Photo By Chief Petty Officer Rafael Martie | 201030-N-XR893-1093 PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Oct. 30, 2020) Gabriel Crespo, a contractor for...... read more read more
“Today, we are engaged in a long-term competition. China and Russia are rapidly modernizing their militaries to challenge the international order that has benefited so many for so long,” said Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Gilday, during virtual remarks at the Surface Navy Association Symposium earlier this year. For our Navy to operate at the strategic edge and win, day-to-day, it can only do so with staunch support from the Navy’s end-to-end supply chain integrator: NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support.
Working within the framework of Naval Sustainment System-Supply (NSS-Supply), NAVSUP WSS is forging ahead into this cross-domain, mission-partner-centric approach to better coordinate and integrate the naval supply chain, end-to-end. NSS-Supply is confronting the Navy’s need for a single, strategic-scale, and sustainable design for a Navy wide supply chain with the right mix of organic and commercial activities in order to deliver, project and sustain the force. NSS-Supply has a total of six pillars: Achieve End-to-End Integration, Demand Management, Optimize Working Capital Fund Portfolio, Shape Industrial Base, Optimize Organic Repair, and Increase End-to-End Velocity.
As the lead for the End-to-End Velocity pillar, NAVSUP WSS is finding and leveraging touch points across our supply chains to make them run more effectively and affordably. The command is shrinking maintenance turnaround times and accelerating end-to-end velocity of spares, reducing costs and directly increasing readiness and combat capability for the fleet. As the end-to-end supply chain integrator, one of those touch points is at the Navy’s four public shipyards where NAVSUP WSS is helping shape maritime industrial support, especially in recent years. But it wasn’t always this way.
After a congressional recommendation from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, Defense Logistics Agency’s and Naval Service Supply’s storage and distribution functions were consolidated under DLA. The consolidation also disestablished the shipyard supply department—a decision which directly impacted material support of shipyard availabilities because of the lack of Navy insight and oversight to identify and prioritize requirements. In response, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP), and DLA signed a memorandum of agreement in August 2018 to refocus material support at the public naval shipyards. Additionally, NAVSEA and NAVSUP established a manpower memorandum of agreement to provide robust personnel to support the reconstitution of shipyard supply departments.
Fleet owned and funded, NAVSEA manages the shipyards which have the primary responsibility for nuclear carrier and submarine maintenance and repair. Some of the duties of the reconstituted shipyard supply departments include oversight of all materiel functions and improved supply support leading to on-time delivery of ships and submarines back to the fleet.
Additionally, NAVSUP WSS bolstered its support of the maritime industrial enterprise by establishing teams aligned to the four public naval shipyards. These teams synchronize closely with the shipyard supply departments and coordinate with program managers, planners and contracting officers on behalf of shipyard availabilities. Additionally, key leaders attend a variety of planning and coordination meetings to identify and overcome material readiness challenges across supply chains.
“We are the shipyards’ entry point to WSS,” said Dyan Hooper, NAVSUP WSS’ industrial support division head who leads a robust team of logistics experts. “Our work will optimize the cost and increase the value of readiness by returning strategic assets back to the fleet. We support the four shipyards in myriad ways including material planning, forecasting parts, and expediting issues. The bottom line: we help identify and solve problems.”
She said the command continues to expand competition and deepen partnerships with strategic suppliers.
Hooper continued, “Many of the vendors we rely on to supply the parts necessary for shipyard maintenance are the sole source. The strategic relationships we form and the effective communication of contract priorities and required delivery dates can be the difference between on-time and delayed delivery, especially during the ongoing pandemic. With our teams working to prioritize contract delivery timeframes and negotiating partial or incremental deliveries, it ensures we're managing the whole of the Navy's supply chain in support of our shipyard customers.”
A key decision when Code 500 departments were reestablished was who would lead the departments. According to Capt. Aaron Ayers, Supply Officer, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, being the lead Supply Corps officer at a shipyard, also called the SUPPO, is not what you may think, and it requires a depth and breadth of experience found only in senior supply officers. He said from the outside, it may look like as though it is just about managing shipments on the yard—supply, storage and distribution or SS&D—“but it’s much, much more than that,” he said. “Day-to-day operations at all of the shipyards encompasses much more than what is on the yard—that’s only a small piece of the operation,” he added.
Ayers said the shipyard SUPPO is like no other job. “There’s what people think we do, and there’s what we actually do,” said Ayers. On any given day, he said he coordinates between multiple organizations at multiple levels to support material support to industrial availabilities. He said for every action that does, or does not a happen in maintenance, there is a ripple affect felt across the Fleet. “Shipyard operations are extremely complex,” Ayers said. “As we continue to support our Navy, we must continue to improve our support to industrial maintenance. Part of that is understanding the complexities of the supply chain, end to end, beyond the shipyards.”
“We try to anticipate problems and work with industry partners, and Department of Defense organizations to provide a Navy that’s ready to fight tonight,” said Ayers.
Ayers said, although there have been great strides made in maritime industrial support, especially at the public shipyards, we must continue seeking opportunities to improve readiness across the fleet. “Any days we save getting ships and subs in and out of availabilities, is another day for Combatant Commanders and crews to operate in the world’s oceans.”
NAVSUP WSS is one of 11 commands under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP's mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsupwss and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.07.2021 10:57 |
| Story ID: | 393238 |
| Location: | MECHANICSBURG, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 724 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NAVSUP WSS improving maritime industrial support though NSS-Supply, by Kelly Luster, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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