[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 114-53]
PUBLIC SHIPYARDS' ROLE IN MEETING OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
__________
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
OCTOBER 1, 2015
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
ROBERT J. WITTMAN, Virginia, Chairman
ROB BISHOP, Utah MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, Guam
VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri SUSAN A. DAVIS, California
AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut
ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
FRANK A. LoBIONDO, New Jersey TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
MIKE ROGERS, Alabama SCOTT H. PETERS, California
CHRISTOPHER P. GIBSON, New York TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
STEVEN M. PALAZZO, Mississippi BETO O'ROURKE, Texas
RICHARD B. NUGENT, Florida RUBEN GALLEGO, Arizona
BRAD R. WENSTRUP, Ohio
SAM GRAVES, Missouri
Craig Collier, Professional Staff Member
Vickie Plunkett, Professional Staff Member
Katherine Rember, Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Page
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Bordallo, Hon. Madeleine Z., a Delegate from Guam, Ranking
Member, Subcommittee on Readiness.............................. 2
Wittman, Hon. Robert J., a Representative from Virginia,
Chairman, Subcommittee on Readiness............................ 1
WITNESSES
Whitney, RADM Mark R., USN, Deputy Commander, Logistics,
Maintenance and Industrial Operations, Naval Sea Systems
Command (NAVSEA 04)............................................ 2
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Whitney, RADM Mark R......................................... 20
Wittman, Hon. Robert J....................................... 19
Documents Submitted for the Record:
NAVSEA Brief on Hampton Roads Shipbuilding and Ship Repair
Industrial Base............................................ 31
Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:
Ms. Bordallo................................................. 45
Mr. Courtney................................................. 45
Mr. Wittman.................................................. 45
Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:
Ms. Bordallo................................................. 49
PUBLIC SHIPYARDS' ROLE IN MEETING OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Subcommittee on Readiness,
Washington, DC, Thursday, October 1, 2015.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 8:00 a.m., in
room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Robert J.
Wittman (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT J. WITTMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE
FROM VIRGINIA, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
Mr. Wittman. I call to order the Subcommittee on Readiness.
I want to welcome everyone this morning, but first I want to
thank Rear Admiral Mark R. Whitney, Deputy Commander,
Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations, Naval Sea
Systems Command [NAVSEA]. Thank you for being with us today.
The Navy's four public shipyards, Norfolk Naval Shipyard in
Virginia, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, Portsmouth
Naval Shipyard in Maine, and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in
Washington, face a number of challenges in completing ship
maintenance on time and within budget.
Wartime requirements, as we know, over the past decade have
worsened the condition of our fleet, causing ships to require
more maintenance than expected upon arrival at the shipyard.
A few weeks ago, we received testimony about the Navy's
Optimized Fleet Response Plan [O-FRP], which, among other
things, seeks to provide a more sustainable force generation
model and more predictability for ship maintenance.
Today I look forward to hearing about the shipyards' role
in meeting the Navy's operational requirements and how they are
responding to the maintenance and repair challenges that recent
operations have put upon the fleet.
Now I turn to the ranking member, Ms. Bordallo, for any
opening remarks she may have. And again, we thank her for her
leadership in HASC [House Armed Services Committee] and here in
the subcommittee.
Madeleine.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wittman can be found in the
Appendix on page 19.]
STATEMENT OF HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO, A DELEGATE FROM GUAM,
RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you for arranging this hearing on our public
shipyards.
Admiral Whitney, thank you for being here today so early.
I very much appreciate what you are doing to try to
maintain and enhance the readiness of our fleet. I am hopeful
that the O-FRP and your plans with the shipyards can be
implemented in a timely manner and will not suffer under a
continuing resolution [CR] government shutdown, or
sequestration-level budgets.
I am particularly interested in hearing what steps the Navy
is taking to bring shipyard staffing up to the levels needed to
increase productivity. How are you getting 4,500 new employees
up to speed in critical technical areas?
And I also would like to hear specifics regarding
infrastructure improvements for the public shipyards, including
where the challenges lie, what is being done to meet those
challenges, and how well funded the Navy's recapitalization
plan is.
We must reset our readiness that has been degraded by years
of constant engagement and high operational tempo, and ensure a
stable and a predictable funding stream is available for these
programs.
