ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. - As the holidays and the end of 2010 approached, shops throughout the depot's Nichols Industrial Complex ramped up production in an attempt to make up for time lost as the installation adapted to the Army's Logistics Modernization Program.
"For the most part, the last two weeks of the year were business as usual," said Chuck Gunnels, process optimization manager for the combat vehicle value stream. "We had some folks who worked Dec. 30 and 31 for the Stryker program and other vital programs."
Gunnels said the last three months of the year were challenging from a production standpoint as workers adapted to the LMP system. However, work orders are now being released and his employees are ready to respond.
"I think, from our employees' standpoint, they get it," said Gunnels. "Our workers are very patriotic, their hearts are in the right place, and, as the challenges came up, they stepped up to the plate."
In addition to the work on current combat vehicle programs, Gunnels said his value stream was gearing up for a new M113 program consisting of 586 vehicles that is slated to begin later this month.
"Fiscal year 2011 has some challenges ahead of us. There are some vehicles we'll be working that we haven't worked on in a while," said Gunnels. "We've got plenty of work to support the folks we have. They may not be doing the same things they are doing today, but we have plenty of work to do."
The Small Arms Repair Facility was also busy during the holidays as their orders also began to flow.
"We have a lot of orders that finally got released and we worked to complete much of our December production by the end of the month," said Jeff Bonner, the depot's Small Arms Repair Facility chief.
Bonner said many small arms repairers were working overtime, often in 12-hour days, to complete the necessary work.
"I had people working the entire week of Christmas except the 24th and 25th," said Bonner. "We've got good workers in small arms and they have really stepped up to get things going."
Social Sharing