testing Services and Smart Divestments of Equipment are involved in the enterprise.

Nicole Waters, NSWC PCD T&E & Prototype Fabrication division head, T&E director, and T&E competency lead, facilitated the recent WISE event hosted by NSWC PCD.

“This program allows us to share resourcing and capability, in such a way that it does not have to be duplicated at every WC. The ability to shift demand and supply of services across the NAVSEA enterprise allows us to quickly roll out solutions to the warfighters,” Waters said. “As the WISE group expands domains, we begin to look across sharing testing services while maintaining technical rigor and understanding the uniqueness of the challenges of manufacturing and test & evaluation at each individual WC.”

Active WCs in this program include Dahlgren, Newport, Keyport, Crane, Carderock and Panama City. There are plans to pull the remaining WCs into the WISE at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2024 as they explore the possibility of implementing a WISE service cost center.

Josephine Schamle, NSWC PCD program manager for the Fabrication and Prototype Shop, shared how WISE helps her within the manufacturing and environmental testing mission field.

“The WISE event was relevant to my position as it has provided me the opportunity to collaborate, share ideas, and compare current capabilities with lessons learned among others in mine and similar fields,” said Schamle.

 

Get Real – Get Better*

 WISE is intended to provide services to each WC at the speed of e-commerce. Navy “Go FAST”

 

*See remarks from the 2022 Surface Navy Association Symposium here:

 https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3241402/get-real-get-better/#:~:text=Get%20Real%2C%20Get%20Better%20is%20a%20proven%20mindset%20that%20every,bedrock%20of%20a%20winning%20navy.