And I know the chairman and my colleagues on this
subcommittee share that goal. And we look forward to hearing
how you plan to ensure our readiness goals are met through
engaging our public and private shipyards, and intermediate
maintenance repair facilities.
And I yield back, and thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you, Ms. Bordallo.
Admiral Whitney, we now go to you for an opening statement.
STATEMENT OF RADM MARK R. WHITNEY, USN, DEPUTY COMMANDER,
LOGISTICS, MAINTENANCE AND INDUSTRIAL OPERATIONS, NAVAL SEA
SYSTEMS COMMAND (NAVSEA 04)
Admiral Whitney. Good morning. Chairman Wittman, Ranking
Member Bordallo, and distinguished members of the House Armed
Services Readiness Subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity
to testify about the naval shipyards' critical role in meeting
the Navy's operational requirements.
I am privileged to have worked in and around the naval
shipyards for over 20 years. This includes the honor of having
been the commander of a naval shipyard.
Today I am before you representing the more than 33,000
civilian and military dedicated and patriotic professionals who
give their life every day to serve our country and fix our
ships.
These heroes come to work, put on a hard hat and safety
shoes, and stand ready to service our great Navy, any time, any
place, to ensure our sailors are always ready to stand the
watch.
Today I am prepared to discuss the challenges that this
workforce faces to improve performance and reduce the
maintenance backlogs at the naval shipyards that have prevented
us from getting back to the fleet the ships that they urgently
need, as well as discuss the initiatives that we are taking to
address those challenges.
The workforce at the naval shipyard is engaged. They are
tackling the challenges and embracing the improvement
initiatives every single day, and they work towards one goal--
the successful delivery of ships back to the fleet.
The four public shipyards--Portsmouth, Norfolk, Puget
Sound, and Pearl Harbor--are owned and funded by the fleets and
operated by the Naval Sea Systems Command.
The naval shipyards ensure that the Navy has the essential
and organic capability to perform cradle-to-grave service for
our nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and submarines. The
workforce provides the services that are vital to sustain the
fleet's operational availability and ensure mission success.
The naval shipyards' performance has been challenged in the
past 3 years due to increased workload that is coupled by an
increased number of new and less experienced workers.
In fiscal year 2014, the naval shipyards executed 4.7
million man-days of workload. This workload has continued to
increase through fiscal year 2015 and will increase through
fiscal year 2017, likely peaking in fiscal year 2018. This
increase has been caused, in part, by the high operational
tempo of the fleet and extended deployments that has been
described in previous testimony.
The primary solution is to resolve the workload-to-
workforce imbalance by increasing the workforce to the right
level so that we can have a fighting chance to get the required
maintenance completed on time and on budget.
The solution set also includes training and developing the
new workforce and its management team, as well as diligently
working on process improvement. We will achieve success by
utilizing our apprentice programs and other workforce
development efforts in conjunction with productivity
improvement initiatives.
The challenge of the last 2 years has been hiring to an
appropriate level across the naval shipyards. In fiscal year
2013, the naval shipyards had about 29,000 full-time
equivalents. With the impact of sequestration, a hiring freeze,
and increased workload, accelerated hiring has been necessary.
The fiscal year 2016 budget supports an increase in the
shipyard workforce to achieve 33,500 direct and indirect full-
time equivalents. In 2014, this number, including private
sector partner assistants, was determined to be the appropriate
size workforce needed to execute the increasing workload and
reset the workload-to-workforce imbalance.
Shipyard availability performance, warfighter readiness,
and fleet forward-deployed presence are directly linked to the
capabilities provided by the efficient operation of the naval
shipyard facilities.
Naval Sea Systems Command continues to prioritize the
sustainment and recapitalization of the naval shipyards'
infrastructure.
Investments continue to focus on mission-critical
facilities inside the controlled industrial area, which
primarily include production shops, piers, wharfs, dry docks,
and supporting utility systems.
Naval Sea Systems Command is focused on the naval
shipyards' information technology systems, as well. These
systems are outdated and a challenge to support as we push to
new cybersecurity standards.
Naval Sea Systems Command is implementing solutions to the
maintenance information systems to address critical
cybersecurity vulnerabilities and increase workforce
productivity.
Overall, facility investments are prioritized to address
the most critical capability, safety, productivity deficiencies
associated with these mission-critical facilities.
