Six Sigma News

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm TAI Engineers, owned by S&B, announced it has appointed Amer Kalla as director of production design, based in Houston."We are excited to have Amer Kalla join the TAI team. His wealth of experience and expertise will play a crucial role in advancing our production design capabilities and contributing to the success of our projects,” said Kris Karri, senior vice president of operations and chief engineer at TAI Engineers. “Kalla will be responsible for TAI’s global production design team in the U.S.

Austal USA has named Jim Blastos as vice president supply chain management, with responsibility for the company’s procurement, strategic sourcing, warehousing, logistics, material management and production control activities.Blastos has over 25 years of experience in developing strategic organizational transformation, collaborative solutions and operational processing. He has held leadership positions in supply chain and operations in the U.S. Navy and industry, including Overhead Door Corporation…

The L.S. Starrett Company, a manufacturer of precision measuring tools and gages, metrology systems and more, appointed Matthew Wells as Director of Operations and Continuous Improvement, responsible for Production, Planning, Production Control and Purchasing, Inventory Management, Warehouse and Shipping, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Facility, EHS, Maintenance and Continuous Improvement. Wells reports directly to Mr. Emerson Leme, Vice President, Starrett Industrial Products, North America.

Norfolk, Va. ship repair yard Colonna’s Shipyard announced a series of senior management promotions along with a revised organizational structure effective July 2022.Jordan Webb, currently Vice President, Contracts, has been promoted to Vice President of Shipyard Operations. Randall Crutchfield, currently Colonna’s Chief Experience Officer and Executive Director of Steel America and Weld America, has been named Vice President of Industrial Operations and Facilities. Chris Marsh…

PTL Marine announces the hiring of Mohamed Tounkara as Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Manager - West Coast and Donnie Lowe as Operations Manager - Seattle. With decades of combined experience, both Tounkara and Lowe possess an extensive skillset from past roles ranging from Fortune 100 companies to Main Street entrepreneurial businesses. PTL Marine continues its flurry of recent hiring as it shores up operations in major West Coast ports including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Duclos family is iconic in boatbuilding circles, as the Somerset, Mass.-based Gladding-Hearn, Duclos Corporation, has built a strong heritage in the pilot boat and fast ferry sectors, and in total more than 425 vessels have been delivered since it was founded in 1955. Today a trio of second-generation siblings run the yard, brothers and co-presidents John and Peter Duclos with sister Carol Hegarty serving as CFO. Maritime Reporter & Engineering News visited the yard recently…

Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards (VSY) has appointed Jim Corr as Vice President – Planning & Estimating. Corr joined VSY in January 2017 as a consultant, and in June 2017 was promoted to Vice President, Planning & Estimating. In this role, Corr is responsible for providing leadership and direction on network planning, detail planning and production control, as well as estimating for new ship construction. planning/scheduling, Integrated Master Scheduling, Lean Six Sigma, engineering planning, process development and pre-production processes.

Shipping industry veteran Dan Gardner is director of Mobileweight, which helps to streamline processes and create efficiencies for the container shipping industry. The firm’s first-of-its-kind mobile application and online portal Mobileweight aims to offer a reliable, fast and easy way to comply with SOLAS and electronically file the VGM with ocean carriers. Gardner weighs in on the latest SOLAS VGM requirements which entered force on July 1, and discusses their potential impact across the container shipping sector.

Continuous Improvement (CI) is a term we hear a lot lately. Sadly, despite knowing the term and possibly even applying CI principles to some aspects of operations, CI principles are infrequently applied to in-house job and familiarization training. This is a mistake. First, it is neither difficult nor expensive to establish and maintain a program of CI for in-house training. Second, there is a good chance that if you do ignore CI, not only will your training outcomes fail to improve, but they will likely deteriorate, resulting in a deterioration of safety and operational performance.

Port of Seattle CEO Ted J. Fick appointed Dave Caplan as a member of the port’s executive team as director of the new Office of Strategic Initiatives. Caplan will be responsible for exploring, developing and implementing initiatives to support performance within organization. He will work to ensure the port’s metrics are aligned with strategies, that programs support a high performance organization, and that the LEAN philosophy is incorporated into all aspects of the port’s business processes.

Ecoships introduced a customized version of the Six Sigma DMAIC approach to process and performance evaluation in order to optimize the energy-efficiency of the vessels under its management. The technique has already resulted in Ecoships’ managed ships benefiting from up to 15% greater fuel efficiency, resulting in substantial reductions in CO2, NOx and SOx emissions. “We specialise in eco-friendly and fuel-efficient shipping tools, techniques and technologies,” said Capt. Aykut Yilmaz, GM. “Our three primary goals are safety, fuel efficiency and minimum ecological impact.

Cummins Inc. Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger outlined the company's most extensive plan to date for environmental sustainability, including specific goals for reducing waste, water and energy. A core part of the company's mission is demanding that everything Cummins does leads to a cleaner, healthier and safer environment, which has also proven to be a business advantage. Cummins has been working hard to reduce its environmental footprint for years. Late in the 1990's Cummins began to view its technical expertise as a key competitive advantage to meet increasingly stringent regulations.

iBASEt, developers of Solumina’s Product Lifecycle Execution (PLE) software suite say that Textron Systems operating unit Textron Marine & Land Systems, has selected Solumina’s Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to streamline manufacturing operations for its work on the U.S. Navy’s Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) air cushion vehicle. IBASEt inform that the  SSC is the evolutionary replacement for the Navy’s existing fleet of Landing Craft, Air Cushioned (LCAC) vehicles, which are nearing the end of their service life. Since Solumina captures all the manufacturing data during the entire product’s manufacturing lifecycle, detailed manufacturing intelligence is easily accessible through dashboards, graphs and reports at the click of a button.

