ARLINGTON, Va. — The commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command said efforts to improve planning of ship maintenance availabilities are showing positive results and are helping shipyards execute the work.
Vice Adm. William Galinis, commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, speaking Oct. 19 in San Diego during the Fleet Maintenance and Modernization Symposium, said that a key metric — days of maintenance delay — “really did not change from fiscal year ‘20 to ’21, but there are “a lot of positives out there.”
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected shipyards and their workers, but Galinis pointed out not a single shipyard had to be closed during the pandemic. But he said that the Navy is starting to see more delay in the supply chain.
A major factor in days of maintenance delays was the difficulty and complexity of some of the ship modernization programs, he said.
The admiral said in fiscal 2021, the private sector shipyards delivered 40% of ships on time from their maintenance periods, whereas the Navy’s shipyards delivered about 55% on time.
Galinis noted some positive developments.
“We’re really starting to see some good work coming out of the planning efforts,” he said, including use of ship class maintenance plans.
“We’re seeing now about 60% of the work going into the availabilities is directed maintenance coming right out of class maintenance plans,” he said. “That’s a plus. What we need to do now is standardize that work availability to availability, port to port, as best we can, always realizing that the ship gets a vote.”
Galinis also noted improvement in work package development.
“We’re locking the work package on time a year out,” he said. “I think we almost achieved 100% in [fiscal] ’21. That’s a huge, huge plus: to stabilize the work package in that time frame. We need to manage the work that gets to the package after that point.”
He also noted that contracts to the shipyards have been issued earlier — an average of 115 days, almost four months, before work start — “a real benefit to the shipyards.”
Galinis said the Navy needs to build the project teams sooner from the regional maintenance center, the shipyard and the ship’s crew. He also said there is work to be done in ensuring completeness of work and the quality of specifications.
He also noted that progress has been made in getting advance materials to shipyards before the project starts is improving.
“We’re above 95% right now getting material to the shipyards” before the project starts, he said.
Galinis sees promise in the increased use of data analytics and artificial intelligence, that by driving those tools into the planning process “we’re going to see almost an exponential increase in improvement in that area.”
Managing the amount of change in a work package continues to be a challenge, he said, noting that changes in the package can have a “significant impact” negatively affecting on-time delivery.
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