newsletter from the army's oldest operating arsenal - may 2017

SALVOU.S. Army Watervl iet Arsenal - Since 1813

May 2017

Story on Page 3

Modernizing processes from the last century,

one increment at a time

Salvo May 31, 2017

The Arsenal Salvo is an authorized monthly publication for members of the Department of Defense. Contents of the Salvo are not necessar-ily the official views of, or an endorsement by the U.S. Government, the Department 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 pub-lication.

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=hlCover Photo: Arsenal historical files

Colonel Joseph R. MorrowCommander’s Corner

Given that U.S. military operations are today rarely front page news, there are some who question why the military is still manufacturing or procuring weapon systems for our troops.

But the fact is, there are more than 21,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in support of combat op-erations in such areas as Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Syria who not only need, they also deserve the very best equipment. And that is where the Watervliet Arsenal comes in.

After major combat operations ended in Iraq in 2010, and the subsequent impact in 2013 of Se-questration, the requirements for Arsenal products started a multi-year decline. But that decline would be short-lived.

Something magical happened in 2016, and I’m not talking about my taking command of the Arsenal. Congressional funding started to flow again and when it did, weapon program managers became more confident to fund readiness needs.

By the time fiscal year 2017 hit, orders to support U.S. troops continued to increase, as well as orders to support allied foreign militaries. Just in the first six months of this fiscal year, we have hit our annu-al projected targets for future workload. And, there are several more, large orders on the horizon.

So, let me thank you (Arsenal workforce) before

production starts on several of these new orders be-cause I know that many of you are putting in long hours developing schedules, tooling, and contracts. I know that it is not an easy task to synchronize and integrate all the required actions, but I have confi-dence that you will do it right and when you do, you will shape our future operational environment for success.

For those of you who supported our Memorial Day Parade efforts, thank you very much for honoring our nation’s fallen servicemen and women. I know a lot of work went into the coordination and the building of our parade contingent. I also appreciate all those who gave up an hour or two of their time by marching with the Arsenal.

Our production and direct support elements will shut down 24 -28 July to allow for vacations, as well as for much needed maintenance of our equipment. For those of you who plan to take a vacation, let me remind you that your safety awareness and actions don’t stop at the Arsenal gate. I want you to have fun, but do not take any unnecessary risks because I need you, and so does your family.

Salvo May 31, 2017

Story continues on page 4, “Work”

By John B. Snyder

Machinist Supervisor Henry Tanner, left, getting an update from Apprentice Derrell Barefield on the production floors this month. Barefield is using a "traveler" document to explain where he is in the machining process for a 155-millimeter howitzer tube.

Photo by John B. Snyder

One year later, where do we stand on logistics modernization?

When the Arsenal went “live” in May 2016 with a new logistics program, 40 years of managing 11 inde-pendent manufacturing platforms migrated into one centralized process called the Logistics Modernization Program Increment 2. Scott Shadle, the Arsenal’s chief of the Business Transformation team that has the responsibility for bringing LMP on line, said at the time that the trans-formation would be difficult. “We knew it would be difficult to replace a 40-year-old system,” Shadle said. “And the difficulty would not lie so much with trying to change the cul-ture of several generations of Arsenal workers, but in the retention of knowledge.” The first increment of LMP, which was implement-ed here in 2010, helped shape the environment for Increment 2, Shadle said. With LMP Increment 2, ev-

erything from managing special tooling for produc-tion to tracking the maintenance status of machines to identifying shortfalls in raw material inventory began to be tied into one logistics system. Shadle explained that his main concern last year was trying to ensure that hundreds of workers on the production floors, quality control inspection sta-tions, and in production planning and control shops retained the LMP training that they had previ-ously received. For some workers, it may have been months between the dates they received training to the date of implementation. So, here it is 12 months later and the question is: Has the second increment of LMP worked? “The launch of LMP 2 had a few challenges, but

Salvo May 31, 2017

Work Cont.

One of the initiatives coming out of LMP Increment 2 is to digi-tize "travelers" so that machinists will not need to do a pen and ink entry onto a voluminous package of papers that follow every product.

As can be imagined in a manufacturing center, travelers were prone to oil and grease stains, tears, illegible entries, and were sometimes misplaced.

