Watervliet Arsenal Newsletter for October 2016

U.S. Army Watervl iet ArsenalOctober 2016

SALVO

Page 2 Salvo Oct. 31, 2016

The Arsenal Salvo is an authorized monthly publication for members of the Department of Defense. Contents of the Salvo are not necessarily the official views of, or an endorsement by the U.S. Government, the Depart-ment of Defense, the Department of the Army, or the Watervliet Arsenal. News may be submitted for publication by sending articles to Public Affairs Officer, 1 Buffington Street, Bldg. 10, Watervliet, NY 12189, or stop by office #102, Bldg. 10, Watervliet Arsenal. The editor may also be reached at (518) 266-5055 or by e-mail: [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit all information submitted for publication.

Commander, Col. Joseph R. MorrowPublic Affairs Officer, John B. SnyderEditor, John B. SnyderPhotographer: John B. Snyder Arsenal Facebook Page @https://www.facebook.com/WatervlietArsenal?ref=hl

Colonel Joseph R. Morrow

Commander’s Corner

As I looked at the proposed list of community events for my first year in command, one common theme jumped out from the more than 50 events that we, as the Watervliet Arsenal, have scheduled to participate in … nine out of 10 events involve Veterans.

Given our 203 years of supporting Veterans, and the fact that more than 40 percent of the arsenal’s workforce are Veterans, our support to so many Veterans-related events should not come as a surprise to any of you.

But what may be a surprise, because it was to me, too, is that many of our larger community events are supported by just a select few from the arsenal workforce. And, from I understand, many of those select few are for the most part the same participants year after year after year.

Because I truly believe in the value of community service, it is my hope to expand the wealth, so to speak, and see if we can generate more interest for community involvement. Supporting our community and our military is not only the right thing for us to do as an Army command, it should also be the right thing to do as individuals.

Having deployed five times to such operational deployments as Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation Iraqi Freedom; and Operation

Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, I enjoy my time off as much as anyone here. And so, I truly understand if

you cannot march with us this Veterans Day due to your own balancing act between work, family, and your support to the community. Nevertheless, if you have yet to participate with us in any community events during your tenure here, please add at least one event to your calendar in the next year.

Finally, please do not believe for a second that because I focused my article this month on community support that I am not proud of what you do here. Whether you are a Veteran or not, every one of you is supporting the efforts of thousands of men and women who are serving today in harm’s way in such places as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. You truly make a difference on whether or not a serviceman or woman safely comes home from battle.

I am very proud to be your commander and thank you on behalf of all servicemen and women for the great work that you do. And due to your value to our Army and nation, please plan now for the impending adverse winter weather, keeping in mind that safety awareness and preparedness does not start and end at the arsenal gate. You are too valuable to the arsenal mission, as well as to your family, to be sidelined even for one day.

mailto:[email protected]


Story continues on page 4, “New Logo”

By John B. Snyder

Rebranding is never easy, especially when you are

203 years old The Watervliet Arsenal this month made public its efforts to rebrand the 203-year-old Army manufacturing center by launching a new logo and the accompanying tagline, “Building on Excellence. Forging the Future.” This is the first strategic rebranding of the arsenal’s logo in about 100 years and is part of a broader business development strategy that is under revision.

The purpose of this rebranding effort is to remake the arsenal’s image more contemporary and professional in today’s business world, said Col. Joseph R. Morrow, the arsenal commander.

This was a bold, quick move by Morrow who doesn’t have time to waste as his tenure here will only be for two years, whereas, the last two commanders had the luxury of three-year commands to move the arsenal in a new direction. Morrow took command in July 2016.

Earlier in the month, arsenal employees got a taste of this rebranding effort when they walked into a town hall meeting here and were quickly jettisoned from the early 1900s-era to the future as Morrow unveiled the new logo — what the Army calls a crest — and new tagline.

Nevertheless, some workers here have spent a lifetime under the former crest that proudly displayed 1800s-era crossed cannons, cannonball, and red verbiage. And so, it should not have been a surprise to anyone if they saw employees’ body language shifting faster than the changing identity of their beloved arsenal.

There is no doubt that it will take time for some to get used to the new crest, no matter how dramatic the rollout of the new identity was. After all, every arsenal product, from business cards to parade banners to safety signs, had the historical crest proudly displayed throughout their entire careers and throughout every inch of the arsenal.

