The Shipping News

Since Inside the Pentagon broke big news last week about management problems at Northrop Grumman's shipyard in Newport News, VA, we've learned from the Defense Contract Management Agency that Newport News is noncompliant with 16 of the Pentagon's 32 rules for earned value management.

ITP asked Northrop CEO and President Wes Bush about the issue today. From our story:

"That is an area where all of the companies in the industry, I would say, are going through a fairly rigorous process together with our government customers, to make sure that comprehensively across the company, all of the systems really measure up to the standards that the department has established,” Bush said.

In April, focused reviews of Northrop's Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, MS, and General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine determined both contractors have "high-risk" processes for earned value management. The problems are not confined to shipyards. This month, the Defense Department revoked the management certification for the Lockheed Martin division that builds the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, citing longstanding problems.

“I think just about all of the companies in our industry are doing very well at EVMS overall, but we all tend to have a few spots where we've got to do better,” Bush said. “So I would not characterize our situation as representing an unusual concern or risk; it's more in the category of continuous process improvement to make sure we're demonstrating excellence in EVMS across the whole board.”

And down in southern Virginia, two big newspaper rivals -- The Virginian-Pilot and The Daily Press -- have followed up our reporting with stories of their own. Click here and here to read them.