Photo By Senior Chief Petty Officer Ryan Wilber | Petty Officer 2nd Class Paul Willette, native of Greenville, Maine, assigned to Naval...... read more read more
The importance of a cost control office to a forward deployed Naval Mobile Construction Battalion, such as NMCB 74, cannot be underestimated. It is there that information on more than 300 pieces of construction equipment operating at multiple project sites is tracked, compiled and reported.
Alfa Company's cost control office serves three major functions: tracking and reporting scheduled maintenance; ordering, tracking and distributing parts and consumables; and operating a technical library and tool room. Responsibility for every piece of civil engineer support equipment on every job site, at main body and detachments, keeps the office constantly busy.
According to Senior Chief Construction Mechanic Shawn Hollister, Alfa Company maintenance supervisor, 100 percent of the battalion's CESE in the table of allowances, which lists every piece of equipment belonging to the battalion, is active. Inevitably, that means maintenance will have to be performed on the equipment and that equipment will break.
"We are doing twice the PMS (planned maintenance system) here that we would normally do. We have twice the active equipment," said Hollister. "If one piece of equipment goes down, that changes the whole scope of work. I work with Petty Officer Manzie and the workcenter supervisors to get that piece of equipment back up and running as fast as humanly possible."
Construction Mechanic 2nd Class Ralph Manzie, cost control 3M assistant, oversees day to day operations in the office. He and Construction Mechanic 2nd Class Paul Willette, cost control workcenter supervisor, ensure preventive maintenance on CESE is completed on time and in accordance with instruction.
"The idea behind preventive maintenance is to prolong the life of the equipment and find anything that might break before it actually breaks," said Willette.
In addition to more than 12 detachment sites spread across Afghanistan, Manzie and Willette manage three shops at the main body site: light shop, heavy shop and support shop, which together require between 110 and 150 preventive maintenance checks a week. Since arriving to Camp Leatherneck more than 1,500 checks have been completed. That equates to more operational equipment on the sites, or what cost control refers to as a higher "daily availability."
"When we got here availability was 68 percent, and the highest we've brought that up to was 77 percent for the week. For the month we've had it up to 80 percent." said Manzie.
Operating construction equipment on a daily basis, especially in the dirt and dust of Afghanistan, means that equipment will break and parts will need to be replaced. Many parts can be procured on-site through NMCB 74's Supply Department at the Automotive Repair Parts Office, but some take a bit more ingenuity to come by.
The first step in ordering parts is to utilize the Organizational Maintenance Management System known as MicroSnap program. MicroSnap is not new to Navy battalions, however; NMCB 74 is the first battalion to use the program in the Afghanistan area of responsibility. Traditionally, information is forwarded to the battalion's Maintenance, Management Materials Detachment in Kuwait, and the parts are ordered from there.
Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Tabitha Dennis, a cost control repair parts petty officer, states that she had the MicroSnap program loaded onto the computers, and certified it for use when NMCB 74 arrived. It is not just parts that can be ordered through the program, a complete tracking of the equipment's history can be maintained.
"We input everything into MicroSnap and use the 3M system to track man-hours, costs and maintenance on vehicles," said Dennis.
According to Dennis, she and her coworker, Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Josh White, have ordered more than $600,000 worth of parts in the last three months through MicroSnap.
The cost control office staffs a resident automotive repair parts expert, Construction Mechanic Constructionman Apprentice Christopher Jensen, who works closely with the Supply Department to ensure the correct parts get to the mechanics in the repair shops. To procure the parts the Supply Department does not have in stock, Dennis has forged relationships with Marine units assigned to the camp.
"Sometimes something will break suddenly and I'll check with our Marine counterpart. He'll advise me whether or not he has that item or part in inventory, and I'll do the correct paperwork to go over there and get it immediately rather than wait quite a few weeks sometimes for parts to be delivered here," said Dennis.
Dennis has spent more than $65,000 buying parts through her Marine supply counterparts operating the Supply Management Unit (SMU) on Camp Leatherneck who seem more than happy to contribute in order to keep the battalion's projects going.
"We like to do walk-throughs that are mission essential code five or six, or repair parts. Dennis and Alvarado always do walk-throughs for those kind of parts to get the job done, fix their MRAPS (mine resistant ambush protected vehicles) or do some kind of mechanic work or maintenance," said Lance Cpl. Andrew Stallings, assigned to 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Combat Logistics Company 151.
Not always is a part available through the Navy stock system. In that case, the part has to be open purchased through a manufacturer or civilian vendor. Researching parts and contacting vendors is the job of the Cost Control Office's Technical Librarian and Tool Room Custodian, Construction Mechanic 3rd Class Patrick Witt.
"When we started [deployment] we had no points of contact, now we have nine that I frequently use," said Witt.
Witt is also in charge of more than $8,400 in tools, including seven mechanics tool kits known as kit 13s. According to Witt, people check out tools and look up information in tech books every day. For a mechanic, having the right tool to do the job is invaluable.
"Maintenance can't be done unless you have the proper tools," said Witt.
In addition to tracking maintenance, ordering parts and providing technical information, the Cost Control Office records everything that has been done to a piece of equipment down to the amount of oil and fuel it uses. Once that information is compiled, it is sent to the battalion's higher command for analysis and planning.
The cost control team takes pride in their work for the battalion and plan to pass on what they have learned to the next battalion. Hollister attributes their success to the attitude that the team brings to work each day and the team's belief in their contribution to the mission.
"I think we have taken ownership of the equipment in the TOA in ensuring the projects get done, and because of that ownership, these guys will not take 'no' for an answer," said Hollister.
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 12.23.2009 18:48 |
| Story ID: | 43101 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 434 |
| Downloads: | 312 |
This work, NMCB 74, Keeping Costs Under Control and CESE On the Job, by SCPO Ryan Wilber, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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