The hardworking, dedicated professionals across the naval
shipyards stand with me to tackle these challenges face-on. Our
focus each and every day is to get our Navy ships back to sea
when the fleet needs them in support of O-FRP.
Again, thank you for inviting me here today before this
committee, and I thank you for your continued and crucial
support of the naval shipyards. I will be glad to take any
questions that you have.
[The prepared statement of Admiral Whitney can be found in
the Appendix on page 20.]
Mr. Wittman. Admiral Whitney, thank you. I am going to come
to my questions as other members have had their chances. We
have a few members that have to leave a little bit earlier, so
I will go now to Ms. Bordallo.
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Admiral Whitney, how do you envision the role of shipyards
like the one on Guam, which is more of a hybrid between a
public and private yard? We essentially have established a
government-owned contractor-operated construct. So how does
this contribute to supporting the O-FRP and the backlog in ship
maintenance?
Admiral Whitney. The role of the naval shipyards'
engagement with private sector partners is critical to the
success of the shipyards--naval shipyards being able to execute
their workload.
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
both do maintenance on the island of Guam in support of the
homeported 688 submarines as well as the SSGNs [guided-missile
nuclear submarines] that come in for voyage repair periods.
So the partnership is critical. And so we need to ensure
that when, as we will likely discuss later, the role and the
visibility of the total workload, we just need to make sure
that that partnership is strong.
Ms. Bordallo. So you don't think that it will add to the
backlog, that it would----
Admiral Whitney. No, ma'am.
Ms. Bordallo. All right.
Admiral Whitney, how do maintenance schedules for ships
that support the carrier and expeditionary strike groups fit
into the O-FRP concept? And isn't it just as important that the
maintenance for those ships is done in a timely and cost-
efficient manner to ensure the readiness of the strike groups?
Admiral Whitney. Yes, ma'am. So the focus of O-FRP is that
carrier strike group [CSG]. And the naval shipyard piece of
that equation is to ensure that the aircraft carriers are
delivered on time.
The coordination, then, therefore, is to make sure, within
the port that we have visibility of the workload and we are
partnering in making sure that we are doing this in an aligned
manner.
So in order for the total strike group to be successful, we
all need to be sharing and aligned in what that workload is and
how it is going to be executed. The naval shipyard piece of
that obviously therefore is the carrier and the carrier has to
deliver on time.
Ms. Bordallo. And I have a third question, Mr. Chairman,
that is all I have.
Much of our maintenance backlog has been driven by
sequester-level budgeting. Now your future planning with O-FRP
revolves around funding being restored to the program at the
President's budget levels. What would the impact be if you were
faced with another round of sequester-level funding?
And additionally, what are the restraints of your funding
if it comes from OCO [Overseas Contingency Operations] instead
of base funding?
Admiral Whitney. So the impact on the naval shipyards to
sequester-level funding would be a repeat of what we
experienced previously. We would face likely hiring freezes, we
would reduce overtime, we would take risk on material
procurements--those things that would ultimately end up in
delays to availabilities inside the naval shipyards.
Ms. Bordallo. And maintenance?
Admiral Whitney. And maintenance, yes, ma'am. The backlog
of maintenance would again continue to accrue. So it--we have
articulated that before and I would see no reason why the
impacts would not be the same.
Ms. Bordallo. All right, thank you. And I yield back.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you, Ms. Bordallo.
Dr. Wenstrup, any questions, please?
Dr. Wenstrup. I do have one quick question. And may not
even be appropriate to answer it in this setting, to be honest
with you. I think you probably, sir, have a great understanding
of what readiness means. And what you would feel would be 100
percent readiness within your jurisdiction.
And like I said, it may not be appropriate to answer in
this setting, but I would be curious to know what percentage of
readiness you feel we are at right now.
Admiral Whitney. That would be a hard one to answer. I
would take that as a lookup and for us as Navy, too to come
back and give you a specific answer on that.
Dr. Wenstrup. I think it is very clear it is not 100
percent right now. Would you agree with that, sir?
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir.
Dr. Wenstrup. When you consider you have a backlog of
maintenance, how can we be 100 percent ready?
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir, agreed.
Dr. Wenstrup. Thank you very much. I appreciate your being
here this morning and for your service.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you, Dr. Wenstrup.
