Navy secretary urges new 'quality culture' in shipbuilding

Navy Secretary Donald Winter expressed disappointment Monday in the ability of both the Navy and its shipbuilders to maintain quality standards throughout the development and procurement of ships.

Winter has taken a tough-love approach with the Navy's many problematic shipbuilding programs since taking the helm of the service in early 2006. He told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the Navy must inject more discipline in its requirements and design processes.

He suggested the Navy and industry create a "quality culture" that begins at the design stage of a program and continues through a ship's development. Shipbuilders and Navy program offices must work to reduce the high level of turnover at production facilities and must improve training, supervision and inspections, he added.

"Every quality analysis that's ever been done ... suggests that the hardest way to build quality is by inspecting at the end," Winter said in what may be one of his parting public comments about Navy shipbuilding programs. "You've got to start at the beginning; you've got to design the right way; you've got to build the right way."

Cost overruns and schedule delays have become common on many of the Navy's most expensive ship programs. Last year, Winter canceled the contract for the third and fourth Littoral Combat Ships because of extensive programs with the program. Earlier this year, he ordered the cancellation of the DDG-1000 destroyer program beyond construction of the second ship, but reversed that decision.

Winter recommended investing in the workforce and ensuring the Navy and industry have well-trained officials for acquisition, systems engineering, inspections and support work.

Winter said the Navy must grapple with the lack of competition in the shipbuilding sector, which includes only six domestic shipyards that do specialized work.

"Some people would suggest there is no real competition, in part because so many of our products are yard-specific and so it is more one of an allocation process than it really is a competition," he said.

And with the shipbuilding playing field expected to remain limited, Winter suggested the Navy rely on profit incentives to push industry to meet or exceed program goals.

Meanwhile, he said officials in the Navy's program offices and contractors must be held accountable for their performances.

"This cannot be a situation with entitlements," Winter said. "Everyone is not just entitled to continue in business and entitled to make a certain level of profit. It has to be earned."

Lawmakers, who have long secured funding for pet Navy projects, must enable the Navy to do that, said Winter, who added: "To some extent that, too, will be an interesting challenge."