WATERVLIET ARSENAL, N.Y. (Jan. 20, 2015) -- American history books are rich with stories about Soldiers who, as individuals, have gone beyond the call of duty and performed at levels that far exceeded the expectations of their leaders. This sense of the "power of one" is truly an American value in that when something needs to get done, Americans get it done.
Soldiers who perform these deeds are often recognized, and rightfully so, for their superior sense of duty to the mission and to the unit. But while the Soldiers are fighting, there are hundreds of thousands of Department of the Army Civilians who are also stepping up and going beyond the call of duty all in a grand effort to support our nation's war fighters.
Although the Army's Watervliet Arsenal is more than 6,000 miles from the battles in Afghanistan, there are battles, albeit fiscal battles, that are being fought daily at this Army manufacturing center.
And, here too, are individuals who are stepping up, going beyond their call of duty, performing at levels that exceed the scope of their job responsibilities.
As the effects of what is commonly called "sequestration" still trickle down throughout the Defense Department, the arsenal finds itself at the mercy of weapon program managers who have become reluctant to award new contracts in an era of today's fiscal uncertainty.
Since sequestration took effect in March of 2013, the arsenal has suffered through a hiring freeze, furloughed its workforce, allowed very limited overtime to meet production requirements, and experienced a significant drop in future weapons orders.
But given this scenario, some might believe that the morale of the arsenal workforce would suffer. But for many, it hasn't.
After all, the arsenal has suffered through countless ebbs and flows of defense spending since the War of 1812, when its foundation was laid. And so, today's workforce is not experiencing anything new. In fact, it is during these periods of uncertainty that the arsenal workforce usually shines.
The arsenal has survived more than 200 years of wars ending and then starting back up due in large part to its workforce. The workforce has had and still has an uncanny ability to transform existing manufacturing capability into new markets for military goods. No example may be more powerful than in the late 1880s when the arsenal transformed itself from a maker of saddles to a maker of cannons.
Nevertheless, there is also a phenomena that is often missed by those outside of the arsenal fence line during these transitory times ̶ the arsenal becomes more efficient. Today, the buzz words of these efficiency efforts are LEAN Six Sigma and Value Engineering. But, to the typical arsenal worker it is simply doing something better today than they did yesterday.
Behind these transformations and phenomenons are "catalyst of change." In essence, individuals who take a step back from their daily work to visualize what they could do to effect positive change.
One of today's catalysts at the arsenal is Peter Northup, a machinist who graduated at the top of his apprentice class just last year.
Northup has been working the production line for 60mm and 81mm mortars for about one year. Recently, as he was resetting the tooling on a 30-year-old lathe machine for a 60mm mortar tube that had just machined an 81mm mortar tube, he looked down the production bay at two newer machines that sat idle.
Northup was concerned about how three different types of mortar tubes were being channeled into this one machine and how that one machine may be a single point of failure. In essence, if that machine broke down there was not a backup machine that work could be immediately diverted to.
The other thing that came to Northup's mind in regards to the two idle machines was that if those machines were reprogrammed to accommodate mortar machining they could save a good deal of setup time between production lines. At the former lathe location, Northup ran two different types of 60mm mortar tubes and one type of 81mm mortar tube through three different machining operations. By using additional machines, the requirement to switch the tooling from 60mm to 81mm tubes would be eliminated.
"My training here paid off," Northup said. "I was trained to seek out waste in our production processes and then to eliminate that waste. In this case, we should enjoy cost savings on every tube, while also reducing our risk of failure."
To take the value of Northup's effort a step further, it in one thing to brainstorm a great idea but to be truly great the idea has to be able to be implemented.
The success to Northup's concept was on his ability to get a machining program that was written in 1985 to interface with machines that were put on line in 2011. He turned to the arsenal's programming office for assistance.
"The arsenal programmers thought it was a great idea but they could not rewrite the program at the time due to other pressing needs," Northup said. "So, I asked Leon Rosko, my foreman, if I could take a look at doing the reprogramming myself."
Armed with permission from Rosko, Northup, with the support from the programming team, as well as from the quality control team, launched into an area of expertise (programming) that for the most part was self taught.
After four days of painstaking data input and machining, Northup had one of two machines reprogrammed to support 60mm mortar production.
"I could not have done this without the exceptional support of quality control and programming," Northup said. "By the end of January, I will have another machine reprogrammed to support mortar production."
At each lathe machine, there are three key operations that are performed. By using the newer machines, machining time will be reduced for each 60mm tube, thereby, reducing production costs.
One of the great advantages of the Defense Department going to an Army-owned and operated manufacturing center, such as Watervliet, is that all savings are returned back to the customer … the U.S. taxpayer.
Northup's effort is truly a great example of going beyond the call of duty and speaks volumes about the tradition, history, and pride of the Watervliet Arsenal workforce.
Had Northup suggested his idea in early 2013, he would have qualified for a monetary award through the Army's Suggestion Program. The Army, however, suspended this morale-boosting program in 2013.
But Northup said he didn't make the improvements for the money, he did it to make the arsenal better.
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Watervliet Arsenal
-The Watervliet Arsenal is an Army-owned-and-operated manufacturing facility and is the oldest, continuously operating arsenal in the United States, having begun operations during the War of 1812. It celebrated its 200th anniversary in July 2013.
-Today's arsenal is relied upon by U.S. and foreign militaries to produce the most advanced, high-tech, high-powered weaponry for cannon, howitzer, and mortar systems. This National Historic Registered Landmark has an annual economic benefit to the local community in excess of $90 million.
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