Service With a Smile

July 21, 2020 | BY Amanda Urena

With the ability of the coronavirus to spread rapidly, a tiger team from Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility worked with skilled employees there and at Naval Facilities Hawa to quickly fabricate protective barriers to keep the facility open for business.

Several codes —  offices with specific responsibility, such as Pass and ID and Document Control — conduct daily interactions with shipyard workers, contractors, military personnel and visitors. This creates a higher risk for potential spread of the virus. To mitigate this risk, the codes requested support from the tiger team.

Working with safety experts and fabrication employees, the tiger team determined that Plexiglas would provide the best protection while maintaining customer experience, both critical for safety throughout the shipyard.

Specific measurements of the areas where Plexiglas would be installed were taken from each customer service location to develop a custom installation specific to each code's needs. The measurements were then taken to Naval Facilities Hawaii for assistance in manufacturing the custom designs.

The customization was initially expected to take more than a week to complete, but expedited manufacturing and installation resulted in a custom installed solution for each code in just one to three days.

Shipyard personnel working in the Pass and ID office were thrilled with the solution developed. Walter Fung, a security assistant, commented on the impressive work done by the team."I feel more comfortable with the Plexiglas installed," he said. "It's a relief of stress."

This protective measure not only improved safety from airborne droplets that can carry the coronavirus, but also prevented customers from leaning over the counter and potentially seeing personal identifiable information, officials said.

The Document Control Center team also was excited about the new custom barriers. "They were quick," said Talalelei Toomata, a file and mail clerk. "The customers like it. It's fantastic — I love it!"

The new protective barriers made shipyard customer service personnel feel safer and also protect customers from potential exposure, making interactions between both parties safer, shipyard officials said,  allowing everyone to practice the shipyard's COVID-19 priorities of protecting people, minimizing the spread of the virus, and maximizing the mission, even during face-to-face interactions.

(Amanda Urena is assigned to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility.)