We will now go to Mr. Peters.
Mr. Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Actually Ms. Bordallo asked my question about the sequester
and coming up on this month and just want to express my concern
that we continue to work with you and the committee on coming
up with a strategy--I think O-FRP is a good start--to deal with
a tough budget situation.
But we need to get back to a situation where we are doing
regular budgets over more than a year, so that there is more
dependability and more ability to plan. I want you to know that
I have that in mind. Thank you for being with us today.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you, Mr. Peters.
Mrs. Hartzler.
Mrs. Hartzler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Admiral.
Just wondering when you talked about the workforce and how
you are plussing up the number of people that you are hiring to
make up for the backlog. So what is the shipyards doing to
address the relative inexperience of this workforce?
Admiral Whitney. So, ma'am, that is a great question. So
first off is a recognition that the new folks that we are
hiring, there is a generational difference in the way that that
workforce learns. And so what we are addressing is different
ways to train and develop. And there is a subtle distinction
between the two.
And where we are at is, whereas in the past the way that
the workforce would have learned is more over the shoulder,
down on the deck learning how to do the work with an
experienced graybeard kind of right behind him helping him,
what we are doing is we are creating work environments mock-ups
like--as like to the real situation as we possibly can, where
it is actually safe to fail.
Learn through repetition. Learn by doing. Learn by actually
them doing the work in a learning environment, and then going
down and doing the work.
And so it is more hands-on, it is more up front, it is an
investment taking them kind of off-line into almost like a
boot-camp kind of environment. And we are calling those
learning centers.
And each shipyard is sharing lessons learned across the
four of them on how they are developing, how they are training
these--in these learning centers. And we are seeing positive
results.
There are very clear results in each of the shipyards,
bright spots as I call them, where the new workforce, when they
actually go down and execute work, is executing at decreased
durations on the job, high quality, and safety is phenomenal.
Mrs. Hartzler. I am a former vocational teacher and I am a
big believer in career and technical education. So in the
schools around these shipyards, are there any specific programs
that help, that students can, in high school, take that will
help feed into that?
Admiral Whitney. Yes, ma'am, absolutely. We have got great
partnerships in each of the locations with vocational and
technical schools.
The apprentice programs that we have, have great
relationships with local community colleges and we are reaching
way down into the high school, looking for that vocational kind
of aptitude for folks to come on into the shipyards.
For years and years and years, one of the anecdotes was,
hey, if you don't do well in high school, you are going to end
up in that shipyard. We have completely turned that around to
that is a place where you want to go. And the skill sets that
we need are evident wherever we are at.
Mrs. Hartzler. Absolutely. So recently two private
shipyards in the Hampton Roads area, Newport News Shipbuilding
and BAE Systems announced plans to lay off 1,500 and 650
employees respectively. Are these layoffs related to the Navy's
plan to hire an additional 9,000 employees?
Admiral Whitney. No, ma'am. This is workload related,
workload related in each of those specific companies. But we
are collaborating.
And so the visibility of the workload in the port is
something that we have been working on relatively newly, but
definitely diligently over the course of the last several
months.
And there are many places where we need the help, so when
we were hiring up and are hiring up to that 33,500, that was
not to the peak. We aimed below the peak because on the
backside of the peak we wanted to be in control of our decline
in workload.
And so there was an element of that peak that we needed and
still need to continue to work with the private partners on the
three availabilities that are going into those--into the
private sector and for us, on the aircraft carriers, we have
got several HII [Huntington Ingalls Industries] folks working
right now on the Bush at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and will on
the Truman. And also out West, helping Puget Sound on the USS
Nimitz right now.
So we have got more work to do, but we are not going to get
that workload peak done without private sector help.
Mrs. Hartzler. I only have about 30 seconds left, but I am
just curious, of all the ships, what is the main area of
maintenance? What is it that takes the most time and is the
Navy looking at ways to decrease the maintenance in that area?
So is it engine overhaul or is it--what would you say is the
main highest maintenance area on a ship when it is--after it
has been deployed?
Admiral Whitney. That is actually very hard to nail down.
But each availability has what we call a critical and
controlling path. And predominantly it is in, I will call it a
high-skill area. It typically is something that is typically
worn from wear. And it varies.
