ELECTRIC BOAT NEWS | EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER EB

ELECTRIC BOAT NEWS | EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

EB

NEWS

C E L E B R AT I N G

120 YEARS ELECTRIC BOAT HIRED 3,000 WOMEN DURING WORLD WAR II. IN THIS PHOTO FROM 1943, ONE TRADESPERSON TRIMS A SMALL PIECE OF STEEL AT GROTON AS A COLLEAGUE STANDS NEARBY. OVER THE COURSE OF THE WAR, THE COMPANY PRODUCED 74 SUBMARINES AND 398 PATROL TORPEDO (PT) BOATS. FIRST QUARTER 2019

NEW MATERIAL STORES SYSTEM

SAVES SPACE, INCREASES CAPACITY

THE NEW VERTICAL LIFT MODULES MAXIMIZE SPACE TO HELP MEET THE PROJECTED SPACE NEEDS FOR FUTURE VIRGINIA-CLASS MATERIAL.

M ain Stores, or building 119 in Groton, is a storage warehouse for small-parts material used in submarine construction. Up until now, material was stored in carousels, which were chain-driven, rotating devices with multiple storage bins. The carousels did not maximize potential overhead space, and took up a large portion of the warehouse. With Columbia construction approaching, and a future influx in material, these 35-year-old carousels desperately needed to be replaced.

Over the last year, the EB Groton Material Control team has been working in unison with Process Improvement Engineering to address the storage issue. After the review of many ideas, the carousels have successfully been replaced with Vertical Lift Modules,

The VLMs are vertical, automated storage systems that maximize space vertically, utilizing overhead space that often goes unused. VLM's are often used for order picking, consolidation of material, parts handling and inventory storage.

2 | ELECTRIC BOAT NEWS | FIRST QUARTER 2019

or VLMs. The VLMs are vertical, automated storage systems that maximize space vertically, utilizing overhead space that often goes unused. VLM's are used for order picking, consolidation of material, parts handling and inventory storage. They provide floor-space savings, increase labor productivity, and most importantly, they meet the increased space needs projected in EB's future for Virginia-class material. Planning is currently underway to identify needed equipment in order to sustain the Columbia material influx.

The Process Engineering team, along with Modula, the VLM provider, determined that six VLM's would offer enough space to store material being moved from the carousels, as well as all material from the shelves within the main stores. Six VLMs were purchased, reducing the overall footprint of the warehouse by half, thus providing more growth potential for the future.

Before moving the material from the carousels to the VLMs, the Material Control team looked at all of the material, analyzed the usage of it and ultimately reduced roughly 10% of the 24,000 parts currently stored, removing outdated material that is no longer applicable in submarine production. Overall, this change to a top-of-the-line storage system has maximized space within the Main Stores warehouse and reserved the space necessary to support EB's growth.

THE 35-YEAR-OLD CAROUSEL STORAGE SYSTEM WAS RECENTLY RETIRED IN BUILDING 119.

EB

NEWS

CONTENTS

4 Submarine Industrial Base Council

Event Draws Hundreds of EB Suppliers

5-6 Q&A With Supply Chain's Blair Decker 7-10 Happy 120th Birthday!

10 Reflections from EB's

Longest-Serving Active Employee

11 Singing in the Key of EB--

The SubTones

12-13 USS South Dakota

(SSN 790) Commissioned

13 EB Business Ethics and Conduct 14 Are We Losing Our Minds?

Let's Hope Not!

15 Could You Handle This? 16 Maintenance and Modernization

Update

16 Junk Yard Wars 16 Service Awards 17 Retirees 18 Marine Group Roundup 19 EB Ethics 20 The 2018 Employee Incentive Program

ELECTRIC BOAT NEWS is published by the Public Affairs Dept. 75 Eastern Point Road ? Groton, CT 06340

LYNN HENDY, Editor SYDNEY DAVIES, Contributing Editor

BOB GALLO, GARY SLATER, Photography

Phone (860) 433-4683 Fax (860) 433-8054 Email lhendy@

ELECTRIC BOAT NEWS | FIRST QUARTER 2019 | 3

SUPPLY CHAIN'S BLAIR DECKER ADDRESSES ATTENDEES AT THE 2019 SIBC SUPPLIER DAYS CONFERENCE.

SUBMARINE INDUSTRIAL BASE COUNCIL EVENT

DRAWS HUNDREDS OF ELECTRIC BOAT SUPPLIERS

T he Submarine Industrial Base Council (SIBC) held its 28th annual Supplier Days conference, reception and day-long lobbying event in Washington, D.C. on February 26 and 27. Established in 1992, the SIBC seeks to educate policymakers and the public about the need to preserve the strength of the U.S. submarine force and promote the value of the submarine industrial base as a vital part of our national security.

