Photo By Branden Bourque | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, Jan. 21 2025: Shop 31 batch manufacturing...... read more read more
A recent initiative to establish a kanban inventory system in Shop Stores has significantly increased the availability and efficiency of the submarine parts ordering and production process. This process, called batch manufacturing, has created a significant time and cost savings for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
Batch manufacturing is the process of fabricating a surplus of parts to support planned and unplanned work, allowing PNSY and other shipyards to eliminate processing and production delays with instant part availability.
The batch manufacturing initiative was a major collaborative effort that took over two years to bring to fruition. Lt. Caleb Achor, the initial project manager for batch manufacturing, led the effort with key stakeholders, including Nuclear Engineering and Planning Manager Stephen Fahey, Senior Executive Service, to bring the batch manufacturing process to life.
“This initiative is a testament to our people continuing to demonstrate ownership in innovating and winning together across multiple codes as a cohesive team. Stemming from an idea from our workforce, batch manufacturing improves efficiency and our personal readiness to deliver warfighting advantage as usual,” said Fahey.
Some of the key players involved in this initiative were PNSY’s Transformation Organization; Defense Logistics Agency (DLA); Material Sourcing and Project Management; Engineering and Planning’s Material Support Division; Business and Strategic Planning Office; and Inside Machine Shop.
The process begins when a part is recommended as a good candidate for batch manufacturing to Material Support, or Material Support self identifies an item due to a material need for a waterfront project. According to Material Support Supervisor Camden Medeiros, his group does a historical analysis to validate whether a part is a good candidate to batch manufacture. Using a kanban inventory system, a database that keeps track of parts in stock, it is then managed by DLA, with a ordering process handled by the Business and Strategic Planning Office and Material Support. The Shops make multiple parts of the ordered material that go into the Shop Stores to be used for a future project without the delay of having to order and produce it. Connected to Shop Stores, this kanban system ensures parts are available on the shelf before the customer needs them.
“The implementation of the program has enabled the Inside Machine Shop to manufacture components to resupply the stock system with items that have a high demand,” said Inside Machine Shop General Foreman Chase Laflamme.
“By manufacturing the parts in batches, the engineers in Material Support are producing one Task Group Instruction (TGI) for 10 parts, instead of 10 TGIs for 10 parts. It also means our mechanics in the shops are setting up their machines one time to make 10 parts instead of 10 times to make 10 of the same part,” said Transformation Organization Industrial Engineer Matthew Perreault, who manages the project alongside Lt. Achor.
“Currently we are working hard for this to become a standard tool to address material needs for the shipyard,” said Lt. Achor.
This initiative is just one example of how PNSY is working to drive innovation from the shop floor, to the project teams, all with the goal of generating overall mission readiness.
| Date Taken: | 01.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2025 10:46 |
| Story ID: | 492121 |
| Location: | KITTERY , MAINE, US |
| Web Views: | 73 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Batch Manufacturing Is Geared To Save Big On Resource Days At PNSY, by Alana Demo, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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