In the howitzer tubes to the left, paper "travelers" are seen in the breech end of the tubes.


the Business Transformation team moved out of their offices and onto the production floors during the early months to solve problems as they arose,” said Jordan Selin, a production controller for Business Transformation. “In fact, the workforce implement-ed LMP 2 so well that we were able to launch a new process earlier this year called ‘digital travelers.’” Until this year, travelers were hard-copy docu-ments that tracked every operation, from machining to quality control, on every product and became part of a gun records book, Selin said. As can be imag-ined in a manufacturing center, travelers were prone to oil and grease stains, tears, illegible entries, and were sometimes misplaced. But, according to Alex Gardner, an industrial en-gineer who works with Selin on the Business Trans-formation team, all those ills with travelers were cured with the digital traveler. “We are way ahead of schedule in incorporating LMP 2 into the Arsenal and so, the team decided to take LMP to the next level by automating the travel-ers,” Gardner said. “At any given moment, there are roughly 3,000 travelers that are open, and in a mat-ter of two months, we have digitized about 1,600 of those and believe that all travelers will be digitized by this December.” In addition to curing the ills previously men-

tioned, Selin explained that there are other advan-tages to digitizing documents that go into gun record books for every product. “By inputting all machining data, to include the machinists’ remarks, we will create a common operational picture for each product or a machine,” Selin said. “If a foreman or even the director of op-erations wants to see the current status of a product line, he or she could simply open up the data file on their computer and get real-time information. No longer will they need to send an expediter or a run-ner down to the production building to find out what the status is.” Additional advantages to digitizing machin-ing data is that this historical record could then be reviewed by agencies that provide government oversight, as well as by those who conduct forensic analysis for weapon-related incidents in the field, Selin said. Instead of taking months requesting such information and pulling the data together, those who have access to the gun record books could retrieve that information in a matter of minutes. Although digitizing the travelers is a great initial effort to enhance the benefits of LMP 2, it is only a first step, Gardner said. Within the next two years, every document in a gun records book will be digi-tized.

Salvo May 31, 2017

By John B. Snyder

Not wars! A revolution helped save the Arsenal

The Army’s last remaining cannon manufacture has a great history of rising and then falling in stature after every military conflict since the War of 1812. But inter-estingly, it was not the wars at home or those overseas that have safeguarded the Watervliet Arsenal’s 203 years of continuous operation — it was a revolution. When people think about revolutions, they might visualize images of the fighting in the American or the French Revolutions in the late 1700s. But after the American Civil War, there was another type of revolu-tion. And unlike the death and destruction of a typical revolution, this revolution actually saved lives and im-proved the quality of life of every American. A few years after the American Civil War, America entered into what was then called the Great Depression, only to be followed by another Great Depression in the 1930s. As with any depression, there were significant world-wide economic challenges and extreme shortages of

basic goods, except for one area — there were no short-ages of tinkerers, designers, and discovers who led what would become known as the Second Industrial Revolu-tion. During this revolution, which many say ran from the 1870s to the start of World War I, significant scien-tific discoveries that would effect the lives of everyday Americans were brought out of dusty research labs and into businesses and homes. One such discovery, gener-ating power from magnetic grids, allowed manufactur-ing centers to move toward mass production by power-ing machine tools with a phenomenon called electricity. With electricity, manufacturers could move away from machines powered by animals, water, and steam. Dur-ing this same time, a new invention called the incandes-

Story continues on page 6, “Save”

Salvo May 31, 2017

Save Cont.

cent light bulb would provide consistent, safe lighting to manufacturing production floors and offices. The Revolution also drove growth in the field of metallurgy, which greatly benefited the Arsenal, too. G. Peter O’hara, a retired Army mechanical engi-neer from the Arsenal, said that advancements in met-allurgy in the 1870s allowed for the mass production of a hardened allow called steel. Steel had an immediate effect on the quality of life of every American as it allowed for a massive expan-sion of railway systems by replacing iron rails, which were easily damaged and could not withstand the weight of larger locomotives, with cheaper, stronger steel. This tech-nology allowed for the rapid mi-gration of people and products throughout the country and is still in use today. O’Hara added the Revolution’s advancement in metallurgy also drove significant advancements in weapons technol-ogy. “As nations began to mechanize their defense in-dustrial base after the American Civil War, advance-ments in weapons technology was just a logical expan-sion of the science of the time,” O’Hara said. “Four key advancements made in large caliber production led to the transformation of the Watervliet Arsenal from a maker of saddles to a maker of cannons.” First, the “ball” projectile was replaced by a more aerodynamic spherical munition. This new round, when combined with an inner-bore technology called “rifling,” greatly increased the range and accuracy of artillery and naval-gun systems, O’Hara said. The third new technology involved replacing cast-iron guns with steel guns, which improved the durability and accuracy of the gun tubes. And finally, the intro-duction of breech loading greatly reduced reloading time, while improving the safety of artillerymen.

