By Robert Sonoda, Code 1222 Marketing & Support Branch
The DoD’s downsizing in the early 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, presented a significant opportunity and the necessity to find more efficient and effective use of funding. The Navy responded with a regional maintenance program for ship maintenance.
In 1992, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) defined the term “regional maintenance” to describe a new concept of streamlining maintenance activities to become more cost effective and to reduce the infrastructure of the Navy’s maintenance facilities. The Regional Maintenance Plan was to 1) emphasize process improvements while maintain customer responsiveness and Fleet readiness, 2) eliminate excess infrastructure capacity and capability as cost reduction, 3) integrate supply support and maintenance requirements, 4) provide compatible data processing across all levels of maintenance, 5) provide visibility of all maintenance costs, 6) preserve the positive technical control, and 7) reflect DoD and Navy core competency policies
In March 1994, CNO established a three phase regional maintenance plan. Phase one started in 1994 to optimize intermediate level maintenance interoperability by minimizing redundant capacity and capability by process improvements and resource sharing under the management of the Pacific Fleet Maintenance Officer (PACFLT N43).
The Naval Intermediate Maintenance Facility (NIMF) Hawaii was established on Sept. 21, 1994. Submarine Base Intermediate Maintenance Activity (IMA) (formed in 1920) and Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity (SIMA) Pearl Harbor (PH) (formed in 1933) were consolidated into one activity and moved into Building 1770 on Dec. 12, 1994 and completed May 1, 1995. Building 1770 was originally built to consolidate all submarine maintenance activities into 170,000 square foot facility, but became the home for the new NIMF. In late 1995, 504 civilians from the Shipyard were transferred to NIMF to replace the planned military billets scheduled for elimination.
Phase two established the regional maintenance centers (RMC) and integrated or co-located intermediate and depot maintenance activities with management by PACFLT N43. Regional maintenance evolved into process improvements and consolidations. The civilian and military work forces were merged and downsized to DoD core and Navy sea-shore rotation requirements.
In 1997, CNO made the decision to establish a pilot program in Pearl Harbor to demonstrate the concept. A concept of operations designated PACFLT as the major claimant and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) as the operating agent and technical authority. PACFLT and NAVSEA agreed on a concept of operations to merge the Shipyard and NIMF. CNO approved the pilot on Aug. 6, 1997. The pilot’s purpose was to demonstrate that a single maintenance activity could successfully support intermediate and depot level maintenance work with a combined civilian and military workforce to maintain customer responsiveness and fleet readiness. A PH Pilot Test Plan was developed by a joint Navy and Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) team. Fiscal year (FY) 1997 was designated as the baseline year for comparison purposes as this was the last full year of separate operation of the two activities with appropriated funds (mission funding) for NIMF and revolving funds (Navy working capital funding) for the Shipyard. The Shipyard (2,680 civilians and 44 military) and NIMF (712 military and 593 civilians) were merged on April 30, 1998. The new name became Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility. On Oct. 1 1998 (FY 1999), the transition was made to “mission funding” and the full pilot operation began.
Phase three strategy was to conduct fleet maintenance using the integrated maintenance processes developed in phases one and two supported by common business practices, integrated maintenance production processes and integrated information management system. The concept of operations were 1) most cost effective utilization of all resources, 2) One Command, 3) integrated workforce, 4) standard set of work documents, 5) standard quality assurance program, 6) integrated automated information systems (AIS), 7) operationally responsive organization to Fleet requirements, and 8) one customer interfacing process to screen, prioritize, and tract maintenance.
At the end of FY99, the PH Pilot Test Plan metrics clearly and objectively substantiated that the quantitative pilot expectations had been successfully achieved. Various problems and challenges were experienced due to the magnitude and breadth of changes made. Challenges were resolved and the maintenance execution continued without disruption, unit costs decreased and the amount of maintenance accomplished increased. A local board of directors (LBOD) was established in November 1998 to ensure the PH region commanders, both customers and maintenance providers would be able to cooperatively provide guidance for the execution of ship maintenance in PH.
The Pearl Pilot outcomes 1) provided a structure to perform the fleet’s priority work in homeport while retaining the smallest possible total workforce, 2) reduced the facility maintenance footprint in PH, 3) allowed flexibility to manage resources to respond to fleet priorities, 4) improved the visibility of the total cost of maintenance in the PH region, and 5) provided an improved mechanism for real-time “customer” input and involvement covering all ship maintenance in Hawaii via the LBOD. This interaction created a positive synergy and team effort toward the goal of improving ship maintenance.
In December 2000, OSD approved permanent mission funding for the Shipyard and concluded that the pilot program showed no degradation in performance.
On Oct. 1, 2003, the Shipyard began a phased “Hawaii Regional Maintenance Center” consolidation for “full integration of all maintenance providers in the Hawaii region.” PHNSY&IMF absorbed four existing units into the Shipyard. They included the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, San Diego Detachment Pearl; Fleet Technical Support Center Detachment Pearl; Mobile Diving & Salvage Unit Shore Dive Unit; and Combatant Homeport Engineering Team PH.
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