SALVOU.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal

March 2016

S to r y on Pa ge 3

Public-Private Partner

"Electralloy"is about to heat things

up here

Tracy Rudolph, president and chief operations officer, and Col. Lee H. Schiller Jr.

Page 2 Salvo March 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: john.b.snyder.civ@mail.mil. The editor reserves the right to edit all information submitted for publication.

Commander, Col. Lee H. Schiller Jr.Public Affairs Officer, John B. SnyderEditor, John B. SnyderPhotographer: John B. Snyder Arsenal Facebook Page @https://www.facebook.com/WatervlietArsenal?ref=hlCover photo by: John B. Snyder

ColonelLee H. Schiller Jr.

CommandingManufacturer 6

Commander’s Corner

Just about everyone here, travels past our fire de-partment every week. For many here, they probably do not think twice about the firefighters who often work 48 or 72-hour shifts to ensure that our work en-vironment is safe. Nevertheless, this group of quiet professionals has a significant effect on the quality of our work environment.

If you would take a moment to think about the awesome responsibility that this group of firefighters have here, you would be simply amazed at what this small team achieves every day. Seventy-two build-ings, many of which house in-dustrial operations, and about 1,200 workers are the immedi-ate concern of every firefighter.

But when they aren’t con-ducting personal training, CPR training for the workforce, or working with building fire marshals, they are responding to calls for assistance. Last year alone, this team responded to more than 400 calls for assistance from on and off post. Despite the tremendous capability this team offers

us and the community, I am proud to tell you that we are about to make this team stronger. We have fund-ing to increase the size and therefore, the capability of our fire station.

Although these changes will not happen overnight, I don’t want you to wait before you get too excited about our firefighting force. They strive to not only improve their in-dividual skills, they also want to improve their value to the Arsenal. Challenge them by asking them to provide you or your team instruction on CPR, basic lifesaving, fire extin-guisher training, or anything else you can think of that will challenge them.

Finally, as good as this team is, they can’t protect the entire Arsenal without your support. Everyone here is a

safety officer. You are the firefighters’ eyes and ears throughout the Arsenal. If you see something, say something, even if you are not 100 percent certain of the situation.

Page 3 Salvo March 31, 2016

Story continues on page 4, “P3”

By John B. Snyder

Forge Operator Matthew Briscoe picking up a heated 155mm tube from an Electralloy furnace. From there, Briscoe loaded the tube into the rotary forge for further processing. What is new is that Electralloy's furnaces were recently approved for 155mm howitzer systems, both self-propelled and towed howitzer systems. Electralloy has three furnaces located here.

Photo by John B. Snyder

Arsenal turns to its partner,Electralloy, to reduce costs,

improve capacity

The Watervliet Arsenal announced this month that heat furnaces owned by the Arsenal’s public-private partner, Electralloy, have been approved by the U.S. Army for military cannon manufacturing.

“What this means is that after significant testing we have learned that we can now use Electralloy’s furnaces to support our cannon production for the 155mm self-propelled and towed howitzer systems,” said Joseph Turcotte, the Watervliet Arsenal’s deputy commander. “The tests went so well that we believe we will be able to decrease our forge production time by nearly 25 percent, while using low-cost natural gas to heat the furnaces, both of which will significantly reduce the cost of production for those two weapon systems.”

In the past two years, Electralloy has invested millions of dollars to install three state-of-the-art

furnaces here, as well as upgrading other forge-area operations, said Tracy Rudolph, the president and chief operating officer of Electralloy.

Through this public-private partnership or P3, which was renewed in 2015 for a 20-year period, Electralloy uses the Arsenal’s workforce, as well as the facility’s rotary forge, to produce high-temperature alloys such as nickel, stainless, and Nitronic® grades for a variety of demanding end-use applications. Additionally, Electralloy and the Arsenal were certified by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) in 2015 to produce stainless steel forgings for marine applications.

Rudolph added that the relationship his company has with the Arsenal has gone far beyond the original agreement.

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P3 Cont.

“This partnership, which is rich in interpersonal relations, has grown far beyond my expectations that I had four years ago when I first made contact with the Arsenal,” Rudolph said. “Because of the great, positive working environment here, we have been able to grow our capacity by nearly 70 percent in just two years.”