GE signed an agreement with Shanghai Maritime University (SMU) to help improve the capabilities of the shipping engineering community in China by providing laboratory facilities and cooperating on research and innovation projects. SMU is a multidisciplinary university that encompasses such areas as engineering, management, economics, law, liberal arts and science, with a special emphasis on shipping technology, economics and management. SMU is one of the leading universities in China and is dedicated to marine and related disciplines…

Last month U.S. ship owner Tote Inc. shocked the maritime community in ordering the world’s first LNG-powered containerships; in one fell swoop energizing the U.S. shipbuilding sector. On the occasion of this historic contract, top executives from TOTE, NASSCO and MAN spoke to Maritime Reporter & Engineering News to weigh in on the deal’s significance. In recent decades, particularly in the large commercial ship niche, it is fair to say that the U.S. has not been a world force.

Jeremy Barnes Appointed GE Marine’s Commercial Marine Marketing Director. GE Marine announces it has appointed Jeremy Barnes as the Commercial Marine Marketing Director. In this role, Barnes is responsible for global commercial market development activities for GE’s full line of LM marine aeroderivative gas turbines, including industry analysis, strategic planning, customer education, and channel development. He is based at GE Marine’s Evendale, Ohio, headquarters. Barnes has gained valuable commercial experience through varied sales and marketing roles across multiple GE businesses.

Cummins Inc. has named Jenny Bush General Manager for the Commercial Marine Business. Working in close cooperation with the Cummins distributor network, Bush will be responsible for all commercial marine business activities for the Engine Business Unit (EBU) globally, including business development and support. She will be located in Charleston, South Carolina and will report directly to Mark Levett, Vice President of the High Horsepower Engine Business. “Cummins has a wealth…

Successful program establishes foundation for future projects. SAN DIEGO – General Dynamics NASSCO hosted a keel laying ceremony for the Lewis and Clark class dry cargo-ammunition ship T-AKE 14 at the company’s shipyard in San Diego. Mrs. Min Kaskin served as keel authenticator for the ceremony. She is the wife of Jonathan D. Kaskin, Director, Strategic Mobility/Combat Logistics Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Mrs. Kaskin authenticated T-AKE 14’s keel by welding her initials on to a steel plate.

General Dynamics NASSCO laid the keel for USNS Medgar Evers, the thirteenth ship of the Lewis and Clark class of dry cargo-ammunition ships (T-AKE). The ship is named in honor of Medgar Evers, the African American civil rights activist whose 1963 murder prompted President John F. Kennedy to ask Congress for a comprehensive civil rights bill. Mrs. Gina Buzby, wife of Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby, commander, Military Sealift Command, was the honoree for the keel-laying ceremony. Mrs. Buzby authenticated the keel of T-AKE 13 by welding her initials onto a metal plate which will be permanently affixed to the ship. Construction of the Medgar Evers began in April 2010. When T-AKE 13 joins the fleet in the first quarter of 2012, the 689-foot-long ship will be used primarily to stage U.S.

During the US Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) Annual Ship Managers Executive Meeting, president Ivan Radovic of NOVACES was awarded for outstanding teamwork and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ready Reserve Force using the principles of Lean Six Sigma. The event was held at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Lean Six Sigma is a combination of two business improvement techniques. Lean focuses on eliminating waste and reducing cycle time, while Six Sigma focuses on improving quality and reducing variation.

The fleet ballistic missile submarine USS Alaska (SSBN 732) finished its 27.5 month availability at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) on schedule and under cost March 8, marking the first East Coast overhaul of a SSBN. "We gained technical knowledge from having worked two guided-missile submarine conversions here at Norfolk and from knowledge sharing with Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on West Coast engineering refueling overhauls and we applied that knowledge to our advantage," said Pete Marfio, project superintendent. Since March 30, 2006, NNSY has been part of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Administration's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and earned "star site" status.

Cummins Inc. today released its expectation for improved profitability despite essentially flat revenues for 2002. During the October 11th teleconference on third quarter earnings Solso noted that rapid market changes in the U.S. and around the world following the September 11th terrorist attacks caused Cummins to revisit its 2002 planning process. Based on recently completed plans, the company is forecasting a 2002 PBIT in the range of $155 to $165 million, with net earnings of $35 to $45 million, resulting in diluted earnings per share of approximately $1 per share. Solso stated, "The completion of our restructuring actions combined with indirect and direct material cost initiatives and Six Sigma improvement projects will result in a net savings of $75 million.

NSRP/SNAME Ship Production Panels are co-sponsoring the free workshop Lean Above the Shop Floor on April 18-19 in Williamsburg, Va. Speakers from Caterpillar and the shipbuilding industry will discuss the immediate and long-term impact of Lean principles Six Sigma and Five S on the business enterprise and data systems that drive production operations. Hotel and agenda information are posted on the Shipyard Production Process Technologies Panel page at www.USAshipbuilding.com. This is the latest Lean workshop in an ongoing series sponsored by the Shipyard Production Process Technologies Panel, Systems Technologies Panel and Business Processes Technologies Panel, all of which are NSRP/SNAME Ship Production Panels.