Original Date: 05/17/1993
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Employing over 4,000 personnel, the Crane Division-Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) operates as a Defense Business Operations Fund Command and depends on its ability to efficiently and effectively provide essential services and products to customers. The Crane Division is one of six divisions of NSWC which maintains a full spectrum research, development, acquisition, test and evaluation and support capability for surface warfare combat and weapon systems and hull, mechanical, and electrical systems.

The Crane Division is a leader in diverse and highly technical product lines such as microwave devices, acoustic sensors, small arms, microelectronic technology, as well as other products. It is also a leader in providing enhanced methods and technology in production and in-service support of modern naval combat weapons systems.

The Crane Division is typical of many Department of Defense (DOD) facilities that are undergoing dramatic changes through realignment and re-focusing of priorities. This Division has historically been regarded as a key engineering support facility for DoD; management has taken the challenging leadership role to improve its effectiveness and efficiency in support of its myriad of customers. The BMP survey team noted that there are several aspects of the Crane Division that support the potential for it to succeed in this dynamic business environment.

The personnel at the Crane Division exhibited a deep commitment to continuous improvement, customer focus and responsiveness. This commitment was obvious throughout the survey, emphasized by the pride taken in the workmanship and the culturally embedded Total Quality Leadership (TQL). Because of the strong work ethic, personnel were enthusiastic about their work and their involvement in recommending design or process changes to improve the product and increase customer satisfaction. These attributes are considered critical elements in the success of a facility to explore and maintain new market shares.

In addition, the Crane Division has a unique ability to respond to customer needs where other facilities or activities have not been able to accomplish the task. In part, the BMP survey team maintains that this proficiency is due to some unique capabilities Crane possesses. Some of these areas are mainstream, perhaps even ahead of where others in industry are now. This diversity has assisted in reducing risk for Crane and enhance the survivability characteristics during turbulent times within the DOD. However, the Crane Division also recognizes that this diversity can create vertical functional organizations with little horizontal integration. Therefore, this is an emerging area being addressed by all personnel at the Crane Division with strong management support. Crane’s use of business and process reengineering and lean manufacturing principles throughout their identified value streams demonstrates their effort to look across existing organizational boundaries to improve products and processes.

With strong technical capabilities and personnel attributes, the Crane Division of NSWC had many practices that the BMP survey team considered to be among the best in government and industry.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS
The following acronyms were used in this report:

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.