PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii –
Vice Adm. Bill Galinis, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), visited Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) in May, to assess the command’s alignment and progress on implementing the U.S. Navy’s Naval Sustainment System – Shipyards (NSS-SY) performance improvement initiatives while conducting a review of shipyard operations in Hawaii.
Accompanying Vice Adm. Galinis was Ms. Giao Phan, Executive Director for NAVSEA. Throughout the two-day visit, Galinis and Phan met with Sailors aboard USS Tucson (SSN 770) and USS Hawaii (SSN 776) to review maintenance progress and see NSS-SY efforts in action. They also participated in several small-group discussions with project leadership teams and engineers discussing NSS-SY initiatives. During these discussions, Galinis underscored the importance of the work done by the PHNSY & IMF team and the corporate-wide Navy effort to improve the production performance inside the four naval public shipyards.
“The work done by the Pearl Harbor Shipyard team in supporting our submarine and surface forces is foundational to providing ready forces in the western Pacific. Our ability to meet our commitments to the Fleet in returning submarines and surface ships back to the fleet on time is more important today than ever before,” Galinis said. “With the great power competition we’re facing right now, we need everybody’s ‘A’ game out there.”
Noting this, Galinis was impressed by the momentum and energy of the workforce at Pearl Harbor. During his interactions with the workforce, Galinis acknowledged many believe the shipyards’ workforces are already implementing positive change and open to the Chief of Naval Operations’ call across the fleet to Get Real, Get Better.
With this in mind, Galinis asked for shipyard personnel to drive ownership of processes across the waterfront, “Take ownership of what you’re doing out there, and give it your best and focus on the drive to get better as we move forward.”
Meanwhile, Galinis acknowledged a common challenge across all the Navy’s public shipyards-the availability of material. While many shipyard employees are primed and ready to perform the maintenance needed, and in particular on our submarines, the unavailability of material needed for ship maintenance can delay deadlines.
“The challenge that we face in material procurement is getting senior-level attention – by me and Ms. Phan personally, and our counterparts at Naval Supply Systems Command, and senior Navy leadership who are working with us to get you the items needed for you to do your job. This is ‘fix or elevate’ in action,” said Galinis.
To attack this issue head on, Galinis recommends a focus on rotatable pools while also identifying materials shortages ahead of time through improvements in our planning processes. He stressed the importance of incorporating material requirements in the maintenance planning process, ordering material earlier and aligning material procurement to task group instruction development. With these issues, the admiral reiterated the significance of how the NSS-SY structure differs from past Navy-wide initiatives – namely the focus on supporting our naval shipyards and specifically the people doing the work in our shipyards.
“Some issues we are dealing with are outside NAVSEA’s control,” Galinis said. “NSS-SY is a Navy-wide effort which comes together through a team of flag officers that we’ve chosen not only for their leadership but, most importantly, for their ability to dive into the NSS-SY pillars and get to the root causes of the problems that we’re experiencing as we execute waterfront availabilities.”
PHNSY & IMF is a field activity of NAVSEA and a one-stop regional maintenance center for the Navy’s surface ships and submarines. It is the largest industrial employer in the state of Hawaii, with a combined civilian, military and contractor workforce of approximately 7,100. It is the most comprehensive fleet repair and maintenance facility between the U.S. West Coast and the Far East, strategically located in the heart of the Pacific, being about a week’s steaming time closer to potential regional contingencies in the Indo-Pacific.
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