Turcotte said he is so pleased with the results of the recent tests that he is challenging his team to test other production line requirements, such as the 120mm Abrams Tank gun, and the 105mm tubes used for the Stryker main gun systems and AC-130 gunships.

The Arsenal and Electralloy have been working to-gether since 2013 in a public-private partnership.

As intended, the partnership between Watervliet and Electralloy is proving to be beneficial to both parties. Electralloy has been able to make investments in and utilize the Arsenal’s forge equipment, while the Arse-nal has been able to retain critical forging skills in an era of declining defense requirements. Now with the approved furnace use, the Arsenal will also be able to lower the cost of operations.

The volume of forging work that Electralloy has generated since partnering with Watervliet has in large part allowed the Arsenal to hire 25 full-time employees who are now well-versed in forging operations.

This Watervliet Arsenal effort reinforces recent statements by Acting Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy in regards to creating more synergy with pub-lic-private partners to save money in an era of declining budgets.

"Public-private partnerships truly have a practical value ... (they) will make our Army more efficient, in-vesting fewer dollars to accomplish the same outcomes. We want to make every dollar count," Murphy said on March 17 to members of the military and industry who attended the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Ala.

Today's Arsenal is relied upon by U.S. and foreign militaries to produce the most advanced, high-tech, high-powered weaponry for cannon, howitzer, and mortar systems. This National Historic Registered Landmark had $138 million in revenue in fiscal year 2015 and has an annual economic benefit to the local community in excess of $100 million.

Electralloy — G.O. Carlson Inc. company — is a producer of custom and specialized alloy tubular and bar products that are used in critical, sea-worthy ap-plications, such as the advanced Coast Guard Cutter, aerospace, nuclear, and for Department of Defense ap-plications.

Helmut Schartlmueller, right, was one of the original workers from Austria who installed the Arsenal's rotary forge in the 1970s. He said that he has been working on forges for more than 42 years and truly loves these machines. When asked how long the Arsenal's rotary forge may continue to work, he smiled and said that he continues to support a forge in Pittsburgh that has been in operation for more than 66 years. Although he has since retired from the original manufacturer of the Arsenal's forge, he said that he has moved to the United States and continues to service several forges throughout this country as a freelancer. With Schartlmueller this month, is Dean Hartman, left, an electronic industrial controls mechanic, and William Root, a production machinery mechanic.

Photo by John B. Snyder

Page 5 Salvo March 31, 2016

By John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 6, “Crane”

Crane Operator Antonio Lipari, top, is working with Machinist Bill Sheldon to move a 120mm tube to another machining operation. Despite a continuous pressure to make delivery dates, when it comes to moving tubes safely, there is not rush.

Photo by John B. Snyder

Military manufacturing is tough, grueling business as heavy forging machines pound materiel into shape and milling machines shave hardened metal in cuts that are often measured in the thousandths of an inch.

But overhead that cauldron of activity on the pro-duction floors is a balancing act that would rival the Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. Because that’s where one would find the Arsenal’s crane operators.

Every day, hundreds of large tubes for tank and field artillery systems are moved or stored on one of the Watervliet Arsenal’s production floors. And when the tubes are moved, it becomes marriage, if you will, as machinists and crane operators become one as they rig slings and connect hook devices onto tubes ... tubes that sometimes seem to have a life of their own

once they are lifted.

According to Dave O’Rourke, the Arsenal’s senior crane operator whose steady nerves were proven in the jungles of Vietnam where he served as a Marine, there is never a sense of comfort when slinging and moving a cannon or howitzer tube.

“I have been a crane operator for 15 years and there has not been a day when thoughts of runaway cranes or dropped loads do not cross my mind,” O’Rourke said. “In my business, you have to ap-proach each load as if you had never handled that type of load before. Because if you don’t, compla-cency may get someone killed.”

A balancing act that would rival the best

acts in Vegas

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Crane Cont.

Left Photo: Crane Operator Charles Moody, top , preparing to move an Electralloy tube that has just come out of the rotary forge. Right Photo: Crane Operator Jesus Guerra showing that not all movement of tubes comes from cranes.

Photos by John B. Snyder

Fellow crane operator, Jesus Guerra, echoed O’Rourke’s concerns as he recalled his last 18 months here as a crane operator.

