WASHINGTON
– Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) recognized several employees and
development teams for their innovative solutions to mission challenges in a ceremony
July 22.
This
recognition is part of NAVSEA’s new Commander’s Award for Innovation program.
The program encourages employees to develop ideas that eliminate waste, improve
work flow, create value and support the command’s strategic business plan. This
program also aligns with the Secretary of the Navy’s direction that commanders
create incentive programs for recognizing innovation.
“When
you look at our Strategic Business Plan you’ll see that innovation is a
foundational part of it,” said Vice Adm. William Hilarides, Commander, Naval
Sea Systems Command. ”Recognizing innovation is essential to creating the
culture we need to keep our Navy at the very top of the navies of the world.”
Accordingly,
last fall Hilarides challenged the NAVSEA workforce to “come up with new ways
to save money, time and resources and make significant improvements in the
effectiveness of administrative and contracting practices, system integration
efforts, and life cycle management programs.”
The
reason was simple—shrinking defense budgets mean that redundant and unnecessary
spending needs to be aggressively curbed, and inefficient processes streamlined
if the U.S. Navy is going to remain at the forefront of military readiness for
the 21st century. The challenge came as part of the recently created
“Commander’s Award for Innovation.”
The
award, established in 2014 by Hilarides and NAVSEA Executive Director Bill
Deligne, seeks to recognize individuals and teams for groundbreaking, inventive
achievements that result in substantial cost reduction, cost avoidance, and
improvements in NAVSEA processes, products and services.
Out
of 36 nominations, awards were presented to the top 5 submissions in each of
the categories: individual, team, and
also “most innovative.”
“We
did what we engineers do; we looked at all the award criteria and we picked the
five individual awards and the five team awards based on those ten criteria,”
said Deligne.
“But
then, as I was looking through the nominations not selected, I was thinking
‘That’s really innovative, and that is really innovative,’” he said. “So we
called an ‘audible,’ and added a third category to also recognize projects
based on pure innovation.”
For
their efforts the 92 employees recognized will receive either time-off or cash
bonus awards.
The
NAVSEA 2015 Commander’s Award for Innovation winners are:
Individual
Category:
-
Dale Parent, CIWS Innovative Overhaul Process (PEO IWS)
-
Dr. Jason Smoker, Optimization of Structural Acoustics Testing for OHIO
Replacement (NSWC CD)
-
Ashley Ferguson, CG and FG Harvesting (NSWC CD)
-
Dr. Jason Ostanek, Innovative Methods for Analyzing Battery Thermal
Characteristics (NSWCCD-SSES)
-
Gladys Gonzalez, Innovative Integrated Combat System Support Equipment
Improvements (PEO IWS)
Team
Category:
-
AEGIS Speed to Capability Development Team (PEO IWS)
-
Near Term SSBN Tactical Control System Upgrade Team (PEO SUB)
-
CIWS 20 Year Road Map Team (PEO IWS)
-
Innovation Through TANG and the PEO IWS 5.0 AxB Program (PEO IWS)
-
LX(R) LPD 17 "Bare Bones" Analysis (PEO SHIPS)
Most
Innovative Category:
-
ADAPT.VE Lab Team (NSWCCD-SSES)
-
State of the Art Modeling & Simulation for Energy Storage Optimization and
Real Time Testing (NSWC CD)
-
Hacking for Undersea Technical Excellence (NUWC NPT)
-
Naval Array Technical Support Center: Hose De-Kinking Solution (NUWC NPT)
- Michael DiPilla,
REDI (NSWCCD-SSES)