The tagline, however, did not seem to tweak the emotions of the workforce as much because the tagline has changed every couple of years as commanders come and gone. Just a few years ago, the arsenal touted itself as “The premier cannon manufacturer of the country.” This statement didn’t seem to excite anyone inside or outside of the arsenal fence line and so, there were no tears when that tagline went away.


New Logo Cont.

With the new logo and tagline, a new business development strategy will be better supported, Morrow said.

The arsenal is not alone in its rebranding efforts as changing culture and identity of a large business is not only a fact of life, it is critical to the long-term survival of a company.

The same week that Morrow rolled out the new crest and tagline to the workforce, so did the largest life insurer in the United States — MetLife. Sadly, Snoopy and the rest of his Peanuts gang have been retired after proudly serving MetLife for more than 30 years.

According to the company’s website, “To adapt to our changing world, we are re-thinking how we do business. We are moving away from a traditional product-development model to one driven by customer insights,” said Steven A. Kandarian, chairman, president and chief executive officer of MetLife, Inc. “Our new brand reflects our company’s transformation and differentiates us in the marketplace, ultimately driving greater value for our customers and shareholders.”

This information regarding MetLife is not meant to be an endorsement of the company, but as an example that even large corporations who are industry leaders, such as MetLife, must continually assess its standing in the industry and then reposition itself for the future.

And, that is Morrow’s intent.

According to Morrow, the tagline and crest are bridges to something else. In essence, they are not unconnected products that stand on their own merit. They are part of a larger rebranding strategy to better position the arsenal for the future.

And, in an era of declining and uncertain defense budgets, the fact that much of this rebranding effort is funded by the arsenal’s higher headquarters, the Army Materiel Command, helps make the case that the time for

change is now.

“We were fortunate to leverage an ongoing contract with a commercial marketing and communications company by the name of Janson Communications that was already assisting the Army Materiel Command with a rebranding effort of their own,” said Joseph Turcotte, the arsenal’s deputy commander. “At no cost to us, Janson completed a thorough marketing research of our brand, as well as our current market, and then proposed a new brand strategy that would have broader appeal to defense and commercial manufacturing markets.”

Nevertheless, during the planning sessions with Janson there was one thing the arsenal would not compromise on and that was any departure from the arsenal’s rich history

to the Army’s Ordnance Corps, Turcotte said.

“We were uncomfortable with any suggestion that sought to rebrand

the arsenal as a commercial company, breaking away from our Army and ordnance

legacy,” Turcotte said. “So, we steered them (Janson) toward modernizing our 1800s-era looking crest, but keeping our rich, historical lineage in the new look.”

In tandem with the arrival of a new crest and tagline,

Morrow and Turcotte led a series of business development strategy sessions this month with about 25 of the arsenal’s key leaders and staff members to better define

the capabilities and capacity of the arsenal. The purpose of this effort, which is not yet complete, is to develop new metrics that will not only help guide the arsenal through its current mission of providing readiness to the joint military forces, but also to position the arsenal for future missions.

“I don’t want you to build a Field of Dreams,” Morrow said to key leaders and staff. “I want you to help me better understand who we are today and what we can become tomorrow so that we can operationally meet the Army Materiel Command’s commander’s priority of providing readiness to our troops.”

And so, the crest and tagline are mutually supporting actions of a broader strategy that is currently under development by the arsenal’s leadership. As the strategy matures, so too will be the repositioning of the arsenal for continued success in an ever changing defense and commercial manufacturing environment.

Arsenal receives $2.7m contract to improve capability of main battle tanks


By John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 6, “120mm”

Photo by John B. Snyder

Arsenal General Foreman Scott Huber checking out the 120mm breech block assembly line in early October. The arsenal received a contract valued at $2.7 million to manufacture nearly 450 modified breech blocks for the Abrams tank system.

The arsenal announced today that it has received a $2.7 million contract from the U.S. Army to upgrade several hundred Abrams main battle tanks with a modified breech block. This order will add to the more than $60 million in new contracts the arsenal had received earlier this year, which for the most part, will be work performed in fiscal years 2017 through 2019, said Tom Pond, the arsenal’s director of operations. Each fiscal year begins on October 1. Pond said that anytime the arsenal receives a

multimillion dollar contract is good news, but this order was exceptionally good news as it was not part of the production plan for future years and adds more than 9,200 hours of direct labor. Adam Ford, the project manager for this order, said the contract requires the arsenal to modify nearly 450 tank breech blocks with an Ammunition Data Link and to begin delivery of the breech blocks to Soldiers in the field by April 2017. The last


