Courtesy Photo | Capt. James "Jim" Brown, PE, PMP, CEM, commanding officer, Office in Charge of...... read more read more
US Navy Capt. James "Jim" Brown, PE, PMP, CEM, commanding officer, Office in Charge of Construction Florence hosted the inaugural Senior Advisory Group (SAG) summit aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune on June 23, 2023. In addition to Marine Corps Installations East (MCIEAST), he was joined by representatives from RQ Construction, LLC; the Walsh Group; and the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company; who are all contractors of record for OICC Florence military construction (MILCON) projects.
The summit was designed to bring government stakeholders and contractor representatives together for a professional and candid discussion about ongoing work across the MILCON packages and projects. Although the OICC Florence SAG meets with each contractor team separately on a monthly basis to review project updates, the summit was structured as an open forum for all MILCON contractors to share what is working well, and what might be ripe for adjustment to accelerate our collective outcomes and to achieve optimal learning in the process.
“We’re just over 50 percent complete with our MILCON portfolio and have collected a lot of lessons learned along the way,” said Brown, “the purpose of this summit was to share these lessons learned across company lines in order to turn them into lessons applied through the completion of our work and potentially NAVFAC SYSCOM-wide.”
OICC Florence initially operationalized a Program Management Plan (PgMP) in January 2021 which outlined roles and responsibilities for government stakeholders, established an issue resolution matrix, and codified communication requirements via partnering. OICC Florence was the first Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) to bring its entire construction portfolio under one PgMP. The formalized program management plan approach has been well received and proven to be an effective governance methodology to obtain and sustain production momentum. However, areas including risk management, critical system commissioning and acceptance, change management, and issue escalation have been identified as key focus areas to adjust and refine to improve overall process execution.
During the gathering, attendees completed a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) in order to articulate items in the categories they see at their respective sites. Conducting the analysis as a group is atypical for contractors because they usually only interact with their assigned project leaders. By removing the information silo, contractors were able to see many commonalities they otherwise wouldn’t have noticed just by driving by another contractor’s worksite.
“The SWOT analysis helped the collective group to self-assess and develop an actionable plan to get better at what matters,” said Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mack, operations officer, OICC Florence.
The summit also supported the Navy’s Get Real, Get Better (GRGB) initiative, which seeks to not only empower people to find and fix problems at their level, but also to innovate and embrace the continuous improvement process. OICC Florence approached the summit as a waypoint check, assessing key performance indicators (KPIs) gathered over the past three years in order to remain aligned to our shared the North Star: supporting the Marine Corps’ recovery from Hurricane Florence and the deployment of the Joint Strike Fighter, re-establishing the readiness of expeditionary forces for MCIEAST and II Marine Expeditionary Force.
When all was said and done, members were able to see where they could implement improvements at the program and project management levels, and how they could share the responsibility to educate the workforce and strengthen the leaning culture by adopting the GRGB mindset.
“The SAG summit was an opportunity to look back at what’s working and what’s not-and adjust accordingly, evaluate the challenges that remain, and chart a path forward to a successful project completion where all project members can be proud of what has been accomplished,” said Sam Abutaleb, senior vice president, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company. “The partnership on Hurricane Florence has been one of the best in 30 years of NAVFAC work. Two main driving forces seem to make it work: the governance structure of the partnering charter, and [CAPT] Brown’s leadership and dedication in making sure the process works for all team members.”
The goal is to make the summit an annual event, which will allow Brown to maintain continuity for the government stakeholders as he transitions to his next role as assistant chief of staff, facilities and environment (GF) for MCIEAST in July. The OICC Florence restoration and recovery work is scheduled to be complete by spring 2026.
OICC Florence provides world-class engineering, construction, and acquisition services supporting the Marine Corps’ recovery from Hurricane Florence and deployment of the Joint Strike Fighter, re-establishing the readiness of expeditionary forces for MCIEAST and II Marine Expeditionary
Force.
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 07.05.2023 14:26 |
| Story ID: | 448575 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US |
| Hometown: | ATLANTA, GA, US |
| Hometown: | CARLSBAD, CA, US |
| Hometown: | CHICAGO, IL, US |
| Hometown: | GREENBELT, MD, US |
| Hometown: | JACKSONVILLE, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 280 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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