Above and Beyond

Book excerpt: In Above and Beyond, Dennis L. Richardson, an experienced naval officer, shares the true story of how as newly appointed manager of Assault Craft Unit FOURs Fleet Maintenance Activity, he was responsible for the bottom-up reorganization, culminating more than three hundred sailors at the only East Coastbased maintenance organization facilitating thirty-five Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC)from 2014 to 2017. In this arduous environment, the organization was crippled by a broken maintenance philosophy, broken repair processes, and the worst maintenance readiness in years. Richardson fundamentally changed the way they did things through aggressive initiatives, visionary leadership, and key process changes centered on a comprehensive reform of the maintenance philosophy. He then helped navigate the organization by elevating readiness from 37 percent up to as high as 72 percent through innovation and smart maintenance practicesthe most successful readiness in a decade. While guiding the organization through epic changes, Richardson empowered the workforce and created a culture of continuous process improvement, excelling at routine day-to-day maintenance completion to complex depot-level repairs on time with zero production delays. In 2016, they executed 769,000 production hours and saved over $23.2 million in contractor cost avoidance for depot maintenance requirements. The leadership and management efforts of Richardsons team were validated by winning the US Navys nomination for the prestigious Secretary of Defense Maintenance Award; two consecutive years (2015 & 2016). The accomplishments achieved were earmarked as the best maintenance practices of any platform in the navy to sustain the highest level of materiel and combat craft readiness to meet operational commander tasking, which led them above and beyond.