Navy shipbuilding : opportunities exist to improve practices affecting quality : report to congressional committees.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

United States. Government Accountability Office, issuing body.

Standardized Title:

Navy shipbuilding (2013 November)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Navy--Appropriations and expenditures.

United States.

United States. Navy.

Shipbuilding--United States--Quality control.

Shipbuilding.

Ships--United States.

Ships.

Armed Forces--Appropriations and expenditures.

Shipbuilding--Quality control.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (iv, 98 pages) : illustrations, map

Other Title:

Opportunities exist to improve practices affecting quality

Place of Publication:

[Washington, D.C.] : United States Government Accountability Office, 2013.

Summary:

The Navy has experienced significant quality problems with several ship classes over the past several years. It has focused on reducing the number of serious deficiencies at the time of delivery, and GAO's analysis shows that the number of deficiencies--particularly "starred" deficiencies designated as the most serious for operational or safety reasons--has generally dropped. Nonetheless, the Navy continues to accept ships with large numbers of open deficiencies. Accepting ships with large numbers of uncorrected deficiencies is a standard practice and GAO found that there are varying interpretations of Navy policy with regard to when the defects should be resolved. In 2009, the Navy organization that oversees ship construction launched the Back to Basics initiative to improve Navy oversight of ship construction. However, a key output of the initiative promoting consistent and adequate quality requirements in Navy contracts has yet to be implemented. Although the environment in which leading commercial ship buyers and builders operate differs in many ways from the Navy's, some commercial practices aimed at helping to ensure that ships are delivered with a minimum number of deficiencies may be informative for the Navy. Throughout the course of commercial shipbuilding projects, significant numbers of quality defects and instances of non-conforming work are identified. However, leading commercial ship buyers and shipbuilders make great efforts to ensure that these issues are resolved prior to delivery. Further, commercial ship buyers establish clear lines of accountability and hold their personnel responsible for ensuring the shipbuilder delivers a quality vessel. While commercial ship buyers focus on regularly witnessing in-process work through roaming patrols and impromptu inspections, Navy processes at the shipyards place less emphasis on in-process work. Moreover, leading commercial shipbuilders have strong quality management processes that track quality problems to the worker or supervisor level. Navy shipbuilding contractors have historically experienced difficulties in holding production workers and supervisors accountable for their work, but some of the shipyards reported they are making progress on increasing worker accountability.

Notes:

Title from title screen (viewed Jan. 29, 2014).

"November 2013."

Includes bibliographical references.

"GAO-14-122."

OCLC:

872117264