VSRA News

This year's conference will be held at the Marriott Crystal City Hotel at Reagan Nat'l Airport, 1999 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA 22202 Preliminary Agenda: Tuesday, May 23rd 4:00 PM Hotel Check In 6:00 - 8:00 Welcome Reception/Registration -- Hosted by the Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association Crystal City Marriott: Monticello Ballroom 8:00 PM dinner - members on their own Wednesday, May 24 (Capitol Hill Day) 8:00-9:00 am Breakfast - industry attendees only Crystal City Marriott: Potomac Ballroom, Salon D 10:00-1:00 Congressional Meetings with Q&A Rayburn House Building #2247 Speakers to include: Rep. Abercrombie 1:00 PM Rep. Drake 1:30 PM 12:00-1:00 Lunch with Speaker Duncan Hunter Rayburn House Building #2247 1:00-3:00 Senate Speakers with Q&A TBD 6:00-8:00 Capitol Hill Reception (with industry, Navy, and Congressional guests attend) -- Hosted by VSRA Bullfeather's Restaurant: 410 First St, SE *Other Members still confirming schedules: Forbes (VA), Crenshaw (FL), Skelton (MO), Taylor (MS) Thursday, May 25 (Navy Day) 8:00-12:00 Navy Speakers with Q&A (breakfast served at 8am) Crystal City Marriott: Potomac Salons D-E Speakers to Include: Mr. Bill Ryzewic 9:00 RADM Mark Hugel 9:30 AM Mr. Alan Weyman 11:30 AM 12:00-1:00 Luncheon Speaker (targeting CNO) with Q&A Crystal City Marriott: Crystal City Pub Conference wrap up immediately following luncheon address. Our goal is to adjourn by 1:30. A conference packet and agenda will be available at the Welcome Reception

Washington, DC – April 19, 2006 -- The Shipbuilders Council of America presented its annual Safety Awards today during the 2006 Spring Meeting in Seattle, WA. Each year, SCA issues the Award for Excellence in Safety to member shipyards based on their total recordable incidence rate (TRIR). SCA's data is compiled through a quarterly injury and illness survey conducted by the Council and distributed to member shipyards. For the year 2005, awards went to Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., Lockport, LA, Conrad Industries, Inc., Morgan City, LA, Lyon Shipyard Inc., Norfolk, VA, and Signal International, Pascagoula, MS. SCA is the largest and most broadly-based national trade association representing the U.S. shipyard industry. SCA members build, repair and service America's fleet of commercial vessels. SCA members constitute the shipyard industrial base that maintains and repairs Navy combatant ships and other government craft, as well as builds small and midsized vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and other government agencies. The Council represents 43 companies that own and operate over 100 shipyards, with facilities on all three U.S. coasts, the Great Lakes, the inland waterways system and Hawaii. SCA also represents 27 affiliate members that provide goods and services to the shipyard industry.

The Virginia Ship Repair Foundation honored Jon Jorgenson for his many years of service on the former TMTI Board, both as a member and in his final year as Chairman.

Norfolk, VA – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District, has completed a $37 million project to deepen the inbound lane of the shipping channel to the Hampton Roads harbor to 50 feet. The Corps deepened the harbor’s outbound lane of the channel to 50 feet in the late 1980s. The project, begun in July 2003, was completed in three phases: the Thimble Shoals channel in 2004, the Norfolk Harbor channel in 2005, and finally, the Atlantic Ocean channel this year. The dredging was accomplished by Weeks Marine, Inc., Cranford, N.J.; Norfolk Dredging Company, Chesapeake, Va.; and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, Oak Brook, Il. The project was completed on schedule and under budget. “We are proud to have completed this project with the cooperation of our non-federal sponsor, the Virginia Port Authority (VPA),” said Col. Yvonne J. Prettyman-Beck, Norfolk District commander. “The added channel depths, and widening in some areas, will provide a safe, navigable waterway while allowing the largest ships in the world to call on The Port of Virginia. This will bring economic benefits to Hampton Roads, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the nation.” “The completion of this project, combined with the $405 million investment the VPA has made in its facilities since 2000, assures that this port has the ability to serve the biggest ships afloat -- and those of the future,” said J. Robert Bray, the VPA’s executive director. “It also means that Virginia’s community of 240 warehousing and distribution centers can continue to grow and receive their cargo from this port.” The Port of Virginia is the world’s leader in coal and tobacco exports and is the second largest container port on the East Coast, just behind the Port of New York/New Jersey.

