PASCAGOULA, Miss., May 4, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries' (NYSE:HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division has honored six teams and two individuals with "President's Awards for Excellence" for their outstanding and innovative work on shipbuilding projects. The award-winners were formally recognized at a dinner held May 3 in Gulfport, Miss.
"The President's Award recognizes individual shipbuilders and teams for their commitment to achieving extraordinary performance," said Ingalls Shipbuilding President Irwin F. Edenzon. "By taking ownership and pride in identifying areas that can be improved, and by using innovation, technology and sometimes just sheer determination, we live up to our 'Hard Stuff, Done Right' reputation. We honor these employees — shipbuilders who have good ideas about finding better ways to do things."
Each year, Ingalls presents the President's Award for Excellence to shipbuilders for their outstanding contributions in the areas of innovation and technology, customer satisfaction and operational excellence.
Pictures of the 2012 award-winners are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/huntingtoningalls/sets/72157629962874245/detail/
The award-winners are:
Blast and Paint Operations Optimization
Team members: Gilbert Arceneaux, Glenn Clement, Alfred "Trip" Maumenee, Brian McVey, Ronald Romero and Tim Warren
This team developed and implemented a new blast and paint strategy that resulted in improved, environmentally compliant processes and lower costs. Unit blast and paint processes were streamlined by 50 percent, resulting in ship program savings on the National Security Cutter, DDG 51 and LPD 17 programs.
Foremen's Notes – Newsletter
Team members: Terri L. Broome, Dannon Butts, Arlene Grimme, Angie Haynes, Matt Kieper, Ken Miller and Joaquin Orozco
Foremen's Notes is a monthly publication for craft foremen developed to provide direct and frequent communication to Ingalls' waterfront leadership. Foremen's Notes helps reinforce the relationship between foremen and craft directors and strengthens the important role foremen play as leaders of the shipyard.
IT Outsourcing Initiative
Team members: Josh Barton, Frank Borden, Don Bourgeois, Greg Cannella, Terry Creel, Jason Kilpatrick, David Rideout and Glenn Vuyovich
This team developed a proposal to replace the IT infrastructure provided by former parent company Northrop Grumman and redesigned the new infrastructure to align Ingalls IT with industry standards for best practices and levels of service.
New Hire Assessment and Training
Team members: Laverne Burdine, Phil Marr, Tommy Robinson, Darren Hass, Lewis McLeod and Byron Patton
By developing concrete methods of identifying the skill level of job applicants, this team has created a process that ensures the best candidates are selected for assessment and hiring. Training includes skills assessment and familiarizing newly hired personnel with company policies and manufacturing procedures.
Rework Reduction Initiative on LPD 23 and LPD 25
Team members: Joey Foret, Tommy Hebert, Terry Knight, Mike Raney, P.J. Sprunk and John Winn
A concerted effort between Avondale shipbuilders, program management and craft management that focused on a new rework reduction initiative resulted in a 23 percent reduction in rework man-hours on LPD 23 and a 35 percent reduction in rework man-hours on LPD 25, as compared to LPD 21.
Windlass Capstan Replacement on LPD 22
Team members: Charles Bond, Donald Bourn, Dale Daunie, Brian Duhe, Kim Elliott Sr., David Morano Sr. and David Thibodeaux
This team ensured the successful testing and demonstration of the anchor windlass during LPD 22 acceptance sea trials.
Capital Budget Management Leadership
Christopher Helton
As a result of Helton's efforts, the facilities department implemented a storeroom management system that has resulted in reduced material and parts inventory and enabled the facilities planning department to start "kitting" all accomplished repair work. This was a key contributor in reducing overhead by 40 percent.
LPD 22 Delivery
Doug Blethen
Blethen used his extensive experience and leadership skills to build a team that had the technical skills, stamina and motivation to ensure delivery of LPD 22 at the end of 2011, allowing the company to meet its financial commitments in its first year of existence.
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Employing nearly 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, its primary business divisions are Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding. For more information, visit:
- HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com
- HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries
- HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries
The Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=9418
Statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these statements. Factors that may cause such differences include: changes in government and customer priorities and requirements (including government budgetary constraints, shifts in defense spending, and changes in customer short-range and long-range plans); our ability to obtain new contracts, estimate our costs and perform effectively; risks related to our spin-off from Northrop Grumman (including our increased costs and leverage); our ability to realize the expected benefits from consolidation of our Gulf Coast facilities; natural disasters; adverse economic conditions in the United States and globally; and other risk factors discussed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. There may be other risks and uncertainties that we are unable to predict at this time or that we currently do not expect to have a material adverse effect on our business, and we undertake no obligations to update any forward-looking statements.