Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Maine –
As part of the ongoing Naval Sustainment System-Shipyards (NSS-SY) effort, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s Inside Machine shop developed the Production Control Center (PCC). With the objective of streamlining efforts across the machine shop, they have consolidated information on work execution to one central location.
The PCC team holds daily morning meetings that serve as the primary platform to directly address roadblocks for supervisors and their frontline mechanics, ensuring they have the tools, equipment, and information readily at hand to execute their work efficiently. The meeting involves a cross-functional group of supervisors, zone manager, engineers, operational managers, and more, all who share the goal of driving execution by ‘Fixing or Elevating’ issues impacting on-time delivery.
“The meetings aren’t intended to just be daily status reports. If a supervisor has a hurdle, the meetings are a place where they can bring up the specifics of what they need help with, and know the right code or trade will be assigned to own and resolve the impediment with a sense of urgency,” said Inside Machine Shop Superintendent Mark Coulombe. The group discusses factors related to material availability, machine capacity, and engineering — anything that is preventing a job from completing on time.
PCC Analyst Theresa Drake, former Production Shop Planner, takes the information from the shop floor supervisors and compiles it onto visual boards that are discussed in the PCC daily meetings, creating a bigger picture. The visual information she provides at the meetings are organized in a way that helps her track completion rates and helps the group assess how they can get the right people involved to find solutions.
Inside Machinist Supervisor Tim Pike facilitates communication between mechanics and the PCC team by elevating and bringing visibility to the problems they encounter in their work. Pike was recognized at the NAVSEA headquarters’ NSS-SY recognition board for his outstanding support of NSS-SY. The initiative has been improved by his accurate, well-researched, and constructive feedback. By streamlining communication on daily issues, Pike and Drake are advocating for their peers and keeping the shop well-informed.
The PCC is in an adaptable stage of its development, meaning the team is willing to revise its strategies based on lessons learned or feedback that could help improve the meetings. They are eager to accomplish their overarching goal and sharing the strategies learned from the PCC with their peers at PNS as well as the other shipyards in support of frontline mechanics across the enterprise enabling us all to deliver on time, every time.