120mm Cont.

shipment is scheduled for January 2019. Scott Huber, the general foreman of the team that will work on this order, said the more than 9,000 hours of direct labor will help provide consistency to his workload in future fiscal years. “Although the modification will not require any significant machining challenges, it will provide consistent long-term work for my production team,” Huber said. “Fortunately for us and for the Army, we have been manufacturing the Abrams breech blocks for more than 30 years and so, this modification will not be difficult.” Huber said that the arsenal is currently in production of new tank breech blocks, as well as modifying existing breech blocks for the Army under previous orders. The upgrade to the Abrams tanks is the result of great research and design work done by the

Army’s Benét Laboratories, which is located on the Watervliet Arsenal. Benét helped design an Ammunition Data Link for the Abrams tank that will provide the tank crew the ability to fire the Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) and M829A4 Advanced Kinetic Energy (AKE) rounds. This ADL is an electronic signal pathway from the fire control processor to a chambered programmable tank round. The portion of the pathway designed by Benét Laboratories carries the signal from turret signal network to the rear face of the chambered round. The Watervliet Arsenal is an Army-owned-and-operated manufacturing facility and is the oldest, continuously active arsenal in the United States having begun operations during the War of 1812. It celebrated its 200th anniversary on July 14, 2013.

Photos by John B. Snyder

Clockwise from top right: 120mm tank tube awaiting its next machining operation; 120mm breach blocks being readied for their first ma-chining operation; pallets of new parts, to include 120mm breech blocks, had just arrived in early October and are awaiting movement to their first machining operation

Arse-nal,

family Since 2009, the arsenal has highlighted individuals who were identified by their peers and superiors as a Face of Strength. Nevertheless, there has been one person who has eluded such distinction despite the efforts by many. For many years, the arsenal leadership has tried to highlight the exceptional talent and sense of duty of Benét Laboratories’ Michael Gully. But Michael wouldn’t have anything to do with any special, albeit well deserved, attention placed on him. And so, the spotlight shined elsewhere. But as some began preparation for this year’s Veterans Day Parade, a planning process that Michael had been a part of since the arsenal got back into the parade business in 2009, something was missing. It was Michael. Michael started working at Benét more than 32 years ago after graduating from the Hudson Valley Community College and during his tenure he became a subject matter expert in the research and design of just about every large caliber gun mount and recoil system, said Michael Soja, operations officer with Benét. “Michael’s impact to the Army went beyond simply making weapon systems safer, he also designed weapons to be more Soldier friendly,” Soja said. “Many of the programs he worked on remain today in Soldiers’ hands and will remain so for generations.” Fellow mechanical engineers and lifelong friends, Anthony Cannone, Robert Durocher, and Nicholas Morrell echoed Soja’s comments. “He led by example,” Cannone said. “No one has had

a better work ethic or was a better trainer than Michael.” Morrell added, “It didn’t matter if he was tying flies for trout fishing or drafting blueprints for a gun mount, Michael approached every task

with a sense of perfection that required planning to the smallest detail.”

Durocher said that above all else, Michael was a family guy.

He truly loved spending time not only with his family, but also with the Benét family,” Durocher said. “We would often see Michael working a community event side-by-side with his family. And, there wasn’t an arsenal community event, from community parades to arsenal open houses, that he was not part of.” In regards to his support to the arsenal’s community engagement

efforts, there may be no one here more passionate to tell the arsenal and Army story to the community than Michael. John Snyder, the arsenal’s public affairs officer, recalled that one day several years ago, he needed to drop off some signs onto a parade float that had been completed the day prior. As he was placing the signs on the float, he heard a noise on the other side of the trailer.

Cautiously, Snyder walked around the trailer and there was Michael sitting on a five-gallon bucket spraying Armor All on the tires so

that the tires would look better for the parade. Through the years, it has often been a challenge to

One who led by exampleArsenal Face of Strength

“Michael Gully”


Story continues on page 8, “Michael”


