Inside IALR

From Blueprint to Reality: Moving into the Navy's National Training Center

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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Question: How do you move an active training program with massive, sophisticated equipment into a new facility without halting progress?
Answer: An abundance of planning—and the determination to make it happen.

In this episode, Senior Facilities Manager Stewart East and Assistant Director of Advanced Training and Operations Wesley Cifers explain:

  • Preparation: Months of logistical strategizing for a multi-phase relocation
  • Execution: Coordinating staff, resources, and external partners over the holidays
  • Outcome: A smoother transition to the Navy’s National Training Center, where the Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing (ATDM) program now has a permanent home

Episode highlights include: 
• Transition to a significant new facility after years in a temporary space 
• Overview of the Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing program 
• Importance of modern labs and dedicated training spaces 
• Planning and executing a complex multi-phase move 
• Coordination with internal staff and external partners 
• Growth goals of expanding student enrollment 
• Enhancements in the learning environment and student experience 
• Recognition of community and team support during the move

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.

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Caleb Ayers:

Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for joining us. Today we're going to do a fun sort of behind-the-scenes tour of kind of what it's like to basically move into a new building for one of our major programs. So recently the Navy's National Training Center opened on our campus. That is the new home of the Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing Program. This building is a 100,000 square foot facility with more that's still being added to it. But basically we've had the ATDM program sort of in a temporary space on our campus and we're now transitioning that to this new building, the Navy's National Training Center.

Caleb Ayers:

So here to talk about kind of what the move was like and how do you plan a move into a 100,000-square-foot building. And with all these, you know very technical programs and an ongoing program. You know how do you plan all that. An ongoing program. You know how do you plan all that. We have Stuart East who's our senior facilities manager, and we also have Wesley Cyphers who's the assistant director of advanced training and operations in our manufacturing advancement division. So I'm excited to talk behind the scenes of what it's like to get this new building up and running. So thank you guys for being here. Yeah, thanks, caleb. Thank you for having us. For those who don't know, atdm Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing Wesley can you give us kind of a very brief rundown? Most of our listeners would have a general idea, but can you give a brief rundown of what ATDM is?

Wesley Cifers:

Sure. So it's a 16-week training program. It's accelerated in nature. We train in five different areas. We have additive manufacturing, CNC machining, metrology or quality assurance, non-destructive testing and welding. So essentially a student would pick a track. They would spend full four months in that track. Training is five days a week, 40 hours a week. In our training programs we have a six to one ratio, so each class we have 12 students and we have an instructor and a technician. Something else that makes ATDM special is having a one to one equipment student ratio. Our CNC machining program and welding reflect that. Nice have 24 pieces of equipment at all times for two classes to operate side by side across three shifts.

Caleb Ayers:

So at any given time you're saying in CNC machining and welding, there's 24 students in there and 24 pieces of equipment. That's 24 hours a day, five days a week, correct, that's yeah, that's, that's awesome With this new building. I know it's 100,000 square feet. I've seen a little bit of the inside, but tell us a little bit about. You know sort of what are the labs like? What is this new facility equipped for?

Wesley Cifers:

The new facility. It's much larger than our temporary facilities that we were in. We still had 24 pieces of equipment for CNC, for example. This new building, our CNC lab, is approximately 11,000 square foot, so we have a lot more room. Cnc would have a dedicated metrology lab inside of it for students to practice measuring skills. We also have the ability to add some additional equipment in and new capabilities. Our metrology program. We were able to purchase 12 CMMs for students to use, so metrology will go to a one-to-one ratio as well for students to be able to utilize that equipment. It's pretty unique. Ndt and additive programs we were able to add some additional equipment in there as well for students to be able to utilize that equipment. It's pretty unique. Ndt and additive programs we were able to add some additional equipment in there as well. And also, yeah, our NDT programs. Today they were using two classrooms in current facility. They have two very large labs now to utilize.

Caleb Ayers:

We can actually fit 24 students in each of those labs and we'll get to this some later too, but it sounds like this facility was made with the idea that there's room to grow in it, that it's not just the amount of students that are coming now, but that this could be scaled up even more.

Wesley Cifers:

So we started ATDM in 2021. The first class had a little over 30 students that we graduated. Fast forward to today. We have about 500 students, a little more, coming through each year. Our goal is to get to 800 to 1,000 students per year and this new facility will allow us to do that, Having the additional space, being able to add additional shifts with extra equipment and so forth.

Caleb Ayers:

It's cool to see you know, because I know the temporary space that we had set up for this program was tight. You know you said the new lab is 11,000 square feet for CNC Going in the old one.

Stewart East:

That was not 11,000 square feet, the old lab was about half that and we were literally squeezed in like sardine cans and we were very lucky to have that space to start out with and move this program forward without needing to wait for this building to be constructed.

Stewart East:

That is the key to remember about all of this is we were able to immediately start this program while the building was under construction and we had a tight 18-month deadline that we had set for ourselves to move this program over to the building, and we were able to accomplish that. It was tough, I mean, we had to make sacrifices. Everybody did and one of the other things you were talking about, caleb, is the 100,000 square foot that the building will eventually be. And that's a key here is, in order to meet that 18-month deadline that we set for ourselves, our architectural partners decided to build the building in two different phases. So right now, building one, which really houses all of our equipment, is about 70,000 square feet, so that is the one that's coming up on completion very shortly. The second building, which we call building two, will be about 30,000 square feet and that will house most of the staff and student services and student lounge.

