Policy and procedures for security, discipline, accountability, etc., will be detailed in the contract, including security issues for nuclear powered ships/submarines. Once implementation commences, economies of scale will be sought to reduce overall cost.

A funding strategy to resource investment costs has been developed to implement this proposal during FY ’00 and to provide support throughout the FYDP. The investment cost for FY ’00 is $5 million to implement regional contracts in Norfolk and San Diego. An unfunded requirement of $17.6 million for fleetwide implementation exists for FY ’01. NAVSUP will work with CNO N4’s staff to identify sources of funding for FY ’00 and ’01. NAVSUP has requested funding of approximately $17.9 million per year, via a POM issue paper submitted to CNO N4, to resource contractor support in the out years.

Self-Service Serving Lines

Goal: Use self-service serving lines to reduce FSA workload.

Requirement: Funding required for serving line design modifications.

Description: The use of self-service feeding style afloat will reduce FSA workload in support of serving lines by 25 percent. The amount of time a customer waits in the serving line decreases by approximately 75 percent. These savings are realized only during meal times. Self-service feeding style is defined as allowing Sailors to serve themselves from the serving line. Additional hot and cold food serving stations located on the mess decks provide other serving stations and reduce congestion at the main serving line. FSAs restock these stations and ensure proper sanitation is maintained increasing workload in this area; however, savings cited in this study are net of the increased workload. Since workload is reduced only during mealtimes, this proposal does not support reducing on-board manning.

Small ships have limited space for additional serving stations so this style of feeding is primarily recommended for aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships. Although Sailors enjoy the self-service concept with attendant, faster lines and increased variety, the self-service feeding style is a significant departure from the standard feeding paradigm currently in place. The potential exists to exceed the daily food allowance and/or degrade sanitation on the serving line; however, proper education of the crew, coupled with attentive management, has been shown to mitigate these risks.

Benefits: Studies have demonstrated the advantages of self-service feeding style include improved customer satisfaction, labor savings, and a consistently faster throughput of patrons. The amount of time Sailors spend waiting in a traditional serving line on board an aircraft carrier is 15 to 25 minutes. Use of self-service serving lines reduces waiting time by 10 to 20 minutes. Challenges associated with this proposal include required serving line design modifications and, as mentioned above, potential increase in food waste and degraded sanitation.

Implementation: Many ships can support the self-service feeding style after minor design changes. Design modifications on aircraft carriers require raising of countertops on the main serving line and relocating the sneeze shields at a cost of $10,000 per serving line. Plastic dome covers, costing approximately $500 per line, are required for serving pans in order to maintain sanitation standards. The cost to permanently install hot/cold serving stations in the crew mess areas is approximately $35,000. Total cost of design changes on an aircraft carrier is approximately $77,000 and approximately $56,000 for amphibious warfare ships.

NAVSUP will work with CNO N4’s staff to identify $1.3 million in funding for FY ’01 to implement this plan on 40 percent of CVN/L decks. NAVSUP has requested the same amount for FY ’02 to implement an additional 40 percent of these decks and $.6 million in FY ’03 to complete the job.

Pre-Prepaired Individual Dinner Entrees

Goal: Use pre-prepared individual dinner meals in port to reduce workload.

Requirement: Increase availability of pre-prepared dinner meals from food suppliers.

Description: These meals are defined as high quality, brand name "heat and serve" meals that include an entrée and vegetables. A salad bar, fruit bar, soup dispenser and dessert bar supplement these meals. Employment of this feeding strategy during evening meals while in port reduces food service workload by 26 percent while providing an increased variety of menu options and improving nutrition.

While in port, the food service operation prepares evening meals for the duty section and crewmembers that live on board. The typical aircraft carrier feeds 350 to 400 personnel each evening and employs seven mess management specialists (MSs) and eight FSAs. This feeding strategy would cut the numbers to three MSs and four FSAs. A destroyer feeds fewer than 50 crewmembers with two MSs and five FSAs. These numbers can be cut to one each using pre-prepared meals.

