What are the key steps to improve efficiency of operations and morale at LLNL and do they include or exclude a future with LLNS management?
Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
Comments
2) All other managers then follow by doing the same thing after guidance from the top.
3) Groups compare notes, make sure they are all on the same page, and then present a unified picture of why the lab exists and how it is organized to everyone else.
4) Repeat every year until every single person understands it.
Customer input applies to the tasty pizza from the competitor who regularly reviews his pizza recipe and services with his customers knowing he is not the only pizza place in town.
The key assumptions here are the cooks want or feel they need a new recipe and they actually have a pizza competitor.
"...No.... The health of the organization is internal, and does not involve competitors or pizza recipes. You can have the tastiest pizza in town, happy customers all around, and STILL fail because your organization is broken and dysfunctional. LLNL is broken and dysfunctional..."
The long term health of an organization is multifaceted. However, in the absence of a motivating catalyst, even an organization "broken and dysfunctional" can limp along and survive if they perceive themselves to be the only game in town or are otherwise immune to identified problem areas. There are many such former companies on this list.
Morale: Develop meaningful and obtainable projects and goals. LLNL, LANL and Sandia all started going down the tubes when field testing stopped.
What will happen: Nothing. Congress hatched the NNSA monster and doesn't want to admit to its mistakes. But with St. Pete out of the picture there might be some chance that NNSA will be kicked in the head but more likely this is another can that will be kicked down the road. As to meaningful projects all three labs have proven to be unable or unwilling to do major tasks. The crown jewels could use some polishing.
Does the NNSA Livermore Field Office serve as the LLNS evaluator of expected performance, have net zero impact, or are they an enabler of poor performance? Examples please.
June 7, 2014 at 10:39 AM
New NNSA Administrator Klotz came to LANL and explicitly stated "he rejects the notion that NNSA is worthless". Basically, we have another entrenched bureaucrat at the helm who will die at the helm trying to resuscitate this corpse (i.e. NNSA). We need a real leader who will lead the "closure" of NNSA for the good of our Nation.
Now, does anybody's boss think that LLNL is on the longterm uptick?
and so on and so on.
Now, can anybody define what the vision of the lab is beyond continue what we're already doing?
Can anybody say with confidence that good ideas will get supported at the lab?
The lab needs creative destruction, which rules the world. This means out with the old, and in no with the new, but the best. Oh, the best left LLNL back in the 80s and 90s.
The lab will turn into an engineering job shop, reflecting the current workforce talent.
What are the grand plans for FY15 and beyond that are OK to speak of in public? Who will stick around to "hold the candle" of a better future to come?
LLNS is ultimately responsible for ensuring that LLNL is not broken and dysfunctional, and it has failed. This has been an ongoing and worsening problem for years, to the point that many good people have retired early or quit, and those that are left spend their days talking behind people's backs, complaining, trying to hoarde resources and maintain feudal kingdoms, and wishing for leadership that does not exist. Either LLNS is unaware that things are as bad as this, or they are aware but do not care; but either explanation leads to the same conclusion, they are incompetent.
"Does the NNSA Livermore Field Office serve as the LLNS evaluator of expected performance, have net zero impact, or are they an enabler of poor performance? "
The same conclusions apply to the field office.
This implies that testing and design is the future. This implies NIF facility is extremely important to the lab moving forward.
Confirms that LLNL is a weapons lab, and so goes the nations weapons program, so goes the lab.
June 7, 2014 at 9:05 PM
Boy, is that a jump in logic or what? If testing and design were in the future, NIF would be irrelevant, just as it is now. Just ask them, they are all about ignition, not weapons.
My next door neighbor is a NNSA facility site representative and he tells me all the lab jokes that circulate at NNSA. They actually laugh about the labs falling on their face.
To succeed you have to have goals and managers that facilitate reaching those goal. When a team has a failing record the coaches are sacked, not the players, and THE TEAM moves forward. The NNSA is busy slitting the labs throat and laughing about it. LLNL is full of excellent people, don't despair. Eventually the NNSA experiment will end.
UC needs to take charge of LLNL, not going back to direct UC management but as sole owner of the LLNS LLC, and then subcontract as "appropriate" work to industrial firms.
may indicate a trend line.