“When it comes to moving a load, it doesn’t matter how much experience the machinist on the floor has because it is up to us, as crane operators, to ensure the load is moved safely,” Guerra said. “As cranes and tubes react differently, you can’t fall into a false sense of security that what we did yesterday will work to-day.”

George Pusins, a manufacturing center supervisor who oversees the crane operation, said that the safe movement of tubes, which are often valued in excess of $100,000, is an awesome responsibility not only due to the cost of the tubes, but also due to the cost of an injury or loss of life.

“My five-man team safely handle tens of millions of dollars of product every year,” Pusins said. “But

what I am most proud of is that my team does what they do with an acute sense of the importance of pro-tecting every worker here.”

To watch the crane operators in action is like watching a battle drill in a brigade tactical opera-tions center. When a light turns on above a machine, which signals a machinist is complete with a machin-ing operation and the tube is ready to be moved to the next machine or location, crane operators immedi-ately drop what they are doing, climb the ladders, and put the crane in motion.

In those short moments before a tube is moved, the crane operator ensures the work area is free of hazards, the floor along the route is free from tripping hazards, the load is safely secured and balanced, and that experienced personnel involved in the transfer, transition to a role of safety officers, regardless of their position. It simply becomes a marriage — of safe, fluid actions.

Page 7 Salvo March 31, 2016

Arsenal Firefighters

An occupation where one needs to have the best day of their life,

every day

By John B. Snyder

Being an Arsenal Firefighter means working in an environment where there are no second chances

Story continues on page 8, “Fire"

Photo by John B. Snyder

Despite their well-known reputation for community service, firefighters typically do not come face-to-face with the public until tragedy strikes. Nevertheless, this sense of inevitability of tragedy is what the Ar-senal’s firefighters say challenges them to be better tomorrow than they are today.

“For the most part, thousands of people drive by our firehouse every week and probably don’t give us a second thought,” said John Whipple, the Arsenal’s fire chief. “And so, it usually is not until they are having the worst day in their lives, when we come face-to-face with an employee or a member of the commu-nity.”

Whipple explained that in a time of crisis, the Ar-

senal’s firefighters need to have the best day of their lives. At first thought, that statement may sound in-sensitive, but what Whipple means is that all of his firefighters’ hours of training, years of experience, and classroom study must come together at the right time and place to mitigate the pain and suffering someone is experiencing.

Although the Arsenal’s firefighters have few emer-gencies that they respond to here, their lives are far from a life in Sleepy Hollow. Every day they train and when they aren’t training, they are usually responding to a mutual aid call off post. In fiscal year 2015, the Arsenal firefighters responded to nearly 200 calls for support from outside of the Arsenal fence line.

Fire Chief John Whipple

Page 8 Salvo March 31, 2016

Fire Cont.

Fire Captain Tim Cuilla said that when the alarm goes off in the firehouse the sense of tragedy that may await them not only raises their adrenaline level, it also motivates them to seek a higher level of per-formance from the last call that they responded to.

According to Cuilla, there is sig-nificant value to responding to mutual aid calls off post that transcend the immediate value to a resident or busi-ness owner.

“There is a tremendous training benefit to every call, even if the call is canceled en route,” Cuilla said. “As soon as the call arrives, we go into a battle drill preparing equipment, recalling past experiences and then visualizing the lessons learned on the current situ-ation, planning our actions, and communicating our availability and capability to outside organizations.”

This type of battle drill would be the same process whether or not the call is canceled, Cuilla said. Each year, the Arsenal firefighters respond to more than 400 on- and off-post calls.

But as much as the Arsenal firefighters are inte-grated into the community, they believe they are some-what different than a local community firefighter. Not better, just different.

This is not to take anything away from local first responders, because they do a wonderful job protect-ing the community and supporting the Arsenal when it needs assistance, but due to the nature of the Arsenal’s mission and therefore, its infrastructure, it is important to be different.

“Because we do not have the daily call volume as community first responders, we have time to focus more on prevention versus response,” said Firefighter Rob Sowle. “From managing a fire marshal program

to conducting CPR training, a lot of our time is inter-acting with the workforce prior to an emergency in hopes that it will make us safer.”

