U.S. Navy

Industry

Carrier Fleet

Size

50,000 personnel

Expertise

Operational Improvement

Assignment

The U.S. Department of the Navy recognized that the average sailor's workload was in excess of 92 man-hours per week at wartime requirement manning. This excessive workload caused serious problems including reduced quality of work and life balance as well as lower re-enlistments. MainStream's operational improvement practice was recommended to the Navy to develop a program to relieve the problem.

Actions

MainStream worked closely with the Navy's Office for Carrier Innovation and took the lead in developing the operations for the Smart Carrier Program. This program was designed to teach Navy personnel operational improvement techniques so that sailor workload could be reduced. To ensure a sound cultural fit and acceptance, MainStream customized a version of our programs specifically for the Navy. The Smart Carrier Program began with a one-year commitment to implement process improvement on the USS John C. Stennis nuclear aircraft carrier. A team of three MainStream personnel and four government personnel helped the carrier improve 16 carrier processes and train over 500 carrier personnel. The remaining 12 carriers will also be scheduled to receive the year long training and implementation of the improvement program and processes.

Results

Sailor man-hours were reduced from 971,914 hours to 558,587 hours, or a 43% reduction. Quality of the processes was increased and sailor morale improved. Further, the USS John C. Stennis personnel learned the operational improvement methodology for continuous process improvement thus reducing the sailor workload even more.