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NEWS | July 1, 2016

NAVSEA Engineers Win DoD Value Engineering Achievement Awards

By NAVSEA Office of Corporate Communication

WASHINGTON - Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) engineers were awarded four 2015 Department of Defense (DoD) Value Engineering Achievement Awards in a ceremony at the Pentagon, June 28.

 

The awards acknowledge outstanding achievement and encourage additional projects to improve government and contractor productivity.

 

“Winning four DoD Value Engineering Awards demonstrates both the technical rigor of our work and NAVSEA's dedication to providing innovative solutions to the fleet,” said Vice Adm. Tom Moore, commander, NAVSEA.

 

Value engineering is a systematic approach to analyzing the function of systems, equipment, facilities, services, and supplies to ensure they achieve their essential functions at the lowest life cycle cost consistent with required performance, reliability, quality, and safety.

 

The DoD selected awardees based on five categories: program/project, individual, team, organization, and special.

 

In the program/project category, the NAVSEA Naval Systems Engineering Directorate’s improvements to the Infrared Thermography Inspection Program resulted in a safer, more efficient means of testing post-repair steam-piping systems and achieved a 1-year direct cost avoidance of $424,000 for planned maintenance availabilities; a three-year savings of $664,000; and a 5-year savings of $1.1 million.

 

Also within the Naval Systems Engineering Directorate, the command’s Engineering Cumbersome Work Practices Resolution Team received the Team category award for its optimized analysis of several processes and products within the command’s shipbuilding and ship maintenance operations that resulted in $60.83 million cost savings for fiscal year 2015.

 

Two additional awards went to one of NAVSEA’s remote field activities in Crane, Indiana, the first to the Special Warfare and Expeditionary Systems Department, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane in the Special category at for a value engineering effort on the costly maintenance cycles of the MK 186 Mod 2 Radio Firing Device (RFD) Kit and MK 67 Mod 0 (zero) RFD Kit. Through visual inspection, cycling and a capacity discharge test on the RFD's remote and controller units, the team determined they could extend the battery shelf life from three years to seven years. The shelf life extension decreased downtime from five months every three years to five months every seven years, resulting in an eight percent overall reduction in downtime.  NSWC Crane’s efforts to challenge the shelf life requirement resulted in approximately $3.26 million in total cost avoidance from fiscal year 2014 - 2020.

 

The Global Deterrence and Defense Department at NSWC Crane won the command’s second award in the Special category for its value engineering effort of the field services for the submarine main storage battery and support systems in the Navy's submarine fleet. Their analysis of the support functions showed savings potential by moving the field services from commercial vendors to the submarine battery In-Service Engineering Agent. This transition resulted in an increased level of service and achieved nearly $1 million in cost savings for fiscal year 2015.

 

“They have done exceptional work in support of the Naval Sea Systems Command,” said Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, NAVSEA Chief Engineer and deputy commander for Ship Design, Integration and Naval Engineering and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) commander.

 

“The application of innovation, high velocity learning, best practices, and applied research and development into our ship construction, maintenance and direct support of fleet activities are aligned with NAVSEA priorities and have resulted in a great benefit to the Navy."

 

NAVSEA is the largest of the Navy's five system commands with a mission to design, build, deliver and maintain ships and systems on time and on cost for the U.S. Navy.