So it is kind of hard to answer that question, but we
definitely know, as we develop the work package, to what is
going to get worked, we very clearly know what that critical
path work is going to be.
Mrs. Hartzler. Thank you.
Admiral Whitney. Ma'am.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you, Mrs. Hartzler.
Admiral, the Navy has come to this subcommittee before, and
you briefed us about your efforts to hire back workers that
were lost during earlier rounds of the sequester.
Can you give us an update on where you are in that process?
Or are you moving your goals in hiring people back? And as you
spoke of, you are trying to find that equilibrium to where we
are not on that roller coaster ride of up and down on workforce
changes within the public yards. Can you reflect a little bit
on that for us?
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir. So, we are, as we ended this
fiscal year, we were within 65 people of our goal. And as far
as I am concerned, we met our goal.
So, we will be on track relatively easily to meet our goal
in fiscal year 2016, which was to get to that 33,500 by the
middle of fiscal year 2016, to gives ourselves a little bit
more lead angle on the training, and that includes the folks
that we lost due to attrition during 2013 in the hiring freeze.
So, we are back on track with that.
Mr. Wittman. We know that you all play out the different
scenarios that you face with funding. Obviously, we know the
scenarios if sequester comes back.
But give us your perspective of where we are right now,
operating under a CR through December 11th. And then, give us a
scenario, too, if the Congress in its infinite wisdom decides
to operate the remaining portion of this year under CR?
Can you give us those two scenarios, what it means for you
operating under CR to December 11th, and what it would mean to
you to operate for a CR for the remaining portion of the budget
year?
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir. So, operating under a CR for the
first 3 months of the year is, I will say it is manageable.
We have good sight visibility of the workload, and what it
is going to take to execute that. If we go beyond the December
timeframe, then it becomes much more of a challenge balancing
the risk associated with the hiring, with overtime, with
material procurements as we progress through the rest of the
year.
Again, also with an eye towards what is at us in 2017. So,
we are constantly evaluating how we are going to execute the
year.
One of the fundamental things that we have changed within
the last 5 years is, we go through a very purposeful deep dive
into what is about to happen in the future execution year.
And we align between NAVSEA as the operator and the fleet
on an availability by availability level of detail, and issue a
letter to the shipyards with what we call execution guidance.
Anything that kind of causes risk, therefore, in that
execution guidance is going to be a challenge, and likely ends
up being as a bow wave. And also, a piece of that bow wave, not
just the work, but it is the things that are going to be a
degradation in performance.
And so, we just--we are okay with the--up to December, but
it is going to get very risky after that.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you. You had reflected a little bit on
trying to manage workloads. And we know there is, I think a lot
of capacity, not only in our public yards but also in our
private yards, in trying to make sure that we understand where
those strengths are, so we can utilize those to keep off of the
roller coaster ride of troughs and peaks with management of
workload in both the public and private sector.
Can you give us a little reflection on what you are doing
in looking at the total workforce management across both the
private yards and public yards?
Admiral Whitney. That is a great question. So, the--I will
answer it in two different ways.
One is for the four public shipyards, we have very good
tools that give us site visibility of our workload.
On a quarterly basis, we sit down, and you may have heard
the term, one shipyard, one nuclear shipyard, used before. So,
on a quarterly basis, we sit down with that workload and share
that with our private sector partners, predominately Electric
Boat and Huntington Ingalls. And they come to the table with
what is on their plate, as well.
And so, we do get down to trade skill level specific
discussions on looking over the future, and what is the
opportunity for some workload balancing and sharing.
We have also gone through a very purposeful exercise over
the course of the last year, to understand qualifications. So,
when somebody is qualified as a welder here, what does
qualified for a welder mean, here?
So, we have rectified some of the deltas such that, when
somebody shows up, there is not a requalification to our
standards thing, there is a--here some interesting and critical
safety and environmental issues that might be specific to a
location.
But then your tool bag and tool belt, you are down working
on the job. So, that is within the naval shipyards, and part of
that is the visibility of the workload.
We are evolving into that with the private sector in the
surface ship world, as well. And so, that is more work to
follow, but that is--we are using the same model.
Mr. Wittman. Very good. I want to finish with one question,
to play out a number of different scenarios.