Now more than ever it is important for you to attend the upcoming conference in Washington D.C. There is a shortfall in the Navy FY 2006 funding and it is impacting all of our companies. We are all facing a major downturn in ship repair business unless we can get supplemental funds for the summer. The meetings in Washington D.C. are critical for us get our message to Congress. The Port of San Diego Ship Repair MSR members are funding this conference due to the critical times that we face. In spite of the fact that ships need to be repaired, we see a major drop in work. In order for our message to be heard, it is imperative that we have as many companies participating as possible representing tens of thousands of waterfront jobs. That is how you “speak loudly” on the Hill and get noticed. The Surface Navy is being forced to balance the cost of buying new ships against operational readiness and the result is a growing depot maintenance backlog. Increasingly ships are sailing that are not completely mission capable or in top material condition. Instead, only equipment that is needed for a specific mission is required to be operable for a given underway period. The Navy needs our assistance in fully funding its ship depot maintenance requirement to regain full mission capability and to start eating away the existing ship depot maintenance backlog. For example, this year in San Diego the Navy needs at least $60 million and an estimated overall $250 million to execute depot maintenance scheduled for the current fiscal year. The outlook for FY 2007 is even worse; without additional funding 8 of 12 San Diego CNO surface ship depot maintenance avails will be deferred. Scheduled and continuous maintenance that is executed will also be descoped. The result will be reduced material readiness that degrades mission capability and safe operations. Additionally, the import to shipyard manning will be significant. It is estimated that over 1,000 jobs will be lost on the waterfront. Those displaced workers will leave ship repair and seek work in home construction. They will not be available for cruiser destroyer and LSD modernization programs that will be forthcoming in the 2008-2010 timeframe. This example is being repeated in Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, Virginia and Florida. This shortfall comes at a particularly bad time. Decreasing force structure and the war against terrorism caused a sea change in Navy's overall maintenance strategy from rotational deployments to "surge deployments." Surge deployment capability requires that all ships not in deep maintenance and not currently deployed be essentially ready to do so at any time. The historical post-deployment readiness "bathtub" is no longer acceptable. Without adequate funding for upfront planning and immediate authorization of required repairs this policy cannot be fully supported. During this conference, we will make the most of each opportunity to discuss the pressing need for adequate FY 2006 funding with Navy and Congressional representatives alike. This funding is needed to maintain (1) wartime material readiness in our surface ships, (2) adequate operational safety conditions for our sailors, and (3) the ability to truly achieve Navy's surge deployment capability. If we don't get the supplemental funds for FY06 and relief from the major cuts in FY 07 we will see a drastic reduction in work in all of our yards that will destroy our capabilities to maintain US Navy ships. We need you to join us in Washington DC…add your voice to ours! For registration information & application send e-mail to Rachel Gmyr: rachel.gmyr@ngc.com. “ Image courtesy of www.furnaceroadstudio.com / copyright Janos Enyedi. These images are not for commercial use and may not be reproduced without the permission of the artist. “

Navy implementation of lean began in Naval Aviation. NAVAIR has been applying lean, SIX SIGMA, and the Theory of Constraints for years with great success. The program of implementation is called AIRSpeed. At our May membership luncheon, Ann Wood, AIRSpeed Project Lead for the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), will be our guest speaker (Tuesday, May 16th at the Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel). Don't miss this opportunity to hear of the amazing successes realized in the Naval aviation intermediate maintenance depots.

VSRA President Bill Crow Accepts 2018 Workforce Innovation Award (video)