Operation and Maintenance of Hawthorne Army Depot

Business Challenge

Day & Zimmermann has operated Hathorne Army Depot for more than 25 years. This important responsibility means being prepared to react quickly to unforeseen situations. For a munitions depot, an unexpected military surge presents unique challenges that must be addressed quickly and efficiently. Day & Zimmermann has experienced several such surges during our tenure at Hawthorne: 

• During Desert Storm, we shipped nearly 70,000 tons of munitions, most of it during a two-month period, and received nearly 150,000 tons of retrograde, most during a five-month period. To accomplish the Desert Storm mission, we hired and trained 200 munitions handlers for field operations in 30 days. 
• During the Kosovo Event, Hawthorne was the only Army depot to meet their surge requirements, loading nearly 490 containers (750 pound bombs and fins) over nine days (the time the documents were received on station until the containers were shipped off depot).
• During a 2002 holiday shutdown at Hawthorne, Day & Zimmermann shipped more than 1,200 tons of munitions in 117 containers (ahead of schedule).
• In March of 2005, Day & Zimmermann loaded 313 containers with 95,863 K180 mines in 12 days.
• In July of 2007, Day & Zimmermann loaded seven containers of 2,000 pound bombs in eight days.
• In 2008, we loaded 64 containers of 500 pound bombs in eight days.

Our problem/solution procedure follows a linear process that includes evaluating the situation, contacting the appropriate personnel, and establishing a control center to disseminate information to crews and teams, while keeping government staff updated.

Services Provided

• Receipt (inspect received munitions, unload from conveyance, place in storage, and post to record)
• Storage management (magazine operations, care of stocks in storage, inventory, space utilization, re-warehousing, records management, condition code change record updates, surveillance/sentencing support, renovation, records adjustments)
• Issue and shipment (MRO receipt, munitions selection, out-load planning, commercial transportation arrangement/coordination, GBL/CBL preparation, munitions preparation and packaging, munitions issue directly to the local troops training in the area or tenants, munitions loading/blocking and bracing, issue documentation preparation, conveyance release)
• Munitions activities also include renovation, upgrades/minor maintenance, segregation, surveillance (sentencing), inventory, demilitarization and the prerequisite quality assurance/control, safety programs, and training/certification
• Associated functions include: troop support (30 to 1,000 trained at HWAD monthly), tenant support, facility and equipment maintenance, environmental (hazardous waste management), security (key and lock control), property control, information technology services, human resources, and finance

Results

Since 1980, Day & Zimmermann has successfully managed base and ordnance operations at HWAD for the Joint Munitions Command. Day & Zimmermann is the only organization, aside from Government-Owned, Government-Operated depots, to successfully deliver ammunition management and logistics activities on the scale of HWAD’s size and complexity.

We have also been an extremely proactive demilitarization partner at HWAD. New technologies we have supported through research and development include: ICM Download, Melt-Out Autoclaves, Plasma Ordnance Demilitarization System (PODS), Bulk Explosive Demilitarization System (BEDS), Blast Agent Manufacture (BAM), Rotary Furnace, Hot Gas Decontamination, Range Scrap Processing.

Day & Zimmermann has implemented an aggressive OHSAS 18001, DoD, and OSHA compliant safety program that has produced outstanding results. We have also been ISO 9001 registered at HWAD since July 2001. With ISO 9001 and Lean Six Sigma in place, we provide consistently high quality services and products. At HWAD, 62 employees from functional areas across have been trained as Greenbelts. In 2008, we selected a Lean Six Sigma project that was crucial to the HWAD mission: Guard Services Optimization. Through this project, we were able to reduce employee costs by almost $200,000, using the savings for infrastructure improvements to the HWAD facility, and eventually passing on a total of $800,000 in cost savings to the government.