WASHINGTON –
Rear Adm. Tom Anderson, Commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center (CNRMC) and Deputy Commander, Ship Maintenance and Modernization (SEA 21) for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) visited San Diego the week of August 5 to conduct discussions with ship repair industry leaders.
The biannual meeting, known as the Industry Navy Discussion Panel (INDP), is one of several forums that allow Navy and Industry leaders to collectively discuss the challenges and opportunities across the surface ship repair enterprise.
The engagement focused on how to best position the industrial base for success in handling current workloads and the increasing future demand signal. Today, the private ship repair industry is concurrently executing over 40 Chief of Naval Operations Availabilities in which ships undergo repairs and alterations to improve mission readiness. The number of availabilities is poised to increase as the size of the Navy’s surface fleet increases.
Rear Adm. Anderson discussed with industry members that the CNRMC and SEA 21 organizations have been working to ensure availability duration estimates better account for all of the variables that can affect execution performance.
“If we more accurately forecast availability durations, we can more efficiently level-load our ports,” said Anderson. “By applying rigor to our planning process, we better position industry to meet schedule demands.”
The joint Navy-Industry team also discussed a number of contracting and technical initiatives aimed at improving execution performance. In the last year, checkpoints have been streamlined, driving efficiencies on the deckplate.
The importance of working as a team in order to increase capacity through greater predictability and stability was echoed the following two days at the American Society of Engineers’ Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium. Navy and Industry representatives sat alongside each other to publicly discuss maintenance and modernization priorities and challenges.
“Maintenance and modernization of the surface fleet is demanding and complex in many ways: from diversity of platforms, to evolving technology and threats, to the variety of stakeholders and associated priorities,” said Anderson, “We are fortunate to have a lot of very talented people working across the government and industry teams that are committed to executing continuous improvements.”
As NAVSEA’s deputy commander for ship maintenance and modernization, SEA 21 is the dedicated life cycle management organization for the Navy's in-service surface ships and is responsible for managing critical modernization, maintenance, training and inactivation programs.
CNRMC is a NAVSEA field activity and oversees the operations of Regional Maintenance Centers in their execution of surface ship maintenance and modernization.
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