As we talked about, the Navy has looked at how to
understand the industrial base, the capacity there. But also
things to better manage the workload.
And we have been through these periods before, where we hit
some bumps in the road, and that uncertainty creates issues
with our workforce.
Has the Navy thought of some of these scenarios? And I want
to play a couple out.
One is, is bringing forward-deployed ships back to the
United States to have work done here, for those maintenance
availabilities that may exceed 6 months of longer-term work to
be brought back stateside.
Using available congressionally approved appropriations to
expedite the current cruiser modernization process to kind of,
again, create some workload there, where you can manage those
peaks and troughs.
Looking at implementing public-private partnerships in the
long term, to do non-core work on our fleet. Also, you could
outsource lower-priority work, such as the work on Los Angeles-
class submarines, out to the private yards. Again, kind of
manage that workload, that normally processes through our
public yards.
And then looking at allocating all of your available
appropriations, including your base and overseas contingency
operation funds, or appropriations, to mitigate these workflow
fluctuations that we have seen here recently.
Can you kind of give me your perspective on some of those,
those scenarios, as how you would see those as a part of your
management process?
Admiral Whitney. Sir, I believe we use some of those
flexibilities already, and obviously, there is probably more
room to use some of those.
Within the constraints of, I will say some existing
policies--Navy policies. But--like, for example, the
outsourcing of lower-priority work within the naval shipyards.
When we have site visibility of where that kind of, I will say
that cut line of resources is, that is absolutely one of the
levers that we go off and try and pull.
As far as some of the other examples that you got, I think
I would take that as a look-up for us to come back and maybe
give you some more detail.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 45.]
Mr. Wittman. That would be great. If you could take those
scenarios for the record so we can just play those out. And in
closing this, I would also like to have from you, for the
record, if there are things that the Navy needs
administratively, or statutorily from Congress to facilitate
greater flexibility in helping you in managing the workload,
but also managing workforce in both the public and private
side, we would like to know that, too, because there may be
some things that we can do in next year's NDAA [National
Defense Authorization Act] to help facilitate what you can do
to better manage that workload and workforce.
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir. We will take that one.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 45.]
Mr. Wittman. Very good. Now go to Mr. Courtney.
Mr. Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And good to see you
again, Admiral.
Just to follow up a couple of the comments that the
chairman made. Yes, again, it looks like you have made some
impressive progress in terms of boosting the hires in the last
year or so.
Secretary Perez of the U.S. Department of Labor was up in
Groton last summer, where, again, there is nothing as dramatic
as what is going on with the public yards, but clearly, you
know, the need--what, if nothing else, the sort of a
generational refresh is sort of got the apprenticeship programs
sort of open for business again.
You know, one of the apprenticeship programs we visited was
at the welding area, you know, you have actually two
generations of welders that were sort of doing the
presentation. One who was in his 60s, another who was his son,
who was actually in his sort of late 30s, early 40s.
And they were talking about, sort of--you know, as you, I
think I heard you as I just came in, is you know, what is a
welder? Again, you can hire someone and put them in that job
classification. But what we heard that day was that, you know,
really--aside from sort of the initial apprenticeship stint, I
mean, the fact of the matter is, is you need somebody looking
over the shoulder of that new person for some period of time.
I mean, a year, 2 years or so. And then, they can sort of
start doing sort of basic welds, but in terms of a real--sort
of master welder, I mean, you are talking years before you
really have sort of--got that person up to a qualification.
And frankly, there is a lot of risk in terms of, you know,
retention. Because there is--you know, with advanced
manufacturing just sort of taking off in aerospace, you know,
you name it. The fact of the matter is, is that, you know, sort
of holding on to these folks really makes sort of the initial
numbers that we see in today's testimony, I mean, really are
just sort of the beginning of the challenge for, you know,
having a workforce that is ready to take on these challenges.
And I was sort of wondering, I mean, have you sort of built
in, sort of the fact that there is going to be attrition over
the time period? And frankly, that there is still a gap in
terms of timing to get people really up to doing these.
You don't want mistakes. You know better than anybody in
terms of submarines or surface ships in terms of bad welds, or
people who, you know, really aren't ready for the job.
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir. Extremely salient point.
So, one of the things that we are doing differently,
acknowledging some of that generational difference in the
learning is--I will call it a deep immersion. We talked about
it a little bit earlier. A place where it is safe to fail.
