Focus Store cut

Capt. James Woolway, left, and Rear Adm. William Kowba prepare to cut the ribbon opening the Focus Store at NAVAIR Depot North Island. With them are Jerry Giacalone, in back, and Dustun Sandoval, depot components program manager. Photo by Joe Feliciano

New “store” opens on North Island

By Bill Bartkus
NAVAIR Depot North Island

CORONADO, Calif. – There’s a new store in town!

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony here, Commander Fleet Industrial Supply Center San Diego Rear Adm. William Kowba, and Capt. James Woolway, NAVAIR Depot North Island commanding officer, recently opened a Focus Store.

The store is no ordinary one because it is at the cornerstone of key business processes while supporting the Depot’s AIRSpeed initiative.

The Focus Store operates out of a 3,000-square-foot space that contains some 3,600 line items valued at roughly $5.5 million. The store does not have shopping baskets and does not accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover. However, Depot customers with paperwork may “buy” wares at this more convenient one-stop shopping location.

According to Gerry Giacalone, deputy site director for FISC San Diego, the Depot and FISC partnership started a decade ago and continues to be an ever-changing and a closer relationship. “Tools such as Lean, Theory of Constraints and Six Sigma all support our AIRSpeed initiatives to provide the fleet with cost-wise readiness,” Giacalone said.

He stated that given the current climate of reductions on budgets and an increase in customer needs, “we must seek process improvements such as the new Focus Store. The ability to move an inventory of this size and do so nearly seamless to production is a credit to the entire Depot and FISC Team.”

The grand opening was performed on a small scale. There was no balloon drop to mark the occasion and no klieg lights to alert the public to the opening day site. Yet this was a grand opening of a major store! A few dignitaries made short speeches before they cut the ribbon, and there was cake for all to celebrate this grand opening.

“This is the latest in a long line of the great partnership initiatives that FISC enjoys with the Depot. In many ways, North Island has paved the way, and you have brought together logistics and maintenance at an aviation depot level and you did this very well,” Kowba said. “I am so impressed with what you have been doing in regards to AIRSpeed, that I have a group of products and services champions on the West Coast attending their own version of Lean training.”

The admiral also noted that he made arrangements for his commanding officers and executive officers to attend Commander Naval Air Forces AIRSpeed training.

“I recognize a pioneer in an area of good management, and good mission execution at the Depot and within the air community to take advantage of the Navy supply centers,” Kowba said. “It’s wonderful that this is working so well and that there is potential greatness for capping more. Reducing cost and getting the material closer to the artisan, identifying specific needs, and delivering them when necessary is what the Focus Store is all about.”

Woolway said that to the artisans, the Focus Store is a symbol of how AIRSpeed is working to the advantage of naval aviation. “The Focus Store will be a symbol to help the Depot continue the energy and synergy in the rolling out AIRSpeed. Physical manifestations such as this wonderful complex are harbingers of many more good things that will follow,” the captain said.