March 17, 2014

ERHART: ‘NO WINNER OR LOSER’ IN NNSA PRODUCTION OFFICE STRUCTURE

By ExchangeMonitor

As part of the standup of the new NNSA Production Office, which will oversee the agency’s combined Y-12 National Security Complex/Pantex Plant management and operating contract, manager Steve Erhart will relocate to Oak Ridge, but he cautioned observers from reading too much into the decision. “There could be perceptions, but I really believe there’s no winner or loser here,” Erhart said in a recent interview with NW&M Monitor about the “virtual” approach to creating the new federal office, which seeks to establish functional leaders at both sites. “I’m taking full advantage of all the people where they are currently,” Erhart said. “And if we do this right there should be this balance between the sites that’s preserved in our merger and into our transition and finally into the overall management of the consolidated contract. It’s important to me that it’s a balanced approach, and it’s not one site favored over the other if you will. It’s one contract running two very important sites.”

While Erhart will be stationed in Oak Ridge, largely because he’s less familiar with Y-12 than the Pantex Plant, the new production office will have deputy managers stationed at each site and officials that will oversee business functions across the contract from one site or the other. “It naturally provides a kind of forcing function to not just consolidate but also to bring together the processes so you have over time a singular process that covers both sites,” Erhart said.

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