Marine Corps Logistics Command Albany, GA -- During the unseasonably warm week of Jan. 13, experts from across the Department of the Navy’s sustainment community converged upon Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia to coordinate improvements to the Navy and Marine Corps’ readiness rates. The Naval Enterprise Sustainment Technology Team (NESTT) brought in representatives from the Navy’s shipyards, the Navy’s air repair depots, as well as leaders from the Air Force’s Rapid Sustainment Office and the Army’s Sustainment Battle Lab to accelerate improvements that will transform the way these groups maintain their various systems.
NAVSEA Program Manager and NESTT Lead, Steve McKee, spoke about the team’s origin and purpose saying, “The NESTT came out of an agreement between senior leaders from Marine Corps Logistics Command, Naval Aviation Systems Command, and Naval Sea Systems Command to work together to improve readiness.”
The Department of the Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program recently allocated $30M to help NESTT advance innovation.
The meeting at MCLB Albany builds upon the original agreement and the $30M allocated by the Department of the Navy’s SBIR program.
Maj. Anthony J. Giunipero, director, Studies, Analysis, and Innovation Division, Quality Management Center, MARCORLOGCOM spoke about the NESTT saying, “The $30M SBIR effort is a great example of what the NESTT is intended to do – collaboratively identify needs and work together to resolve those needs. We are currently working to address a series of gaps that we identified last year and quickly field them to improve our maintenance operations.”
“Collecting the inputs from the maintainers across the Navy is a relatively new approach that the NESTT is piloting,” said Jeff Brimhall, technology insertion manager, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility. “We believe that there is more in common between us than different.”
The group discussed a number of initiatives to accelerate the identification and fielding of solutions across the Department of the Navy’s sustainment enterprise.
“We have been developing an idea of an Observe-Orient-Decide-Act loop for sustainment that provides all stakeholders visibility and roles to make the system work more optimally,” noted McKee. “The team spent some time bringing their decades of experiences to validate the model. We hope this will provide a way to deliver solutions to improve the safety and effectiveness of our workforce.”
Jamaine Clemmons, advanced technology and innovation lead, Fleet Readiness Center East, offered that, “We each have many things that we have developed that by simply sharing will help out the rest of our fellow sustainers.” “The group is identifying many of these solutions and just this week we learned about the metal printer at Marine Depot Maintenance Command’s Production Plant Albany, and are taking that information back to Cherry Point so we can adequately determine the required infrastructure for our future metal printer,” added Clemmons.
Across the Department of Defense, many organizations are working to revitalize their facilities. This forum allowed senior leaders at MARCORLOGCOM to gain insight into efforts underway to modernize facilities at the Navy’s shipyards. Additionally, the Air Force and Army were keen to coordinate efforts; they sent sustainment experts from the Air Force’s Rapid Sustainment Office and the Army’s Sustainment Battle Lab to the event.
David R. Clifton, executive director, Marine Corps Logistics Command put it best saying, “The Commandant of the Marine Corps is driving us to collaborate more effectively and what is being done by the NESTT is absolutely in the right direction. The Marines and Sailors on the front lines need us to ensure we keep their systems 100% ready and the NESTT is forging the path forward.”
This news story was prepared and submitted by the Studies, Analysis and Innovation Division, Quality Management Center, Marine Corps Logistics Command.