Benefits: Studies have demonstrated use of pre-prepared individual dinner meals while in port provide significant labor savings while maintaining or improving variety and customer satisfaction. A typical Navy food service operation afloat commences at 5:30 a.m. and concludes at 7 p.m. Use of pre-prepared individual dinner meals allows management the flexibility to secure part of the food service operation work force at approximately 2 p.m. Workload savings per MS and FSA are approximately five hours per day.

This proposal could allow ships to shift food service personnel into normal shipboard duty sections, expanding the number of duty sections for the entire ship, but it does not support a reduction in authorized billets since full food service production must be resumed while underway.

Challenges include an increase in plastic and metal waste while pier-side.

Implementation: Subsistence prime vendors for CONUS have been provided listings of candidate pre-prepared individual dinner meals and are incorporating these items into the food service catalogs. Routine pier-side deliveries will eliminate concern over limited refrigerated storage space. Prior to entering port, ships will place an order for pre-prepared meals. These items will be delivered to the ship at whatever frequency the ship identifies and will be consumed while in port and discontinued once the ship is underway. Though financial constraints exist, each ship testing this feeding strategy has successfully operated within the allotted BDFA. Some ships have elected to use consumable flatware and dinnerware for the evening meal, resulting in reduced scullery operations. Costs associated with the use of disposable trays, serving dispensers, plates, and cups are estimated to be $0.15 per person per day. Though this cost is approximately $7 for a destroyer and $55 for an aircraft carrier for each day in port, it is offset by some degree by decreased costs in scullery operations.

Reduced Stateroom Cleaning

Goal: Reduce FSA workload.

Requirement: Paradigm shift for maintaining Officers’ Country.

Description: There is no reduction or elimination of workload by transferring stateroom cleaning from junior enlisted FSAs to junior officers (paygrade 04 and below). Though improving QOL and morale for a limited number of FSAs, morale for most junior officers afloat may not be positively impacted. There are no investment costs for this proposal.

Benefits: Reduced workload by transferring stateroom cleaning to junior officers will decrease FSA "drudge" work. FSAs currently cleaning junior officer staterooms could be assigned other functions or be returned to their parent division.

Implementation: Stateroom cleaning includes wiping/cleaning stateroom washbowls, dusting, sweeping/mopping decks, and removing trash by FSAs under the supervision of a senior enlisted MS. Less than one hour per week would be required by each junior officer to clean his or her stateroom. Senior officer staterooms, common heads, and passageways would still be maintained by FSAs. The QOL, workload, and savings impact of this proposal was reviewed for 177 active ships. Submarines, minehunters, minesweepers, and several other small ship types were excluded from this study due to the limited size of their wardrooms.

Approximately 13,100 officers, paygrade 0-4 and below, would be impacted. Implementation requires a policy and paradigm change in Navy.

Low Maintenance Decking

Goal: Reduce deck maintenance work-load afloat.

Requirement: NAVSEA/Type Commanders (TYCOMs) accelerate low maintenance decking installation.

Description: Aggressive installation of this decking material by NAVSEA and TYCOMs could maximize workload savings and improve QOL. NAVSEA is the program manager for decking. TYCOMs prioritize decking installation based upon the ship’s availability schedule and funding. There is no formal plan in place to convert from traditional vinyl tile to low-maintenance decking for the entire fleet. This proposal reinforces what was already surmised, installation of low-maintenance decking is a smart business decision.

Installation of low-maintenance decking in dry spaces will enhance Quality of Life and reduce workload afloat by up to 78 percent (per NAVSEA projections). Workload savings per ship is incremental and does not support reducing on board manning. Low-maintenance decking is defined as any nonwaxing/nonbuffing decking material that is NAVSEA approved for shipboard use. For purposes of this review a comparison of traditional vinyl tile and cosmetic polymeric (commonly referred to as PRC) was made to recently installed Stratica decking. Stratica tile has proven successful in NAVSEA-controlled shipboard testing and reduces workload approximately 66 percent. A total of 37,800 square feet of Stratica decking is currently installed on 10 Navy ships.