Caleb Ayers:

So that's an interesting thing you're talking about and this was something I wanted to get into that idea that this move was not all at once, and I know that some of the parts of the program have already moved over, like welding and CNC machining, and others will move over in March. So tell us a little bit about kind of how did you all go about figuring out how to schedule this move, how to plan this? What was that process like of planning all of this move and figuring out those phases?

Stewart East:

Right, so about 18 months ago when we started designing this or finished design of this move and figuring out those phases. Right so about 18 months ago when we started designing this or finished design of this building and decided, you know, went into construction. We did have that plan. You know, at that 18-month mark that we would try to be moving some of our classes in here From a training standpoint.

Wesley Cifers:

We had to look at our schedule of classes. That was difficult 16 to 18 different classes. We're starting cohorts up every two months, so trying to plan when we had the most downtime with the least effect on training to move this equipment over. So we found a time right before Christmas. We also looked at in our different programs we offer certifications. They would kind of be like your end of term exams, if you will. So leading up to that, it's a couple of weeks we would spend in the classroom, more so than on the machines, going over different methods, procedures and then going through the certification process. So throughout that, depending on the area, they don't need equipment as much.

Wesley Cifers:

So that was a good time for certain areas to move over the rest. We just had to work with the instructional team and shift around their schedule, some for how they plan training. Leading up to it, we scheduled riggers, and I'll let Stuart touch a little bit more on that, but it was all hands on deck for two to three weeks to get everyone to help out moving small equipment over. While the riggers were moving our large equipment, we had quite a bit of tools, consumables and different things that we had to move over and also we had to schedule our external partners who work on some of our equipment and who we dealt with for quite a bit. They came in right behind our riggers and started setting the equipment up. So it was nonstop for, I would say, six weeks or so throughout that move.

Stewart East:

Yeah, like Wesley said, we started about eight months ago really planning when we would move the equipment over and at that point we started getting partners on board. Like you said, that included riggers, electricians, people like that that would move, actually physically move the equipment over the tight deadline. We had people like that that would move, actually physically move the equipment over the tight deadline we had. Like Wesley mentioned, we only had about a week to actually move this equipment, so we had every single hour of every day planned out and, of course, when it came time to make all that happen, we basically just scrapped it all and just made it happen during that week.

Caleb Ayers:

This was the week right before the Christmas break when our campus was closed.

Stewart East:

That's correct.

Caleb Ayers:

So that was the deadline you're up against, yeah.

Stewart East:

So we had kind of two days scheduled, the first part of the week to unhook equipment, have one of our partners come in and put the shipping brackets on the actual CNC machines. Once we got that put in place, the next two days we're physically moving the CNC machines over, and again it was 24 of those, so that took some time.

Caleb Ayers:

Ballpark. What do those weigh? Just curious.

Stewart East:

A little over 10,000 pounds apiece. So they would load three of them on a tractor trailer and secure them down and take those over. While they were setting those in the building, they would have another tractor trailer actually loading another set on and just flip-flop all day long. As one hit the ground, we would have our other partners, our electricians, come in and they were actually wiring the equipment as soon as one hit the ground and also we were running compressed air to those machines as well. Once they got on the ground, we had our other partners come back, take those shipping brackets off of the machines and they would level them and do their magic where they, you know, get them back to where the students could actually use them sounds like a pretty smooth process.

Caleb Ayers:

You guys figured out here. I mean it worked.

Stewart East:

but you know, like I said, all of our plans that we had kind of made. We just kind of had to wing it there in the end and just make it all work and we had a lot of internal support here at the Institute. Lots of Institute employees played a hand in this. Wesley and I are here doing this podcast, but there's a lot of people that we need to thank for their support, absolutely.

Wesley Cifers:

And Stuart kind of hit the nail on the head ATDM since day one is just get it done. I can't say that everything has gone to plan, but we have a team of go-getters and it always goes through Things in life generally do not go according to plan, so that ability to get it done anyway, that's.

Stewart East:

That's right. That's the key to the whole thing is we were able to make it happen and we can say that we've got students in the building today doing training.

Caleb Ayers:

Welding, cnc machining and metrology students are already in the new building. I know we had a new cohort start a few weeks after Christmas, in January, and then it'll be additive and non-destructive testing. They move over in for March. Is that correct? Maybe the last few weeks of March and I mean you guys have talked about things not going according to schedule but in both in the planning and then in the actual execution. What were some of the challenges that came up and how did you guys? How did you guys working with other? Obviously, stuart, you mentioned there's a lot of partners involved outside of IALR as well. How did you all figure out how to overcome those challenges?

Stewart East:

Yeah, coordinating between partners is probably the most difficult piece and while I say that, really the tight schedule and deadline was the hardest part, but just having, you know, a hundred different people involved in the move to make it happen so quickly. You know, if we had six months to do this it wouldn't have been a big deal at all, but we were trying to do it all in a week and we made it happen.

