Mabus Vows Competitive Shipyards on Visit to Maine
“This is my first trip outside of Washington. I’ve been on the job a month tomorrow, and this is a great way to start,” said former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus, as he took a morning tour of the Bath Iron Works, accompanied by U.S. Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, and Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.
Less than a month after defense secretary Robert Gates paid a visit to the mid-coast shipyard – a unit of General Dynamics – Mabus reaffirmed his department’s commitment to BIW’s role in the nation’s ship-building program.
Tbe BIW workforce, he says, impressed him with its ability to work efficiently. “I want to brag on the workers here – I got to to talk to some of them – and the drive here to lower cost, to take the number of hours down that it takes to make one these incredibly complex ships. America needs these ships, the Navy needs these ships.”
“Secretary Mabus was able to see today the innovation and the efficiency of the cost reductions,” said Sen. Snowe, citing some statistics that point to BIW’s cost-cutting efforts she says led to “increasing the DDG-51 efficiency costs by 34% over the last 13 ships, reducing the man-hours from 6 million to 4 million.”
Before speaking to the press, Mabus, who also served as the U.S. Ambassdor to Saudi Arabia in the mid-90s, went aboard the Wayne E. Meyer, a DDG-51, Arleigh Burke-class destroyer which has just completed sea trials and is due to go operational this fall.
MPBN
6/15/9
Magnolia Tribune