This year more than 430 attendees representing over 200 suppliers met at the Capitol Hilton and heard program briefings and plans for the Columbia SSBN program from Capt. Jon Rucker and the Virginia program from Capt. Christopher Hanson. Electric Boat's and Newport News' leadership from both programs discussed the opportunities and challenges that both programs present to the submarine industrial base.

Supply chain presentations covered upcoming strategic sourcing initiatives and the increased demand on the supply base from the Virginia Payload Module introduction and the Columbia SSBN program. The importance of supplier quality was highlighted by recent lessons learned from missile tube construction. The submarine industrial base is facing the same workforce training and development challenges that Electric Boat is facing. A presentation focused on how Electric Boat was teaming with the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to create and expand workforce training programs.

A presentation on the upcoming fiscal year 2020 budget challenges provided a backdrop for the preparations for lobbying meetings scheduled for the second day. Dinner keynote speakers included Connecticut's Congressman Joe Courtney, the new chairman of the House Armed

Services Seapower Subcommittee and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Ships) Jay Stefany.

The following day kicked off with a Congressional breakfast where 15 members of Congress attended and addressed the crowd on their support for the submarine programs. The attendees then fanned out across Capitol Hill and conducted over 185 individual meetings with members of Congress and staff from the attendees' individual states and districts.

The Submarine Industrial Base Council's advocacy and education efforts are consistent with Navy budget plans and the program offices' goals as presented annually to Congress. These advocacy efforts have directly resulted in over $530 million dollars of additional submarine program funding in the past three years. For more information on the Submarine Industrial Base Council, please visit .

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Q&AWITH SUPPLY CHAIN'S BLAIR DECKER

BLAIR DECKER

Blair Decker, VP of Supply Chain, Material Conveyance and Strategic Sourcing, will celebrate his 40th anniversary with EB later this year. In this Q&A, Blair reflects on how EB's business has changed since 1979 and what the future holds for the Supply Chain organization.

What brought you to EB?

My grandfather ran the trading floor, then known as the "garage" of the New York Stock Exchange. I studied economics in college because I expected he was going to get me a job as a stockbroker on the trading floor. During my senior year, when I was close to graduating, I asked him when I could come to work. He said, "When you get a few years' experience and prove you can work." So I found a job at a transportation company in Bridgeport (Hemingway Transportation), working third shift. The company was located in a rather unsavory part of town. After I got robbed for the second time getting to/ leaving work, I started looking for another job and applied to EB.

In October of 1979, I was hired as an associate buyer at a salary of $10,200 a year, which was a lot of money in those days. I had the opportunity to work on a rotational basis through all the departments that made up Materials Management. I worked at Quonset Point for a time; Material Engineering Services was located in big, long red buildings built during World War II, with holes in the walls and rats running through. I was given the opportunity to take part in Material Management's full portfolio of activities and work my way through the ranks. I've been in supervisory roles since 1985, culminating in me joining EB President Jeff Geiger's staff in 2014. I recently calculated that from when I walked in the door until now, I've bought material for 84 new-construction ships, including about 4,000 pumps. Overall, I've been part of more than $30 billion spent on materials.

When did you give up on the stockbroker dream?

Early in my career we had to buy a replacement water brake (this is a very large, complex product also known as a dynamometer), which is a load absorber used for submarine component testing. It came from a company in Germany. No one in the department spoke German, but I could as I'd taken it in high school, so I volunteered for the job. It was an expensive piece of equipment, worth a few million dollars. That got me hooked ? I became enthralled with how big pieces of equipment get manufactured. I realized I wanted to do work that helped create something tangible, something I could touch and be proud of when finished. And, in all my years in material acquisition, I've been able to contribute to the most technologically advanced product in the world. Every day brings a new set of challenges and opportunities. I truly enjoy what I do and have done.

What was EB like in 1979?

Between Groton and QP, we were about 27,000 people, with around 10,000 trade workers on the Groton waterfront. When the gates opened at lunch time, thousands of people would stream out and head to the food trucks and places to eat. You did not want to be going in the wrong direction. We had 16 ships in the yard, primarily the Los-Angeles class, 688 boats. I started over on Long Hill Road. There were no computers, people could smoke in the building and the phones were rotary. The early days of computer programming took place in the basement, with keypunch cards of ones and zeroes. Our inventory management system consisted of long green tubs and yellow cards with part numbers. When the inventory planners wanted to order something, they would pull a yellow card, write down what they wanted, and pass it on to a buyer. The buyer would get a quote, negotiate and then pass the information to the typing pool--at the time we had over 20 typists--who would type the purchase order. If there was an edit, the typist would have to start over from scratch.

continued on page 6

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