The naval shipyards are in the process of installing a system for identifying and recording specific job-related skills in their industrial workforce. The system, called the Shipyard Skills Tracking System (SSTS), is intended initially to support middle-level management in allocating their workforce properly for critical tasks and in accurately factoring personnel availability and training requirements into the planning for upcoming work. SSTS is supported by sophisticated computer programs which are integrated into other shipyard administrative programs. Data entry, ever the bugaboo of large-scale tracking programs, is minimized by using data links to other job-related programs for most of the information. The programs have been successfully field-tested at one naval shipyard and, starting in November 1989, began undergoing phased installation at all eight government yards. Discussion John D. Prebula, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard This paper is an excellent overview of how shipyards will track qualifications, skills, skill level, and other data needed to assign work. The SSTS is a good example of what can happen when appropriate technology is used to satisfy similar needs at a number of naval shipyards. The naval shipyards had a problem where they knew a great deal about the training and qualifications of individuals but had poor means of retrieving the information on their skill level. Attempts in the past to document and retain the information on skill levels and experience were generally unsuccessful because of the large amount of information and the continuing changes in the information. The SSTS successfully linked new microcomputer technology and training information in the shipyard main-frame computer. This allows information to be maintained currently and easily without the large duplication of effort that had been necessary in the past. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard's supervisors are looking forward to full implementation of the SSTS and believe that if properly implemented it will be of benefit to the shipyard. Mr. Hartigan does an excellent job of listing and explaining the important features of the SSTS and uses the example of a new supervisor trying to provide someone for a "tiger team" effort. While such a system is definitely a benefit to new supervisors it is also a great benefit to supervisors who have been on the job and know the people rather well. An experienced supervisor who is familiar with his people is still not likely to know such things as:who has passports, the currency of medical exams, the currency of inoculations, and, the other things necessary to be checked out before someone can be sent overseas or to a specific shipyard job. When the workforce is composed of a large number of temporary or more transient workers (as shipyards are being asked to become), the importance of a system to track skills becomes more important than ever. The SSTS, as the author explains so well, is not just another system of tracking qualifications. Rather, it marries together qualifications, skills, skill levels, some select training, medical qualifications and selected attributes such as the possession of a passport. This database is updated for training and qualification whenever the shipyard's mainframe is updated for these trainings and qualifications. The SSTS is manually updated for the specific attributes and skills. It was the marrying of the microcomputer technology to the shipyard's main-frame computer that allowed such a system to come into existence without the need for the purchase of additional computer equipment. As planned, the shipyard's SSTS system will be applicable to the production department workers for all ships in the shipyard and will be applied to selected engineering and inspection codes. One significant item in the paper is the mention that not only are the skills and experience reported and tracked, but the degree of expertise in each of these skills is also tracked. Mr. Hartigan uses the words "accomplished a battery replacement successfully." This allows the shipyard not only to track who has performed specific skills or tasks, but to know at what level they are capable of performing. This is done by a tie between the timekeeping system and the SSTS, allowing the supervisors to annotate the skill level when an individual has done a specific skill by entering the appropriate coding on the timekeeping sheet. This timekeeping entry also provides direct input into the SSTS.
An Era of Appropriate Technology: Evolutions, Oversights and Opportunities