Wesley Cifers:

And that's. It's not much exaggeration. A hundred sounds insane but when you look at you know partners around equipment, rigging, software, everything. It's a lot of people that have to coordinate and come together to make it all happen. Who's the point person for this move? I'm going to say we have a few point people. Stewart is definitely the main point as far as facilities. From my end it was the training, logistics and equipment. Chad Roach also had a major part in more so, supervising the crews over there and making sure everything went as planned.

Caleb Ayers:

Also, coordination of everything you know as we mentioned, those three parts of the program are already moved over there, and then additive manufacturing, non-destructive testing, will move over in March. Talk about sort of why that is and kind of what's the plan for obviously we've got another move coming up, so what's the plans for that?

Wesley Cifers:

Yeah, one of the biggest reasons for that was simply just not moving everything at one time. We also have a good amount of equipment and additive that has to come over equipment and additive that has to come over NDT. We're purchasing some new equipment and really logistically it made more sense to hold those two off. We had one class that was still here. Again, we're starting up cohorts every two months, so one will graduate and the existing cohort that's still there would have two more months and it's a constant cycle. So it made more sense for those two classes to continue on until March. We'll have a little bit of downtime there in between cohorts for them where we can move students and what equipment we have over at that time and that one won't be pushed up against a Christmas break where everyone's about to leave, correct?

Stewart East:

But it will be pushed up against the next cohort starting, which is almost the same thing.

Wesley Cifers:

Yeah, it's definitely still a time crunch, but I see it going smoother, just for the nature of we're not going against the building deadlines and everything else all at the same time and holidays.

Stewart East:

Yeah, we don't have construction going on literally at the same time. We're trying to do it and we also know what to expect this time.

Caleb Ayers:

Other staff, like student support and student services.

Stewart East:

When are they supposed to be moving into this, so that goes back to the Building 2 that I was discussing earlier, the 30,000-square-foot Building 2. That is scheduled to be done roughly next December or January Of 2020. Of 2026. So January of 26.

Wesley Cifers:

We have a lot of wraparound support in ATDM the employees that tend to spend the most time with students. We're already transitioning them over now to temporary offices so we have a student support team that they'll regularly interact with the students for job interviews, kind of checking on where they're at in classes and different things. So they're already over there now. Also, management, all the instructors, the leads for the departments and coordinators.

Caleb Ayers:

We talked a little in the beginning about how obviously more space is helpful for this program and, stuart, I love that point you made. That the fact that we could even create a temporary space for this program, I think speaks to flexible our campuses and how we have different spaces for different things, that they might have been designed for one thing but we can quickly flip them around and use them for something else, and that's definitely a strength of our campus, that, whether it's hosting an external partner or whether it's standing up our own programs, like, we have space to do different things. Like that. Um, but for for this new building you know we talked about more space is good. Um, that there's definitely that. What are some of the other ways that this new facility is going to help enhance or improve the experience for atdm students and and for, I guess, the impact of the program?

Stewart East:

well, I'll let Wesley answer this, but I think for us the biggest thing is having everybody in one centralized location, absolutely In the same building.

Wesley Cifers:

That's exactly what I was going to say. When we started ATDM, we were in different locations, not even on campus. So when we all came to the ILR campus, it helped a lot, but we're still very spread out. Something we've always wanted to do with training is run it like a real manufacturing environment, so having all your departments work together. It's been kind of difficult up to this point, now that we're under one roof and there were also some designs in the new building that would better accommodate us working together as a manufacturing environment.

Caleb Ayers:

That's pretty much the questions I have. I mean, I think you know it's cool to see all the collaboration obviously between you know the teams here and you know whether it be inside ATDM or store with you guys with facilities or IT. I know there's a lot of different people involved and, as you guys have said, so many different external partners involved in helping plan and execute this move and obviously we got more moving to come in March. But what's what else? Do you guys want to add? Anything else you think it's important that people know, whether it be about you know the move to this building and what that experience was like, or just generally about how this will help the ATDM program.

Stewart East:

Yeah, I think the only thing that I really want to add at the end is going back to all those partners that we had, both internal and external, and how big, how thankful we are for all the support that we've received, you know, from the facilities team, the IT team and, of course, all the ATDM employees that helped out with this. I mean, it's just been an amazing experience and we're just glad to be a part of it Absolutely, and you know we talk about the struggles and the headaches.

Wesley Cifers:

All of that stuff helps us as a team, right, it's been a lot of excitement, it's been fun, it's been stressful, sleepless nights and so forth, but I think as a team, everyone has grown through it. Again, it's been all hands on deck and wouldn't have been possible without everyone.

Caleb Ayers:

That's the important line in everyone's job description. That says other duties as assigned right.

Wesley Cifers:

Yes, that's right.

Caleb Ayers:

So you guys, maybe they should change your titles and add moving coordinator. Just comma moving coordinator at the end? Yeah, don't do them. Or assistant director of moving. You know there's all kinds of options there. Well, thank you guys for being here and giving the behind the scenes view of what the move is like. We appreciate it.