So, welding is a great example. Where what we would have
done previously is a little bit more of that over-the-shoulder
learn-as-you-go, we can't afford years for somebody to get that
proficient.
The sense of urgency behind what the workload is in front
of us, we have to accelerate as much as we can the proficiency
and experience of the new workforce that is coming in.
One of the places that we are doing that is what we are
calling learning cells, learning centers. It is a off the ship,
it is--the best example is actually up at Portsmouth where we
took whole tanks from a submarine that Puget Sound Naval
Shipyard was dismantling, put them out at Portsmouth, and are
using them as real, live examples of blasting and painting.
So new employees are coming in and in real submarine tanks,
in real, cramped submarine tanks, learning over and over and
over again all of the techniques necessary to be extremely
proficient, way quicker than what we would have trained them to
before.
Welding is another example. So a combination of virtual
welding, which can get somebody who comes off the street and
has no idea how to weld, but they can learn pretty quickly with
a virtual welder. And then transition into a learning center,
where they weld upside down, using a mirror, over and over and
over again, in a safe-to-fail environment that is not causing
rework down on the deck plate.
So it is an opportunity for us to bring left the timeline
for proficiency, but it is somewhat trade-specific. But that is
the journey that we are on right now, and it is a recognition
that we have to make that investment quickly because one of the
things that will keep somebody on the job and in the service is
job satisfaction.
That connection to patriotism of getting the job and the
job satisfaction of doing it right the first time, that is an
intangible that we are counting on.
The other part is acknowledging that as we are hiring, we
do see the backside of the peak, and so we are watching that
attrition very, very carefully. We have got very good data of
the folks that are in the two different government retirement
systems. We kind of know what the sweet spot is. And we are
also having the very purposeful conversations with the
workforce so that we know kind of when they are planning on
leaving.
So we are dialing it in very, very carefully to make sure
that we are staying in control of it.
Mr. Courtney. So again, I think it is good that you are
trying to do things, you know, differently because of the
challenges. As we saw that day with the Secretary. It is just
not, again, giving someone a job classification.
So I was also struck by Admiral McCoy, when he used to
testify before us on these types of issues, he used to call a
nuclear welder the equivalent of a brain surgeon in terms of,
you know, what it takes to be in that totally qualified area.
And again, brain surgeons don't start going to the
operating table in a year or two. I mean, it is a process that
takes a very long period of time.
You know, Mr. Wittman asked the question about using the
private yards to--for some of the Los Angeles-class work. I
guess the other question is that when--under Admiral McCoy,
there was a lot of discussion again about dips and using road
work as a way of again protecting the workforce.
Can you give us some numbers in terms of what the road
work, you know, programs look like these--today?
Admiral Whitney. So the road work, you are talking about
the----
Mr. Courtney. Again, so--for example, if there is a layoff
at Huntington or BAE or Electric Boat, you know, whether or
not, given the fact that you need this workforce, I mean,
whether you are using road work as a way to fill that? And
clearly that has been done in the past. I am just sort of
wondering where we are in terms of the numbers today.
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir. So I can get back to you with
some specific numbers, but we are absolutely we are absolutely
relying and using right now road work, specifically on the
aircraft carriers and to some degree on the submarines.
But more so right now, one, because we have got--so we have
got one, we have got three aircraft carriers in execution right
now, all at the same time, about to add a fourth with the start
of Ronald Reagan over in Japan. That is a big chunk of aircraft
carrier. At the same time, Huntington Ingalls is stepping into
their valley.
Then it becomes a timing to make sure that we can align the
timing right and we are working on that every day. So I can
take for specifically the numbers for you.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 45.]
Mr. Courtney. Please. I mean, again, because it was a
pretty successful approach a few years ago, and again, Admiral
McCoy, to quote him, talked about sort of the notion of a one-
shipyard approach because--and I think Roscoe Bartlett used to
say it is like having six horses and food for five sometimes in
terms of trying to satisfy the industrial base or keep people
working and trying to balance that. I think it is a pretty
successful strategy.
Admiral Whitney. Yes, sir. I agree with that.
Mr. Courtney. Yes, so we would look forward to those
numbers.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wittman. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Courtney.
Ms. Bordallo.
