Defense Contract Management Command - Fort Belvoir, VA

Survey Summary

For more than a decade, the Navy's Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) survey process has been a primary avenue for industry and government to present individual and distinctive success stories in management and manufacturing disciplines. For those organizations seeking to advance their overall manufacturing performance, the BMP program has provided validated and documented best practices. These practices, verified on-site by BMP survey team members, have served as a model for improvement in business and industry and as a tool to promote teaming.

In 1995, industry and government representatives discussed the idea of broadening the BMP program's scope to incorporate success stories submitted by industry. The objective was to find an efficient, cost-effective way to share a greater volume of information on the latest technology and business developments. Since the BMP program had a proven approach for sharing success stories, this seemed to be a logical expansion.

The practices in this report were submitted to the BMP Center of Excellence by Defense Contract Management Command, located in Forth Belvoir, Virginia as an example of some of the latest developments in the environmental area. They are considered to be best practices or success stories, however, they were not validated by an on-site BMP survey team. Our goal is to help industry and government keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in the business, manufacturing, and environmental communities.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS:
The following acronyms were used in this report:

DCMC Defense Contract Management Command
DOD Department of Defense

JG-APP Joint Group on Acquisition Pollution Prevention
JLC Joint Logistics Commanders
JPPAB JG-APP Advisory Board
JTP Joint Test Protocol

TI Texas Instruments

VOC Volatile Organic Compound

Industry Submitted : Eliminating Hazardous Materials from DOD Contracts and Weapons Systems

The Challenge: Eliminating hazardous materials from DOD contracts and weapons systems by promoting partnerships among the Services and their Contractors.

Historically, recommendations by contractors for using alternatives to hazardous materials on government contracts resulted in repeated testing by individual defense and contractor program managers, so all parties could gain their own confidence in the performance of the alternatives being considered. More often than not, alternatives were never accepted or agreed upon by the parties involved using this approach. As a result, DOD and the industrial base duplicated efforts and paid multiple times for qualification of the same alternatives for commonly shared processes, with little or no success to show for it. Then in early 1994, defense industry contractors, weapons systems program mangers, and various DOD/Industry conference attendees (CEOs and Corporate Presidents) expressed a need for 'jointness to address common pollution prevention issues. Toward that enda Secretary ofDefense Memorandumdated August 111994set requirements for cooperation the Military Departments Agenciesand industry work in unison reduce duplication effort addressing opportunities. All were facing same pressure change.> Methods: The JG-APP began methodology validation with selection of seven pilot sites having multi-service, multi-program manufacturing processes. Participating in the initiatives are McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, Texas Instruments-Defense Group, Hughes Missile Systems, Boeing Defense Systems, and General Electric Aircraft Engines. The methodology consists of 16 steps: identify players, list potential contractors, determine interest in the program, develop teaming agreements, identify target chemical/processes, identify alternatives, down-select alternatives, define Joint Test Protocol, implement JTP elements, formulate contractor implementation plan, conduct pilot tasks and estimate funding requirements, develop a business strategy, conduct and pay for validation testing, analyze data and implement, report on validation process, use report to create a Concept Paper for SPI (Acquisition Reform initiatives), and assure continuous process improvement. Products developed using JG-APP methodology are made available for use by government and industry. The tenant of the joint service partnership with industry is quite simple: there are no proprietary interests with respect to pollution prevention opportunities once an agreement is reached regarding the qualifications of alternatives. Technology transfer throughout Government and industry, even among competitors, is accomplished in this manner (also see http://www.jgapp.com).

Results (Current Status and Benefits): JG-APP has seen big successes in 1996. Using the JG-APP methodology, Texas Instruments (TI) was the first pilot site to achieve a Block Change (April) through the SPI phase. This success at TI reduces annual VOC emissions by 40-80%, or 2,880 fewer pounds of VOCs, 3,000 fewer pounds of waste solvent and paint, and 300 fewer gallons of paint thinner; and at McDonnell Douglas, a cost avoidance of $6.25M from the reduction in the duplication of alternative qualification testing has been realized. As of April 1996, the initiative has documented a total of $12M in cost avoidance in qualification testing and alternative implementation. At the other pilot sites, JG-APP is seeing alternative testing to substitute various hazardous materials used in various systems. At Boeing, the emphasis is on replacing chrome, nickel, and cadmium. Unlike the other pilot sites, Boeing is focusing on pollution prevention across its entire industrial base and not just the immediate contractor site (Seattle in this case). At General Electric, where they have facilitated the Propulsion Environmental Working Group (includes Pratt & Whitney, Allison, Williams, Allied Signal, et al power plant manufacturers), the use of lead as a dry-film lubricant for jet engines is being explored. At Pratt & Whitney, chromated primer replacements were chosen for study. At Lockheed Martin, three pollution prevention opportunities were selected: replacement of zinc chromate primers; reduction of high VOC topcoats; and elimination of ink stenciling. The first two are being leveraged at two other pilot sites, TI and Hughes. At Hughes, the tests focus on eliminating chromium as used in conversion coating. At TI, low/no VOC primers and topcoats to replace high VOC counterparts is the emphasis. McDonnell Douglas is testing chromate primers used on the aircraft exterior surfaces. The testing at McDonnell Douglas will extend over two years, to include lab and field phases. In contrast, when field testing is not required, the total test period may be concluded in as few as four months.

Overall Costs: The JG-APP Advisory Board (JPPAB) has invested approximately 3.4 man years into the pilot phase of the initiative during 1995 and 1996, plus $1.885 million for engineering and technical support provided by the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence, and approximately $200,000 over two years for temporary duty assignment expenses (travel, per diem, etc.). The service and contractor participants, together, spent an average $275-300,000 per site to test the various alternatives.

JG-APP Organization: Representatives from each of the services plus Defense Contract Management Command (DCMC). JG-APP principal/JPPAB counterpart (below).

USAF: BG Clyde M. Bolton Jr, Chairman JG-APP
Robert Hill, Chairman JPPAB
USA: MG Roy E. Beauchamp
Luis Garcia-Baco
USN: RADM L.F. Schriefer
David Asiello
USMC: MG Williams
George Georgeadis
DCMC: MG Robert W. Drewes
A. Ken Siler

Point of Contact

Debra Rodriguez
P.O. Box 482; Dept 2V
Forth Worth, Texas 76101
Phone:(817) 280-8729
Fax: (817) 280-3604