Fellow leaders (Ship Repair Association Presidents)
Bottom Line Up Front: After discussions with my team and both Surface Type Commanders, I have directed a change to NAVSEA Standard Item 009-07 requiring the use of a ship managed Hot Work Notification Log and for all hot work performers to check in with DC Central/CCS prior to and upon completion of shipboard hot work. This change (FY23 Ch-3) was worked during the recent SSRAC and will be invoked soon on ALL availabilities in planning and in execution as soon as possible, regardless of fiscal year NSI’s invoked.
Background:
As we discussed during our most recent quarterly Executive Navy-Industry Fire Safety Council, we continue to struggle to limit Hot Work Notice submittal to no more than 25% beyond planned work on a daily basis. I am eager to have us all compliant with this 8010/NSI item as soon as possible.
Of course this isn’t just about compliance… The significant number of daily unused hot work chits observed during the past 17 weeks of data collection represents a significant (and wasteful) expenditure of resources by industry, our project team and ship’s force. More importantly, our ship Commanding Officers need to know what hot work is occurring on their ship and a check in with DC central or CCS is a common sense approach to improving their ability to manage this risk.
The change requires Hot Work Supervisors to sign a log (attachment B of 009-07 FY23 Ch-3) maintained by Ship’s Force prior to commencing and upon completion of hot work. This log will allow Industry, Ship’s Force, and the RMCs to manage their resources more efficiently and understand where Hot Work is being performed at all times. I believe, if we work together in this, we can all be more efficient and improve the fire safety posture of all of our ships in a maintenance environment. Ship’s force, I-level, AITs, and LMAs will be required to comply.
Given you are already expected to comply with open vs used hot work chit percentages and to coordinate with ships prior to hot work, my expectation is that this reasonable requirement to check in/out with DC central or CCS and make use of the ship’s force log should not drive additional cost for you.
As a result, our companies, our RMCs, and our ships will all be able to know whether we are compliant with this 8010/NSI requirement and if appropriate, take corrective action.
Thanks for your help and VR,
Eric Ver Hage
RDML Eric H. Ver Hage, USN
Commander, Navy Regional Maintenance Center
Director, Surface Ship Maintenance, Modernization and Sustainment
