Training takes flight in Shop 56

Theme: TRAINING

TRAINING TAKES FLIGHT IN SHOP 56

BY ANNA TAYLOR • PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST PHOTOS BY SHAYNE HENSLEY • NNSY PHOTOGRAPHER The time it takes to train fully qualified pipefitters has decreased by almost 90 percent thanks to a new training process on the Norfolk Naval Shipyard waterfront.

The Piping Group (Code 960) Pipefitting Shop (Shop 56) reduced the amount of time it takes to train new pipefitters from one year to six weeks with help from the Production Resources Department Training Division (Code 900T).

“We send a group of 12 mechanics to Code 900T and six weeks later they return fully qualified as non-nuclear pipefitters,” said Richard Altman, Code 960 deputy superintendent. “Before this process, they were waitlisted and went back and forth to the waterfront. It would take a year to get them qualified.”

The training process overhaul began prior to the arrival of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) in September 2013.

“The shipyard started aligning shop trade skill designators (TSDs) with corporate TSDs so all the public shipyard qualifications would be aligned,” said Jeff Ardelji, Code 960 non-nuclear training manager. “We took it one step further and looked really hard at what we needed here for fully qualified pipefitters.”

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Above: Richard "Luke" Sorey and Ke'Shawn Jones work in the Code 960 Continuous Training and Development area in Bldg. 202.

According to Altman and Ardelji, the shipyard’s TSD for pipefitters far exceeds corporate requirements, but that means fullyqualified pipefitters can work any project at NNSY. The new Flight Training process is producing promising results, and it took a great deal of teamwork and collaboration to get to this point.

“Communication was a big thing,” explained Ardelji. “Knowing what I wanted to go do and being able to put it down on paper to explain to Code 900T what we need to accomplish our goal was challenging.”

Altman said the biggest hurdle was changing the way people at the shipyard think about training. “We’d done nonnuclear training a certain way for so long it was hard to get people to think about doing it differently,” he said.

As 900T’s capacity to offer training grows, Shop 56 will be able to send more than 12 mechanics at a time, and instead of six-week rotations, they will begin a new flight every two weeks.

From the time a new WG-08 or WG10 pipefitter comes onboard to the time they are fully qualified takes about three months, which means Code 960 has more resources to use on vital waterfront availabilities.

“The goal is to get the mechanics on the deckplate and keep them there,” said Altman.

“If we get them fully trained and send them to the project, we don’t have to take them back for classes. They’re able to focus and get work done.”

Above: Tina Twine and Frank Hardy work in the Bldg. 202 CTD area. Below: Pipefitters Sorey, Eric Whitson, and Jones.

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