Michael Cont.encourage the workforce to come in on their day off to support our community efforts. But not for Michael. Even though he often had community events to support in his hometown of Lansingburgh, the arsenal could always count on him to open the product display lab so that drivers could remove a float prior to a parade. Once the parade was complete, he would often greet the returning float driver with a smile and ask how things went. On occasion, Michael would bring his daughter, Sarah, in to the arsenal to help build the parade floats after duty hours. Michael said it was important for him to teach Sarah the value of community service and she seemed to thrive in learning this simple life lesson. In fact, Sarah was just as proud as her father when the floats were completed. She would pose by the floats as if to say, “Look at what we just did.” Michael was not one for posing and any photos of him were taken when he was too busy to hide. In preparation for the Memorial Day parade last May, Michael was once again instrumental in the building of the floats. The fact that Michael was helping was nothing new, but what was different was that he was very ill. To anyone who wasn’t aware of Michael’s illness, after seeing him build parade floats over a two-day period they would have never thought that he was sick. For the previous 18 months, Michael had been fighting

a rare blood disease and to see him building floats was truly an inspiration to all who witnessed his act of love for the arsenal. After the parade, Michael was back helping to disassemble the floats. Seeing how effortlessly Michael moved cannons and cranes made many believe that Michael would be supporting arsenal community events for years to come. On June 8, one week after the last float had been put away, Michael was working with Durocher on a gun mount. Michael spent all day looking for parts so that the gun mount could be shipped out for testing. After a solid day at work, Michael went home and cut the grass in his yard. He died later that evening at age 51. Now, if you thought the story ended there, you would be wrong. This Veterans Day, Michael will march with the arsenal in the City of Albany’s Veterans Day parade. A large photo of him will be part of the arsenal float as it passes through downtown Albany in front of thousands of spectators. Sometimes personal recognition is not only for the individual, but also for those who are close to them. In Michael’s case, countless numbers of people in the community and at the arsenal have been touched by his positive spirit and by his joy in helping others. Although Michael may have cringed by being highlighted in this article, it is the right thing to do, for him and for all who knew him. Finally, Michael Gully is the arsenal’s Face of Strength for this month. Well deserved, albeit late!

Photos by John B. Snyder


By Heather Durr

SHARPEN UP FOR CHILDREN’S SAFETY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES TO AVOID

Cook Children’s Health Care (Fort Worth, Texas) System Website featured the article “7 dangerous Apps that parents need to know." Here is some information on the 7 Apps that parents may not be aware of – but could be dangerous to their children.

1. SeekingArrangement.com - This site and supporting apps are available on GooglePlay for An-droid devices as well as iTunes for all iOS devices. SeekingArrangement identifies itself as a “sugar daddy dating app."

2. Yik Yak – This app is one of the most dangerous. It allows users to post text-only “Yaks,” or messages, of up to 200 characters. The messages have no filter and can be viewed by the 500 Yak-kers who are closest to the person who wrote the Yak, as determined by GPS tracking. Users are exposed to – and contributing to – sexually explicit content, abusive language, and personal attacks so severe that schools are starting to block the App on their Wi-Fi.

3. Ask.fm – This app allows users to ask a specific person anonymous questions. Users can an-swer these questions and posts them to their personal page, truly leaving nothing to the imagination. This is especially dangerous because it allows any user to target a specific person anonymously.

4. Kik Messenger – This is a private messenger app and is coveted by those under 18 for a num-ber of reasons. The app allows kids to send private messages that their parents can’t see. This app also allows users to identify themselves by a made up user name, posing the dangers of anonymity.

5. Omegle – This app has been around since 2008, with video chat added in 2009. When you use Omegle you do not identify yourself through the service – chat participants are only identified as “You” and “Stranger;” the app’s slogan is “Talk to Strangers!”

6. Whisper – This is a meeting app that encourages users to post secrets. You post anonymously, but it displays the area you are posting from. You can search for users posting within a mile from you. You are also able to communicate with users who post secrets.

7. After School – This app is a message board that students can join by scanning their school I.D. or Facebook profile. While the scanning feature provides some security from outside users, once in the app, the user is anonymous. However, this app effortlessly creates drama and conflict among us-ers because they all attend the same school.

The Article also notes that the GPS on cell phones can be disabled through the device settings.

Read the full Article at: http://www.checkupnewsroom.com/7-dangerous-apps-that-parents-need-to-know-about/ - let’s keep our children safe!


Arsenal Upcoming Events

Veterans Day Parade: Friday, November 11, 10:30 a.m., at Central Avenue and Partridge Streets, Albany

VA Medical Center Visit: Wednesday, November 16, at 12:30 p.m.