By the early 1880s, the United States was becom-ing a world super power, but it lacked the ability to produce large modern cannon guns for its army and navy. The bottom line is that U.S. weapon systems of that period were overmatched by foreign militaries. “Oceans had once provided a barrier against for-eign armies, albeit not impregnable, for centuries,” O’Hara said. “Nevertheless, by the 1880s, foreign militaries had amassed large naval platforms that could deliver devastating fires onto coastal communi-ties from a large standoff distance.” Given that U.S. harbor fortifications were sadly inadequate, President Glover Cleveland appointed a Board on Fortifications or Other Defenses, also known as the Endicott Board, to determine the best locations

to manufacture cannon, siege, and seacoast guns. The president and Congress agreed to fund the startup of two cannon manufac-turing centers. One for the Navy at the Washing-ton Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., and one for the Army at Watervliet, N.Y. And so, with

the relocation of several machines from the Watertown Arsenal and about $700,000 from Congress in 1887, the Arsenal began the transformation from a maker of saddles to a maker of cannons in what has become known here as the “Big Gun Shop.” By 1890, the Arsenal had produced its first large caliber gun, an 8-inch cannon. By 1893, the Arsenal was manufacturing 8-, 10-, and 12-inch guns and mor-tar systems. By 1902, the Arsenal manufactured its first 16-inch cannon. In the years that followed, the Big Gun Shop grew from the original 166 feet in length to approximately 1,300 feet by World War I. Some of the gun systems manufactured in this building included 8-, 10-, and 12-inch guns; 12-inch breech loaded mortars; 12- and 14-inch coast defense guns; and 16-inch guns for coast defense and for battleships.

First 16-inch gun getting ready to be placed on a barge in 1902. Photo from Arsenal Files

Salvo May 31, 2017

Story continues on page 8, "Boxes”


By John B. Snyder

Even the boxes here must be rigorously inspected

Former Arsenal toolmaker James Hamilton, right, explaining to his students how he once used the cutter grinder during his 23 years here. Hamilton is now a professor at the Hudson Valley Community College.

Is there or should there be any limitations on the number of quality control checks in the manufactur-ing process for weapon systems that will end up in the hands of U.S. troops? The obvious answer is no, but most people probably would be surprised at how thorough the quality assurance process gets at the Army’s last arsenal for cannon manufacturing. The Watervliet Arsenal’s quality assurance opera-tions often begin before the raw stock materiel that will eventually be machined into a part for a tank, howitzer, or mortar arrives here, said William Bry-ant, the Arsenal’s chief of quality control. Quite of-ten, the Arsenal will send an inspector to a vendor’s site to verify the quality of the materiel before they ship it to the Arsenal. Regardless of whether or not there is a pre-

inspection at the vendor’s site, the Arsenal’s incom-ing inspection team will examine every product that arrives to ensure that the product achieves the high standards as directed by a technical data package. And, if the raw materiel is going to support a new product line or came from a new vendor, the incoming inspection team will conduct a 100-percent inspection, called a First Article Inspection, of the piece. If anyone followed a product as it left the incom-ing inspection site and through the Arsenal’s produc-tion bays, they would see literally hundreds of quality control inspections made by machinists, quality con-

Photos by John B. SnyderFrom left: Michael Dworakowski, the senior wood worker, and coworker Patrick O’Brien manufacture about 1,000 boxes a year for such products as 120-millimeter mortar tubes, mortar baseplates, howitzer muzzle brakes, and cannon breech blocks.

Salvo May 31, 2017

Boxes Cont.