The other difference, or what Sowle calls an ad-vantage, is that due to the heavy focus on prevention, his team has the luxury of inspecting every building, which provides Arsenal firefighters with a very good understanding of how each building is laid out.

Cuilla added, “Community firefighters cannot visit everyone’s home in advance to map exits and to identify safety challenges that might preclude a rapid response. We can here and there isn’t an Arsenal fire-fighter that doesn’t know the layout of every one of the 72 buildings here.”

Whipple said he is very pleased with the quality and professionalism of his small force. Every one of his firefighters are Emergency Medical Technician or EMT certified and most have more than 10-years’ ex-perience as a firefighter. But what he is most pleased with is something that is hard to measure.

“Not to overuse a former Army tagline, but my team truly believes in being all that they can be,” Whipple said. “And that motivates them to train hard every day, to be better today than they were yesterday. Better tomorrow than they are today.”

From left, firefighters Jason Moore, Rob Horn, and Matthew Kolodzie demonstrate three of the types of uniforms that they may need to use when responding to an emergency call.

Photo by John B. Snyder

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LEAN Corner...By Karen Heiser

Process Capability, or…..

Ever wonder how so many clowns fit into a seemingly regular car? There’s no hole in the bottom of the car or a trap door to a hidden room. That would be too easy. But it’s a little more scientific than using sheer force to cram as many of your friends as possible into a Ford Focus. According to Greg DeSanto, Executive Director of the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center, a clown car is fully functional.

“We remove all of the interior,” explains DeSanto, “including the door panels and the headliner, and paint the windows except for a small slot for the driver to see through. The driver sits on a milk crate. We remove any in-terior barrier to the trunk, and we beef up the springs so that the car doesn’t seem to be riding on its bump stops. Then it’s a matter of shoving in the clowns.”

Let’s say an average clown is five-feet eight inches tall and weighs 158 pounds. Each clown occupies about three-cubic feet, assuming a 15-inch width and five-inch thickness.

The passenger volume of a 2011 Ford Focus sedan is 93.4 cubic feet, and the trunk capacity is 13.8 cubic feet. After removal of the seats and the interior panels let’s call it 120 cubic feet of clown space. Theoretically, about 40 clowns should fit into a Focus. Basic math – 120 cubic feet of car/3 cubic feet per clown. There are other variables because capability is more than just capacity….the clowns need to breathe, carry props and move enough to get out of the car. If you’re really interested check out http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-physics-of-clown-cars-feature. Too many clowns or just a couple of bigger clowns, or a stuffed giraffe you hadn’t planned for, and the whole formula’s off. So, to achieve your planned capability of 40 clowns in a Focus you must reduce or eliminate variability.

The same logic applies to the number of cars that fit in a parking lot. It’s not just the total square feet of the sur-face divided by the average square feet the four wheels need. The square foot allotment per car includes open-ing doors and maneuvering in and out of a space. Variation – like trucks with trailers or expensive cars parked diagonally - reduces the accuracy of your lot capability plan.

In manufacturing, process capability is a predictor of how reliably a process can produce good products. Pro-duction schedules plan delivery based on this calculated capability. Not surprisingly, defects and variation that interrupt flow make a process unstable and unpredictable.

The lesson here (yes there is one) is that for any process to have a predictable capability you must reduce or eliminate variability. Variability can come from defects, bad raw material, different ways of running the job….many sources. Variability is often under-appreciated and causes many, perhaps most, manufacturing difficulties.

Page 10 Salvo March 31, 2016

Looking for Something? Searching in SharePoint in 2 Easy Steps: Did you know that SharePoint has a helpful search feature built in that allows you to find documents that contain a search term in the title as well as in the document itself?

The search bar is located on the upper-right side in SharePoint. To use it, simply enter your search term and either hit “Enter” or click the small magnifying glass. SharePoint will search for your term in the file name / title as well as the text in a document.

A new page will open displaying all objects on that page that contain the search term in either the title or the document. The results are similar to what you would see in a Google search and should be familiar and easy to navigate. Note that on the left-side you can filter the result type by file type, site, author and date; this is useful when searching the entire site.

