Shipbuilder wins award for tool that saves money and muscle

The new tool has automated a job once done by workers using heavy hand-held drills that caused wrist injuries and fatigue. (Northrop Grumman Newport News)

By jon w. Glass
The Virginian-Pilot

NEWPORT NEWS - A multi function machine developed by Northrop Grumman Newport News to reduce costs and worker injuries on aircraft carrier overhauls is gaining attention outside the shipyard.

The new tool has automated a job once done by workers using heavy hand-held drills that caused wrist injuries and fatigue.

It has earned the shipbuilder an "Ergo Excellence" award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, a Norcross, Ga.-based professional society formed to promote improvements in quality and productivity.

Northrop Grumman was one of five companies worldwide tapped this year for one of the awards, which recognize companies that find innovative and cost-saving ways to improve the work environment - a field known as ergonomics.

"There's no physical requirement, except pushing a button" to turn on the machine, said Ed Elliott Jr., a member of the shipbuilder's team that helped develop it. "We gathered a group of individuals, from mechanics all the way to upper management, to determine what we needed to be successful."

Shipyard managers discovered problems about six years ago during the overhaul of the carrier Nimitz, he said. Workers were suffering wrist injuries while boring holes with hand-held drills to realign the carrier's four catapult troughs - steel structures used to launch fighter jets from the flight deck.

"These are 30- to 40-pound drill machines, and we're talking about drilling thousands of holes here, day after day," said Elliott, a general foreman in trades management.

Workers began using the new tool during the past year on the carrier Carl Vinson's overhaul. It has streamlined several tasks involved in maintaining a flattop's catapults and eliminated the old air-powered hand drills.

Company officials say the new process has resulted in savings of $649,500 per ship and helped drive down yard injuries by 25 percent. "As far as I know, nobody has been hurt using this machine," Elliott said.

The machine is 5 feet wide, 7 feet long and 6 feet high. It can tap a hole in the steel catapults in about 30 seconds, compared with about 14 minutes by hand.

The shipbuilder collaborated with NCG Inc., a Hampton tool and die manufacturer, to design and build the machine.

"It's a step in the right direction to reduce costs and injuries," Elliott said. "We're very proud of this."

Other award winners were Boeing Co., General Electric Canada, GE-Universal Orlando and Bridgestone/United Steelworkers.