Benefits: Deck maintenance - sweeping, swabbing, stripping, and waxing - is one of the most significant workload drivers afloat. Typically, the food service operation is responsible for the largest square footage of decking on a ship. Studies have demonstrated installation of low-maintenance decking such as Stratica provides significant labor savings, increases life expectancy of decking material, and reduces total ownership costs. Swabbing, stripping, waxing, and periodic resealing (required for PRC decking) are eliminated. Life expectancy for Stratica is 10 years, five years for vinyl, and 10 years for PRC (with resealing every six months). Total ownership cost of Stratica decking is 66 percent less than vinyl decking and eight percent less than PRC, over its life span.

Implementation: Availability funds are transferred from resource sponsors, through the chain of command, to TYCOMs who liaison with individual ships for requirements. Commanding officers decide the amount of decking to be replaced and the type of decking to be utilized. Vinyl tile installation cost is $6.25 per square foot. Stratica installation cost is $7 per square foot. Although Stratica decking provides the lowest total ownership cost (66 percent less than vinyl tile over 10 years), many commands elect to install vinyl tile because the initial installation cost of vinyl tile is less than Stratica. Stratica’s overall savings result from reduced workload, however, some commands still view sailor labor as free and elect the vinyl tile in an effort to stretch available funds. Decisions, at the TYCOMs and commanding officer level, to install only labor saving decking materials will improve QOL and reduce afloat workload.

New Galley Equipment

Goal: Reduce food service equipment total ownership cost.

Requirement: NAVSEA/TYCOMs accelerate new galley equipment installation.

Description: Aggressive installation of this equipment by the program executive offices and TYCOMs should be encouraged in order to maximize savings and improve the QOL for Sailors. Workload savings per ship is incremental and does not support reducing on-board manning.

Program executive offices (PEOs) are responsible for funding the installation of this equipment. TYCOMs prioritize equipment installation based upon service life remaining on existing equipment and available funds. There is no formal plan in place to convert from traditional food service equipment to advanced food service equipment for the entire fleet.

Benefits: A complete change out of traditional food service equipment during availabilities could provide workload savings, reduced total ownership cost, and improve the QOL for the MSs and FSAs by reducing workload and providing the newest in cooking technologies. The Sailor also benefits by improved food quality. This study reinforces what was already surmised, that installation of advanced food service equipment is a smart business decision.

Laboratory studies and field tests have demonstrated labor and operational savings derived from use of advanced food service equipment that include: 1) reduced cleaning times, 2) reduced maintenance workload, 3) reduced cooking times, 4) higher cooking yields, and 5) improved product quality. In most cases, the multifunctional nature of the advanced equipment allows replacement of multiple pieces of traditional equipment with a lesser number of pieces of advanced food service equipment.

Implementation: Originally, advanced food service equipment was identified for proof of concept and demonstration testing by NAVSEA’s Affordability Through Commonality (ATC) Program (PMS512). As an RDT&E program now under PEO DD-21, PMS512 identifies technologies and concepts that have cross-Navy applicability and reduce costs. The combination convection oven/steamer, skittle, clamshell griddle, powdered-condiment dispenser and deep fat fryers with integral filtering are examples of this type of equipment. Most pieces of advanced food service equipment have been tested on board surface ships only; however, development is underway of a combination oven that will fit through a submarine hatch for installation. Although some of these pieces of equipment represent a higher acquisition cost, life-cycle savings, based on labor, operations and maintenance costs, result when compared to traditional equipment.

Combination Oven: The "combination" oven can bake with dry heat, cook with steam, or bake with dry heat and steam and can function as two high-pressure steamers with exhaust hood and one standard double convection oven. Additionally, new cooking technology allows most foods that were previously cooked in the deep fat fryer to be oven-baked, creating significant cost savings while improving safety and nutrition. Improved designs of the hatchable combination oven have been placed aboard USS Rentz (FFG 46), USS John C. Stennis, USS Constellation (CV 64), USS Supply (AOE 6), USS Rainier, USS Arctic (AOE 8), USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), USS Vicksburg (CG 69), and USS Decatur (DDG 73).