International Standards For Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM 15) is an International Phytosanitary Measure developed by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) that directly addresses the need to treat wood materials of a thickness greater than 6mm, used to ship products between countries. Its main purpose is to prevent the international transport and spread of disease and insects that could negatively affect plants or ecosystems. ISPM 15 affects all wood packaging material (pallets, crates, dunnages, etc.) requiring that they be debarked and then heat treated or fumigated with methyl bromide and stamped or branded, with a mark of compliance. Source: Wikipedia.

trol inspectors, and from the Arsenal’s government oversight team before the product even makes it to packaging for shipment. Even when the product is prepared for shipment, the Arsenal’s quality inspections continue. In a nondescript corner of the Arsenal there is a two-man wood-shop operation that is tasked with making boxes in which products will be placed for ship-ment. Accord-ing to Michael Dworakowski, the senior wood worker, he and coworker Pat-rick O’Brien manufacture about 1,000 boxes a year for such products as 120-millimeter mortar tubes, mortar baseplates, howitzer muzzle brakes, and can-non breech blocks. “This is a high-volume operation where priori-ties can change at any given moment,” Dworakowski said. “We typically get about a month’s heads up on what our future production requirements will be, but due to the nature of military readiness, our priorities may change if there is an urgent requirement made on behalf of our troops.” This flexibility to meet the needs of the Soldiers is one of the main reasons why the Arsenal still retains a box shop operation, said Tim Allard, the division chief of the Arsenal’s manufacturing support divi-sion. “At one time, we used to manufacture the pack-aging for every product, but through the years, we

found it more economical to have an outside vendor make the larger boxes,” Allard said. “However, we did not want to give up our flexibility to respond to the urgent needs of our troops and so, we retained the box operation for minor components.” Nevertheless, even this small team of carpenters, who prepare minor components for shipment, is not relieved of oversight by a quality control inspector or from international standards. Fred Campbell, a quality control inspector, said

that he visits the box shop almost daily to ensure that every box is built to standard. “What these wood workers do is very important to the Arsenal’s quality control,” Campbell said. “If they (wood workers) do not mark the boxes correctly, the product may not arrive where it is needed. Ad-ditionally, if the products aren’t packaged correct-ly or the boxes made to standard, hundreds of hours

of manufacturing operations, as well as tens of thou-sands of dollars, may be wasted if the products arrive damaged.” In addition to the tough inspection process con-ducted by Campbell and his team, every container must also meet export standards developed by the International Plant Protection Convention to ensure that all wood has been treated to prevent the trans-port and spread of disease and insects. Given that some of the Arsenal’s products were recently shipped to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, it is understandable that quality control, from incoming inspection to final packaging, is one of the main rea-sons why the Watervliet Arsenal is still in operation after 203 years.

Salvo May 31, 2017

By John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 10, "Pfeil”

From Vietnam to Afghanistan, more than a half century of

service comes to an end

This month, the Arsenal bid a fond farewell to its longest serving employee, Robert “Bob” Pfeil, who after 51 years of continuous service to the Army retired.

To put Bob’s service into perspec-tive, his military career began as an industrial engineer at the Picatinny Arsenal in 1966. Which, as many have now calculated, is before most workers here were born.

Just pause for a moment and think about all that has happened since Bob donned a tie and reported in for work earning $3.51 an hour. In 1966, the number of U.S. troops serving in the Vietnam War had gone from about 180,000 in 1965 to ap-proximately 385,000 by 1966. And since then, the U.S. has landed a man on the moon; 10 U.S. presi-dents have served or are currently serving; the country’s number one threat, the Soviet Union, has dis-solved with the ending of the Cold War; and the country has fought in two Gulf Wars.

At the end of combat operation in Vietnam in 1973, Picatinny Arsenal re-organized. As part of this right-sizing effort, Bob was forced to choose be-tween working at the Rock Island Ar-senal or the Watervliet Arsenal.

So, he loaded up his wife and two young daugh-ters and moved to Clifton Park, N.Y., and began the next 44 years of service here.

The 1970s were marked noticeably by a great national concern with the Soviet Union’s effort to modernize its forces, Bob said. As a result, the Arsenal put a lot of emphasis into

mobilization planning, to which Bob, as an industrial engineer, was part of this

newly formed team.

One key finding of this team was that after nearly 10 years of support-ing combat operations in Vietnam, much of the Arsenal’s machinery had fallen into obsolescence or into disrepair. The capability and the ca-pacity of manufacturing here, as was determined by Bob’s team, could not keep up with any effort to mobilize

during a threat to the nation’s secu-rity. The Arsenal had to modernize or become irrelevant.

Bob then became part of the team to modernize and in 1978, the first $20 million was allocated by Con-gress for Project REARM (Renova-tion of Armament Manufacturing).

Over the course of the next eight years, Bob and his team oversaw

Salvo May 31, 2017

Pfeil Cont.

more than $300 million invested to modernize the Arsenal. Bob said that one of the first investments made was into a new technology called “comput-ers.”