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you. Thank you. I have just one
question, Admiral, it has to do with the MSC [Military Sealift
Command] ships, which are normally in our shipyard. Where does
the maintenance of the MSC ships fall into the O-FRP process?
And how does any delay in maintenance of the MSC ships affect
the carrier strike group readiness?
Admiral Whitney. Ma'am, that is a little bit outside of my
swim lane. I would be glad to take that one for you and we will
get you back a specific answer.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 45.]
Ms. Bordallo. Thank you very much, Admiral. And I yield
back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you, Ms. Bordallo.
Mrs. Hartzler, do you have any more questions? Any members
have any additional questions?
All right. Admiral Whitney, thank you, thank you so much.
We appreciate that. We have given you a few questions for the
record, too--for the record, so we can clarify in our minds
some things that are going on. Please let us know, too, if
there is anything that we can do specifically to give you the
necessary flexibility in managing both workload and workforce.
So we look forward to working with you to make sure we
enable you to make sure our ships get in and get maintained so
they can get back to sea with our great sailors on board, and
do the great job for our Nation and make sure that our sailors
and their families are happy with their deployments.
Admiral Whitney. Thank you, sir. Honored to be here.
Mr. Wittman. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 8:38 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
October 1, 2015
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PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
October 1, 2015
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[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
October 1, 2015
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[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING
THE HEARING
October 1, 2015
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RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. WITTMAN
Admiral Whitney. A copy of the brief that was given to HASC
Readiness Subcommittee Staff, SASC Seapower Subcommittee staff and the
Virginia House Delegation is attached. [See Appendix page 31.]
Navy remains engaged with Norfolk Ship Repair leadership and
Hampton Roads delegation regarding options for workload balancing and
level loading the port. The Navy is commencing efforts to fill near
term valleys in workload as much as possible. [See page 10.]
Admiral Whitney. NAVSEA believes that the existing statutes related
to depot-level maintenance and repair allow sufficient flexibility in
managing the workload and the workforce of the public shipyards. [See
page 10.]
______
RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. BORDALLO
Admiral Whitney. The fiscal year 2015 (FY15) workload of 5.0
million mandays is forecast to increase to 5.4 million mandays in FY18.
Mitigation actions accomplished as part of the programming process
indicate that workload will exceed the efficient range in FY17 and
FY18. This will require more contracting actions to balance the
workload-to-workforce mismatch. [See page 13.]
______
RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. COURTNEY
Admiral Whitney. One of the planned outcomes of O-FRP is that MSC
will fully support O-FRP implementation by providing fully capable and
modernized ships available to support fleet combat and peacetime
requirements within approved spending authority. We will closely
synchronize MSC maintenance schedules to support CSG readiness through
development and analysis of Master O-FRP Production Plans (9-year
schedules) for both CSGs and MSC. [See page 12.]
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING
October 1, 2015
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. BORDALLO
Ms. Bordallo. What percentage of ship maintenance availabilities at
the public shipyards were completed on time and within budget in fiscal
year 2015? What is the outlook for fiscal year 2016?
Admiral Whitney. For the four public Naval Shipyards in FY15, 22
availabilities were completed, of which 6 (27.3%) were on time, and 1
(4.5%) was at budget. For perspective, 10 of those 22 availabilities
that completed in FY15 were within 10% of CNO schedule durations and 4
of those 22 availabilities completed within 10% of budgeted mandays.
In FY16, 13 availabilities are scheduled to complete, of which 6
(46.2%) are tracking to their CNO scheduled completion date and 2
(15.4%) are tracking to their budgeted mandays.
The Naval Shipyard performance has been challenged in the past
three years due to increased workload and an increased number of new
and less experienced workers. In FY14, the Naval Shipyards executed 4.7
million mandays of workload. This workload continues to increase in
FY15 through FY17 (PB17 workload is at 5.3 million mandays), and will
likely peak in FY18. This increase has been caused in part from the
high operational tempo of the Fleet and extended deployments.
Starting in FY15, the Naval Shipyards have been hiring up to a
planned level of 33,500 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees by the end
of FY 16. Given that FY15 and FY16 are building years for matching the
Naval Shipyard workforce to workload, the Navy expects on-time delivery
to improve as the recently hired workers are trained and integrated
into the experienced workforce.
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