When Newport News shipbuilders Montez Robinson (X82) and Jessica Barber (X84) witnessed a single pallet quickly turn into 20, causing challenges in maneuvering around the Rafted Module Facility (RMF) and a bottleneck in the work package progress for the Virginia-Class Submarine Program, they took action.

“Pallets are being shipped in and out all the time – but in this scenario, the temporary storage was overflowing,” said Steve Pabst (X84). “Jessica went above and beyond to push this effort forward. She knew that if the materials sat around for too long, they were at risk of becoming lost, damaged or rusted.”

“Montez identified the pallets as a problem and went through the proper chain of command to get it resolved,” Brian Boseman (O53) said. Robinson and Barber were the critical links to success as they coordinated between production, production control, and logistics. As a result, the items were removed within two days of being identified and shipped to proper temporary storage locations, with some going on to General Dynamics Electric Boat as their final destination.

In an effort to reduce the amount of lost and damaged material at NNS, Jason McNamee (O06) and Travis Gohsman (O06) were loaned from K93 to evaluate materials for the VCS program. Their efforts are focused on targeting temporary storage areas, such as those with growing pallets, and have the potential to scale up yardwide.

“When an item is improperly stored or labeled, the impact is felt throughout the yard. Multiple teams are brought in to recover items, schedule time is lost, and occasionally items have to be repurchased or manufactured,” McNamee said. “Because of the swift action by Robinson and Barber, schedules remained as planned, man-hours were saved, and avoidance savings were seen.”

Robinson and Barber could have maintained the status quo or continued to work around the pallets. Instead, they saw a potential issue, felt ownership to solve the problem and took a proactive approach toward finding a resolution. Their initiative has prompted a positive ripple effect throughout their area.

Robinson reflected on the experience by encouraging others to never give up if a problem needs solving, especially if they know what needs to be done. He continued by saying, “We have an obligation to ourselves and to our nation; giving up is not an option.”