Employees Fuel Productivity Gains, Enhanced Service at U.S.-Japan Shipyards
This collection of case studies highlights several successful quality-improvement initiatives at the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) Yokosuka and its Sasebo detachment. Using quality tools and techniques, workers have made significant improvements to many key processes and facilities.
Its ships served as hospitals after the deadly 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and also formed the largest U.S. Navy armada since World War II to help fight the war in the Persian Gulf. Whether responding to crises that are humanitarian or military in nature, the U.S. Seventh Fleet has to stand ready as needed.
The job of keeping it that way falls to the dedicated personnel of the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center (SRF-JRMC) Yokosuka and its Sasebo detachment.
With a combined staff numbering close to 2,300, the vast majority of whom are Japanese employees, the SRF-JRMC Yokosuka and its Sasebo detachment are not only world-class ship-repair facilities, but also premier examples of how quality tools and techniques can:
- Save time and money.
- Fine-tune procedures and create efficiencies.
- Develop new techniques and processes.
- Improve safety conditions.
- Enhance employee dedication and pride.
A Cross-Cultural Partnership
SRF-JRMC Yokosuka, located at the entrance to Tokyo Bay near Yokohama, and the SRF-JRMC Sasebo detachment, located in Nagasaki Prefecture, were created under a cooperative defense labor contract between the United States and Japan at the end of World War II. The Japanese government provides support for the maintenance of U.S. forces in the region in exchange for U.S. military protection of Japan.
The naval facilities at Yokosuka comprise the largest, most strategically important overseas U.S. naval installation in the world, serving as home port for the Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group. The facilities at Sasebo, some 500 miles from Yokosuka, are home port for the Expeditionary Strike Group, led by the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Essex, and also home to the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. Yokosuka is the Navy’s largest repair and supply center in the western Pacific. Sasebo, along with another facility at Tusumi, comprises the largest and most active fuel complex in the entire U.S. Department of Defense, representing 50 percent of all fuel assets in the Pacific. Together, Yokosuka and Sasebo house 18 U.S. ships and provide maintenance and repair to the vast majority of U.S. ships in the region. SRF-JRMC Yokosuka and its Sasebo detachment are just two of about 55 U.S. military facilities in Japan, collectively known as United States Forces Japan (USFJ).
Currently some 125 U.S. military personnel and 105 U.S. civilian employees at the two SRF detachments strive, along with nearly 2,050 Japanese employees, to meet one common goal: “to keep the U.S. Seventh Fleet operationally ready.”
Like all shipyards, SRF-JRMC Yokosuka and its Sasebo detachment are divided into various shops, and employees are organized into working teams. A corporate continuous-improvement office at Yokosuka serves both facilities.
Two of the Yokosuka teams and two of the Sasebo teams—all utilizing highly effective quality techniques—have won awards in Japan’s National QC Circle contests, and earned international recognition at the 2006 ASQ International Team Excellence Award competition. The teams were among 27 finalist teams from around the world selected to compete in the event, which was held during the ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement in May 2006. Although they did not place among the top three slots—team members left the competition with the words, “We’ll be back!”—the teams are nonetheless recognized as world leaders in quality management.
To learn more, follow the links below to each individual case study:
