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FORT BELVOIR, Va. - A partnership between the Defense Logistics Agency and Naval Sea Systems Command has helped implement a new system for managing hazardous materials and waste compliance reporting at four naval shipyards.
The Hazardous Material Management System replaced the Navy’s legacy hazardous materials and hazardous waste system that was being retired, said Carolyn Liebeck, program manager for chemical management services in DLA Logistics Operations. DLA took responsibility for this mission as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005.
”This was a huge endeavor,” she said. “These shipyards are the four largest industrial sites for the Navy; they’re massive bases. So the partnership and teamwork with NAVSEA was essential in making this program a success.”
NAVSEA’s four shipyards include Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia; Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine; and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, said Navy Capt. Michael Renegar, head of the shipyard material program at NAVSEA.
“Each of the shipyards was basically an individual project in itself,” he said. “This new system standardizes all the business processes and procedures across the shipyards to allow them to manage and track hazardous material, from its initial acquisition all the way through to its disposal, in one system. For DLA, as a customer service advocate, that’s huge. Now end users don’t have to ask for assistance on different processes at different locations.”
According to the NAVSEA website, naval shipyards perform logistics support and work in connection with ship construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, alternation, dry docking, outfitting, manufacturing research, redevelopment and test work. This kind of work often requires the use of materials that are considered hazardous, such as paints, adhesives and oils, Renegar said.
“Each of the shipyards has federal, state and Environmental Protection Agency standards and protocols they have to follow on hazardous materials,” he said. “Now, [the Hazardous Material Management System] allows them to have more accountability and visibility of all of the hazardous material on the shipyard. Not just what’s in the storage warehouse, but even what’s stored in the end users’ lockers too.”
Before the project started, a testing phase was conducted to ensure that HMMS would be able to meet each shipyard’s requirements, Renegar said. Site visits were conducted and hands-on training was provided to users at each location. Data from the old system was then migrated into HMMS before the system went live at each of the sites a few days later.
“Three shipyards were basically being worked one at one time,” he said. “The challenge was getting one started, then bringing the next one online to shadow, while still working with the completed one on follow-up. So there was a lot of strategic planning and communication with the key players involved to ensure the successful implementation of the project at each location.”
Weekly calls were held with stakeholders at each shipyard during the 15-month project, which ended with the last, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, going live April 25, Liebeck said.
“We had calls on a weekly basis so we could capitalize on lessons learned from each shipyard going forward,” she said. “During the project, [our contractor] brought in a ‘tiger team’ to re-label all the items in the warehouse and the waterfront lockers. We also hired a [computer technician] to stay on each site for a year to help with the system functionality and user questions. Along with lessons learned at each site, tiger team and onsite functional support have all been beneficial to the overall success of the program at each shipyard.”
Other benefits of HMMS include a streamlined process for generating reports and a significant cost savings over the previous system, Liebeck said.
“As a partnership between NAVSEA headquarters and DLA Headquarters, it was a huge success for both of us to turn something like this around in 15 months,” she said. “It was a constant movement back and forth. But our partnership was phenomenal. We both had the end state in mind and said we will successfully achieve this, no matter what. And we did.”
| Date Taken: | 07.18.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2014 14:40 |
| Story ID: | 137858 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 602 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, DLA partners with shipyards on hazardous material management system, by Amanda Neumann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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