By Stephanie Keiffer NAVSUP N422
In October 2018, NAVSUP successfully deployed a new web-based tool that significantly assists its logistics partners in managing Hazardous Material (HAZMAT). Among its benefits, the Hazardous Material Management (HMM) tool has improved communications between NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Centers (FLCs) and their many HAZMAT customers, and enhanced asset visibility of customer-owned inventory, including excess material for reutilization.
NAVSUP is the Navy’s lead organization with technical and management authority and accountability for all logistics support functions associated with pollution prevention and hazardous material control and management (HMC&M) programs, including regional consolidated hazardous material reutilization and inventory management program implementation and operations ashore. NAVSUP Business Systems Center and NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support have responsibility for development, maintenance, oversight, and training on the HAZMAT data and systems used within the program. NAVSUP FLCs provide dayto-day operational support to HAZMAT customers through use of these systems.
In early 2017, NAVSUP began work under a business process improvement (BPI) contract to investigate and recommend solutions for issues within the HAZMAT program. NAVSUP’s BPI team visited and interviewed personnel at several NAVSUP FLC sites to help accomplish this task. Central among the issues identified by the team was a lack of customer access to Navy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - NAVSUP’s ashore HAZMAT data management system. This lack of access meant that customers could not see basic information about their material, including inventory levels. The team also found inconsistencies and non-standardized processes for communication and collaboration between NAVSUP and its customers. Simple tasks, like requests for new HAZMAT products and inventory adjustments, were overly time-consuming and cumbersome, frequently requiring sharing of information via email and hand-delivery.
Out of the BPI was born the idea for a web-based tool that would both standardize HAZMAT data management processes across the enterprise and provide NAVSUP customers with valuable access to data within ERP. In March 2018, the BPI team briefed NAVSUP leadership on the BPI effort and the solutions it recommended for the HMC&M program, which included development of the HMM tool. Throughout 2018, NAVSUP WSS collaborated with the NAVSUP FLCs to develop requirements for the tool, while NAVSUP BSC provided the programmers that built it.
The HMM tool provides workflow capability to increase efficiency and standardize business practices within the NAVSUP FLC HAZMAT Minimization Centers (HMC). The new functionality improves communication between all HAZMAT stakeholders, enhances visibility of Navy ERP data, and eliminates manual efforts for tracking material requisitions. The HMM tool provides customers with visibility of excess or free-issue inventory, which enhances HAZMAT redistribution and reduces hazardous waste disposal. It also provides near real-time updates of customer inventory, to improve inventory accuracy and shelf life management, and an automated process for approval of new HAZMAT products, referred to as the authorized use list process.
The HMM tool also promotes compliance with a broad range of federal, state, and local HAZMAT regulations by providing lifecycle management information, which helps to control, track, and reduce the types and quantities of HAZMAT used and disposed. Finally, the HMM tool includes HAZMAT locker assessment capability that simplifies annual compliance checks performed by the NAVSUP FLCs. It allows NAVSUP FLC HAZMAT directors, HMCs, and work center personnel to see the status of locker assessments at any point in time within the annual evaluation cycle.
While Navy ERP remains the system of record for ashore HAZMAT management, the HMM tool provides previously unavailable functionality and access to data for ashore and afloat customers and stakeholders. Since the initial deployment of the HMM tool, feedback on it has been overwhelmingly positive. In the short time it has been in use, the HMM tool has gained over 4,800 users from 100 different ships and shore installations. The HMM tool has been featured in several NAVSUP FLC newsletters, and the BPI team has been referred to the Secretary of the Navy for recognition of its work under the Agility and Accountability Awards Program.
For information on access to the HMM tool, refer to the NAVSUP HAZMAT Products & Services homepage at: https:// www.navsup.navy.mil/public/navsup/ products_services/hmm/ps_hmm/