Combination oven savings include:

• Increased product yield – 30 percent more using standard roast beef test

• Decreased cooking time – 30 percent less using standard roast beef test

• Decreased cleaning time – 50-60 percent less than standard cleaning time (Convection oven: 30 minutes/day cleaning for spills plus two hours/month deep cleaning vs. Combination oven: 15 minutes/day for spills plus one hour/month for deep cleaning)

• Capital investment savings – can replace two high-pressure steamers with exhaust hood and one standard double convection oven

Skittle: The skittle can steam, grill or hold hot food as it functions as a high-pressure steamer, one griddle or one hot holding cabinet. One commercial skittle was installed on board USS Constellation in July 1998 and Natick Laboratory’s anticipated results pertaining to its versatility, ease of cleaning, and efficient cooking were confirmed. Subsequent to initial testing, the skittle has been installed on board USS John C. Stennis and USS Rainier.

Skittle savings include: Capital investment savings – can replace pressure steamers, griddles, and hot holding cabinets, and reduce exhaust hood requirements.

Clamshell Griddle: The clamshell griddle was selected for testing due to its demonstrated speed of cooking as it cooks from top and bottom simultaneously. One six-foot clamshell grill replaces two six-foot standard griddles. One commercial clamshell griddle was installed on board USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) in May 1998 and Natick Laboratory’s anticipated results pertaining to reduced cooking times were confirmed. Subsequent to initial testing, the clamshell griddle has been installed on USS Bridge (AOE 10), USS Rainier, and USS John C. Stennis.

Clamshell griddle savings include:

• Decreased cooking time – 50-70 percent less using a standard meat cooking test (4 oz. hamburger cooking to internal temp of 160 degrees)

• Decreased workload – reduces workload by 50 percent

• Capital investment savings – reduces griddle/exhaust hoods by 50 percent

Testing Underway: Other pieces of equipment undergoing testing include the powdered-condiment dispenser and deep fat fryers with integral filtering system. Shipboard installation and testing is still required to validate anticipated savings and "seaworthiness."

Traditional food service equipment can be replaced incrementally or all at once, depending upon funding and the ship’s availability schedule. In the past, the limited installation of advanced food service equipment was managed by NAVSEA as part of the ATC Program. The current implementation strategy used by some TYCOMs calls for replacement of traditional food service equipment as it nears the end of its service life. OPNAV-N41 is building a team with fleet, NAVSEA and NAVSUP participation to develop an implementation strategy that will ensure design changes are developed for equipment upgrades during platform availabilities.

Engineering Change Proposal 0039 identifies required design changes for Nimitz class CVNs. A SHIPALT on board USS Tarawa was developed in order to install advanced food service equipment as part of the Single Ship Protytype. Preliminary design studies for DDGs and LPD-17 have been performed by various shipyards. New construction ships are being encouraged to incorporate advanced food service equipment into the baseline design.

In Summary

The eight proposals cited above represent the initial set of reengineering initiatives provided for Under Secretary of the Navy review. Approved proposals will be formally announced and will form the cornerstone of our near-term reengineering efforts. Based on the results of business case analyses for the remaining five initiatives to be executed on USS Tarawa, a second group of reengineering proposals may emerge. The bottom line is that Navy Food Service continues to be a dynamic and evolving Quality of Life driver that impacts every Sailor, every day. The cooperative efforts of the fleet, NAVSUP and NAVSEA will continue to move afloat food service forward at a rapid pace.

CDR Frank Lindell is the director of navy food service, providing policy and guidance to over 400 afloat and ashore galleys. A graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School and the University of Rhode Island, his previous afloat tours include Supply Officer, USS Connole (FF 056) and USS Estocin (FFG 15); and stock control officer and services officer aboard USS Wasp (LHD 1). Shore tours include Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Ships Parts Control Center, Mechanicsburg, Pa.; PRECOMMUNIT Wasp, Pascagoula, Miss.; and Executive Officer of Readiness Support Group, Newport, R.I.