Thanksgiving: Thursday, 24 November

TACOM Command Inspection: 28 November to 2 December

Christmas: Sunday, 25 December...Federal holiday on 26 December

Year End FY16 Lean Six Sigma Financial Tracker

3.2 MillionGoal : 2.8M

114%

Lean Return of Investment


Albany County Veterans’ Day ParadeFriday, 11 November

10:30 a.m.You have a chance to join us this November as we honor our Nation’s Veterans by marching in this year’s Albany County Veterans’ Day Parade. In addition to two Arsenal/Benét Labs floats, we plan to field several of our emergency service vehicles and several historic military vehicles from the Hudson-Mohawk Military Vehicle Club.

So, please gather your family members and march with us as we pay proper recognition to our Veterans, as well as to showcase the arsenal to the community. If you have any questions, give John Snyder a call @ 266-5055.

SAVE THE DATE

Nov. 11, 2016

Veterans Day Parade


A few years ago, the Continuous Improvement Office was looking for a good Lean Six Sigma slogan. Some of us in the office and a few from the shops (with a creative mindset) submitted dozens of candidate slogans. We had “Team Lean 2013” (it rhymes!) and “Continuous Pro-cess Improvement – Lean Six Sigma” contained in an upward pointing arrow (very clever!).

But the winner, selected by the boss (and, coincidentally, developed by the boss) is pictured above. It’s an ambitious slogan written in the font used by Lexus.

That’s a good one. It is the fifth key principle of Lean (1. Define VALUE from the Customer’s perspective, 2. Depict the VALUE STREAM to make waste visible, 3. Create FLOW throughout the process, 4. Create PULL based on the Customer’s requirements and, finally, relentlessly pursue PERFECTION through continuous improvement). And Lexus is owned by Toyota whose Toyota Production System was one of the first manufacturing systems described as Lean in the book “Lean Thinking”. Synchronicity!

But, please look again at the slogan artwork. We very nearly had hundreds of items printed with this artwork. And there is an “L” missing. We looked at it many, many times and never noticed.

In my psychology classes, they called it “expectation”. You expect the item to be correct so your brain refuses to believe what is right in front of your eyes.

This is especially true if you are doing work and checking it yourself. You expect that you have done it correctly and it does not matter what your eyes see. “Why, I just did this myself so it can’t possibly be wrong!” So says your (untrustworthy) brain. You would swear that no words were misspelled or that the micrometer read right on the money.

A cardinal sin in Lean is to pass a defect on to the next operation. Lean has some strategies to help you like mistake-proofing and, simply, setting up your process to make it right the first time, every time (yes, easy to say, hard to do…but achievable). A last resort is having some-one else check your work. But never pass on a defect.

But it also helps to know that no one is perfect. Least of all me and you.

Cool Slogan!

LEAN Corner...By Mark Ripley

First responders from Green Island and Cohoes crawled through smoke that billowed out the windows on the first floor of a five-story building in Colonie earlier this month, while a team of arsenal first responders searched the second floor of the building for survivors of a fire that was quickly spreading.

Within minutes, the fire was extinguished and one survivor was brought safely out of the building.

That was one of the scenarios that arsenal Fire Chief John Whipple and his team completed at the Colonie Fire Training Tower on October 19.

“We have an annual training requirement for every arsenal firefighter to go through fire attack, search and rescue, and thermal imaging training,” Whipple said. “And, the Colonie fire tower is the only location in the area for us to train these lifesaving skills in a realistic environment.”

Because of the unique design of the tower, community firefighters have the ability to work a wide variety of tasks, from communications to moving through a smoke-filled structure, Whipple said. Outside of an actual structure fire, this is the best training opportunity for arsenal firefighters.

Although the arsenal had coordinated for the use of the tower, Whipple said he wanted to share the wealth of the training with fellow first response teams from the community.

“We not only want to build a great relationship with community firefighters, we have to have a great relationship in order to save lives and property,” Whipple said. “The time to learn about each other is not in the midst of a fire and so, these combined training events provide us opportunities to improve our mutual support skills.”

Arsenal Assistant Fire Chief Kenneth Haviland added that beyond improving individual and team firefighting skills, there is another benefit to training with outside first response teams.

“Although hard to measure, the sense of confidence that we gain through these mutually-supported exercises is essential when responding to an emergency,” Haviland said. “Because I have worked and trained with every local fire department, I know that when a firefighter from the community shows up that I can put them side-by-side with one of my own firefighters. My confidence is that high of their skills.”

When it comes to fighting fires, the arsenal believes in sharing the wealth...training


By John B. Snyder


First Responder Training

Business

Watervliet Arsenal Newsletter for October 2016