For shipyard workers laboring inside dry docks and tight hulls, accessing the right tools is a critical part of the job. To bridge the gap between technical procurement and deckplate execution, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Supply Department (Code 500) hosted its second monthly Norfolk Naval Shipyard General Services Administration (GSA) ServMart Demo Day Aug. 19 in Building 276.
The NNSY GSA ServMart is the first on-site GSA retail store of its kind at a federal shipyard in the country. The facility streamlines procurement through the GSA Fourth-Party Logistics (4PL) program, enabling delivery of critical items to NNSY within two to three business days.
"We have a vendor demo day today, trying to get a little bit of awareness for some of the new items they might be able to purchase through the contract," said Michael Wright, Grainger ServMart Branch Manager, at the event. Wright noted that the contract was recently awarded through 2031, securing NNSY’s supply footprint for the next five years.
For waterfront personnel, the direct line to manufacturers provides immediate answers to complex industrial challenges. Keith Garza, an Inside Machine Shop (Shop 31) Machinist Work Leader with NNSY’s Mechanical Department (Code 930), visited the demo to investigate specialized tapes to protect machined parts during abrasive sandblasting operations.
"This is definitely beneficial for the whole shipyard in general," Garza said. "They should do more of these because there’s a lot of products and machine tooling that isn’t being looked into to upgrade our technology capabilities."
Grant Blackman, an industrial adhesives and tape specialist for one of the GSA ServMart vendors, demonstrated the raw durability of modern bonding materials.
"It allows us to showcase some of our technologies where tapes and adhesives previously were not thought to be solutions," Blackman said. "We can get it in their hands so they can actually see the strength."
Matthew Maccord, a Preservation and Habitability Department (Code 970) Safety Advocate, emphasized that these face-to-face sessions take the guesswork out of ordering specialized gear.
"What my supervisors need on the waterfront and what somebody in Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) thinks that they need are not often the same thing," Maccord said. "Exposure like this to people that are in their career field advancing—those are tomorrow's leaders."
Andrew Teller, Temporary Services Department (Code 990) Nuclear Internal Shop Manager, stressed that modernizing waterfront tools is vital to national security, pointing to ongoing naval operations in the Strait of Hormuz.
"The solution for all of our problems are outside the turnstiles right now," Teller said. "We need to go out and investigate initiatives like this to see what the outside industry is already doing."
To guide Code 990's modernization efforts, Teller pointed to a classic principle from English poet Alexander Pope: “Be not the first by whom the new are tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside."
With upcoming monthly GSA ServMart demos scheduled for NNSY in September, NNSY’s workforce will continue to have direct access to the latest industrial innovations.