During the First Gulf War in 1991, the Arsenal achieved worldwide acclaim as it, along with the Army's Benét Laboratories, developed the Bunker Buster Bomb that many claimed had ended the war. But success on the battlefield does not necessarily equal to success at the Arsenal. The Arsenal would go through nine reduc-tions in force or RIFs over a 10-year period because there was a widely held belief that there would nev-er be another war like the First Gulf War.

“I saw the In-dustrial Readiness Division go from 17 personnel down to 4 by the time I received my first RIF notice in

1998,” Bob said. “I went from an industrial engineer with a Master’s Degree to supervising the Arsenal’s Community Services.”

In 2000, Bob was served again with another RIF notice and thanks to him having the advance degree, he was offered the job as the Arsenal’s assistant mu-seum curator. He held that job until 2008, when he finally became the museum curator and held that po-sition until the museum closed in 2014. Since 2014,

Bob has worked for the Arsenal’s Quality Systems and Continu-ous Improvement Of-fice.

By the time this Article is read, Bob would have partici-pated in his last com-munity parade as an Arsenal employee and will have driven out the gate one last time taking nearly 100,000 hours of Ar-senal operations ex-perience with him.

Left: Museum Curator Robert Pfeil standing by an exhibit in the Arsenal's museum in 2011.Right: Robert Pfeil standing by the same exhibit on the left after the Army Center of Military History started removing artifacts in 2013.


Arsenal Commander Col. Joseph Morrow congratulating Robert Pfeil earlier this month with a 50-year retirement letter from Maj. Gen. Clark LeMasters.

Photo by William Martin

Salvo May 31, 2017

By Heather Durr

SHARP Skills: Sexual Harassment and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Sexual Harassment isn’t just a mean thing to do, it’s prohibited under Federal Laws. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) prohibits workplace discrimination and enforces several Equal Opportunity Laws.

According to the EEOC website: https://www/eeoc/gov, Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII applies to employ-ers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to em-ployment agencies and to labor organizations, as well as to the federal government. The EEOC defines Sexual Harassment as:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical con-duct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work perfor-mance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

• The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.

• The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.

• The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.

• Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.

• The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

Prevention is the best tool to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace. The Watervliet Arsenal is taking this issue very seriously by training supervisors and employees on the need to avoid all unprofessional behavior and report violations to management. Employees can also report Sexual Harassment incidences to the WVA Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC), Heather Durr at 266-4021. The WVA Sexual Assault hotline is 266-3699.

Salvo May 31, 2017

Lean Corner by Kyle Buono

Customer Value Added (CVA) vs. Non-Value Added (NVA)What does value mean? How do you identify activities that add value and those that do not add value?

Value can be defined as something a customer is willing to pay to receive. If a customer is not willing to pay for it, then there is no value. For example, Company A manufactures widgets and offers free 24-7 customer support for widgets. On the other hand, Company B only offers email support for widgets, with a guarantee of getting an answer within 48 hours, and they sell them for 5 percent less. Because of the lower price provided by Company B, Company A is losing several major customers. If this is the complete story, what is most likely the problem?

Company A conducted customer satisfaction research and discovered their customers do not place much value on having 24-7 live support. They prefer the lower price. That places 24-7 customer support in the category of waste. Everything we do either adds value or does not add value to the product or service each company sells. Who determines whether value is being added?

THE CUSTOMER!!In addition, when talking about value added vs. non-value added activities there is a category of required activities on the non-value added side. Required activities are those that must be done, but they do not necessarily add value for either internal or external customers. The most common required activities are those required by law or government regulations.

Non-Value Add (NVA)- Activities which are not required to meet or exceed customer needs and are not required by the business- Non-Value Add activities add waste to the process-Non-Value Add typically include: Handling, Inspecting, Transporting, Moving, Counting, Delaying, Storing, Rework, Multiple Signatures

Non-Value Add Required (NVA-R)

- Activities that allow greater effectiveness or efficiency in a process- Activities that are required by the business but add no real value from a customer standpoint- NVA-R tasks should be questioned and, where possible, minimized or eliminated

Customer Value Add (CVA)- Any step in a process that is essential to deliver a service to the customer- Must be performed to meet customer needs- Adds form or feature to the service- Those tasks that the customer would be willing to pay for if they knew you were doing it

Salvo May 31, 2017

Memorial DayGreen Island

Photos by John B. Snyder

Salvo May 31, 2017

Memorial DayWatervliet

Photos by John B. Snyder

newsletter from the army's oldest operating arsenal - may 2017

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