If you have any questions about this or other SharePoint features please contact 266-4000

1

2

Access SharePoint by double-clicking the icon on your Desktop titled “WVA SharePoint” – or by entering https://tacom.aep.army.mil/sites/watervliet/ in your internet browser’s address bar. When prompted, select your e-mail certificate to gain access to the WVA SharePoint. You can access the sample below by hovering over “WVA Documents” in the top navigation and clicking “Controlled Documents”.

Page 11 Salvo March 31, 2016

CPR: Where learning to do something, anything saves lives

By John B. Snyder

We are a nation of shoppers. If anyone has any doubt, all they need to do is visit a local mall on Black Friday and see the long lines of shoppers fighting over heavily discounted items. The Watervliet Arsenal workforce resembles the nation in that when some-thing is — “let’s say “free” —there is a rush to track down that pre-cious commodity that is being offered. That was evident earlier this month when the Arse-nal’s fire department offered a free cardio-pulmonary resuscita-tion or CPR course to about 20 members of the workforce. The class was oversubscribed. Arsenal Fire Lieuten-ant Donald Haberski is the lead instructor for the course, which he has been providing to the Arsenal workforce every two months for the last 18 months. The course, which he calls “Save a Life Instruction,” keeps growing. Not only in interest by the workforce, but also by the size of the subject mat-ter. Haberski explained that in addition to adult CPR training, he has expanded the course to include train-ing on infants and children. And what was once train-ing just for the Arsenal’s security force and summer camp counselors is now being offered to the 1,300 people who work here.

Given that those 1,300 folks work somewhere on the Arsenal’s 143-acre footprint and in one of its 72

buildings, Haberski is a man on a mission trying to get people certified in CPR in every build-

ing and office. After all, in the first minute or so of someone collapsing and their breathing

stops, it is critical that CPR is started to increase the odds of that person surviving. By the time it takes for the

Fire Department to receive a call and dispatch an ambulance, precious minutes of lifesaving may have been squandered if there was no one there to apply imme-diate aid. “The key is to do something, any-thing,” Haberski said. “Certainly call-ing 911 is a great first step, but after that call, CPR must be started im-mediately, even by someone who is untrained.”

Just last month in Washington, a 12-year-old boy saved his fa-ther’s life by perform-ing what the EMTs called “bystander

CPR.” The boy and his father were moving their household goods from one house to another when his father collapsed and stopped breathing. He had a heart attack. Without any CPR training, the boy, despite being very scared, still had the calmness to remember that he had a cell phone on him. He called 911. The emer-

Story continues on page 12, “CPR"

gency service dispatcher who answered the call told the boy that he could cry later but for now, he needed to act and follow instruc-tions. The boy performed CPR on his father until paramedics arrived, which was about five minutes after his father collapsed. As the paramedics set up a breathing tube, the father’s pulse came back and he took his first breath on his own since he collapsed. Although CPR was given by someone un-trained and by a child, a life was saved that day. The thought of saving lives is also what urged many into this month’s CPR class. “I took a CPR course about five years ago when I started teaching a motorcycle safety course because I wanted to be prepared just in case something happened when I was teach-ing,” said Colin McCarthy, a fourth-year ap-prentice. “I was surprised at how much the CPR process had changed over the years. But with the new certification, I believe that I am better prepared to help others.” McCarthy added that he wished more people would get CPR certified, just in case something ever happened to him. Matthew Day, an Arsenal visual informa-tion specialist, said he took the course so that he could help others. Earlier this year, Day arrived at a car-accident site. Instead of being a “looky lou,” he got out of his car and helped the injured. “I came away that day with a feeling that I wanted to do more to help others,” Day said. “I plan to become a volunteer firefighter in my community and I thought that having CPR train-ing would help me become a better firefighter.” Haberski said that he has trained more than 160 people in the last 18 months, which is a little over 10 percent of the total workforce at the Arsenal. But he has seen the interest in the CPR training significantly grow in recent months and expects the numbers to dramatically grow in the future. Nevertheless, he shouldn’t have to make too hard of a sell because who could not justify spending a few short hours of their time that may one day save someone’s life. And did we say the course is “free.”

CPR Cont.Page 12 Salvo March 31, 2016

Photos by John B. Snyder

Page 13 Salvo March 31, 2016

Come watch the Arsenal commander as he attempts to hit the ice with the puck