This post collects my reactions to a 2015 technical report analyzing gaps in Naval shipyard performance. I have way too much fun with Readiness Kill Chain and W=X=Y=Z.

Learning and Error Management (EM) strategies used on a CVN in Refueling Complex Overhaul. EM is a systematic effort to cultivate organizational resilience by learning faster.

Ship overhaul isn’t torture, but poor crew learning can make it feel that way. The “bad apples” approach to error constrains options and effective learning. This post introduces Error Management as a more effective way to learn from errors.

Learning rapidly to improve performance is a superpower in ship overhaul. Crew members will make errors because no one enters a prolonged maintenance period knowing what they need to know. The problem for the crew’s leaders isn’t what they don’t know about learning from error. It’s what they know that isn’t so.

Fifth installment of Undeniable Truths of Overhaul: Errors require corrective action, but don’t be stupid. Corrective actions are stupid when they ignore systemic sources of error, add additional controls, and are unreflective.

This is the fourth installment of Undeniable Truths of Overhaul. In it, I discuss two:

• SY workers do care about the schedule

• High performance is different in overhaul

This is the third installment of Undeniable Truths of warship overhaul. It is better to accept and act on them before the “piano of reality” drops on your head.

This is the explanation of Undeniable Truths of Overhaul 9-12: the crew needs to adapt quickly to the SY, senior leader visits disrupt work, the crew is the weakest link of overhaul, and supervision is the crew’s most limited resource.

This is the first of what will be several posts on the Undeniable Truths of ship overhaul. Ignore them if you will, but they won't ignore YOUl.

This is another post on Navy ship maintenance realities. I restate the fundamentals of Navy ship maintenance (knowing, planning, doing, and testing) and do a deep dive on Class Maintenance Plans.

Navy ship depot maintenance is expensive. The only way to significantly lower repair costs is to do less of it. This isn’t good for long term ship material readiness or budgets. Neither is espousing rubbish about ship repair.