June 8, 2014 at 9:56 AM
Sorry, you may "need" UC to do this, but UC definitely does NOT "need" to do this. UC needs closer ties to LANL and LLNL like a fish needs a bicycle. That train has long ago left the station.
The three consistent themes however surface:
Weapons (with or without NIF)
"Science and Research facility"
Place that current employees can work for a pension.
Places where "employees can work for a pension" - virtually none.
Nuclear weapons laboratories - exactly three.
Seems like the future is pretty evident. Regardless of the longevity of NNSA or LLNS/LANS, nuclear weapons are not going away.
Will our long term nuclear weapons mission be serviced with a rotating set of ~5 year employees in a "job shop" environment? Where is the stability or security in this scenario?
June 9, 2014 at 8:23 AM
There obviously isn't any. Why did you postulate it?
The problems at the nuclear weapon labs and the hugely dysfunctional NNSA are a very weak signal on the 'news radar'. Things may continue to go downhill at the NNSA labs, most likely, until we get some decent bi-partisan leadership in both Congress and the White House. Little chance of that, though. It's all about the money in DC. The corruption is amazing and they don't even try to hide it any longer!
in the immortal words of POS:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
Please remember who frequents this ANONYMOUS blog. You should not expect to find the answer to any real-world question here.
If, however, you're interested in how a septic tank works, you're in justthe right place.
June 9, 2014 at 9:47 AM
Then why are you posting more poo here?
June 9, 2014 at 9:45 AM"
You are saying something that I find personally very disturbing. I have always understood that any organization will have politics and that is the way of the world and LLNL was never an exception to this. What I find so disturbing is that in the last five years the corruption is no longer under the radar or considered part of politics it is now out in the open and pushed in your face. It seems like we are entering and accepting a new final end stage of the NNSA complex. I only know the labs so I hope this is not the norm of the entire nation. When corruption is open, accepted, and promoted as the way of the system than the end of the system cannot be far behind.
What the Lab is for is pretty clear from LLNL's Website
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a mission of strengthening the United States’ security through development and application of world-class science and technology to:
* Enhance the nation’s defense;
* Reduce the global threat from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction;
* And respond with vision, quality, integrity and technical excellence to scientific issues of national importance.
June 8, 2014 at 2:39 PM
---------------
UC doesn't need ties to LANL, but LLNL is a different matter due to close proximity of UC campuses (Berkeley, Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz) and LBNL. There's a considerably amount of collaboration between these on science/research. Also with UCOP being so close to LLNL I see more interaction with UC Office of Lab Management here than at LANL.
With respect to LLNL, UC should restructure the LLNS LLC. The LLNS Board of Governors has a total of 16 positions, with 7 of these Governors constituting an Executive Committee. All decisions of the LLNS Board are made by the Executive Committee.
UC appoints 3 to the Executive Committee (including the Chair), Bechtel appoints 3 (including the Vice Chair) - however 1 of these must be a representative of B&W or URS. The seventh is appointed by Battelle.
UC should boot the 3 Bechtel members off of the executive committee of the LLNS Board of Governors, and replace them with 3 UC appointees. This would make LLNS a "UC controlled" entity that is still separate from UC, and still having industrial partners on the Board in advisory roles.
No need to change the LANS LLC since the industrial partners play a much more active and visible role in managing LANL.
St. Pete is no longer around to protect LANL.
I know that gets said a lot on this blog, but it's revisionist history. The calendar tells you it isn't true. LANL's problems started way before LLNL folks got shipped down there. In fact, they were shipped down there BECAUSE of LANLs problems.
You're looking at this like a scientist, not a politician. LANL was responsible for the problems that triggered privatization. And from the politician's viewpoint, even THAT hasn't helped LANL fall into line. There's only one remedy left. And it's not even that painful, since there's a perfectly capable, and well-behaved, LLNL that can easily pick up the slack.
June 10, 2014 at 1:38 PM
So you think UC can unilaterally ignore or change the LLNS charter? Heh Heh, that's what corporate lawyers are for. And Bechtel has a lot more of them than UC. Dream on...
June 11, 2014 at 7:41 PM
If by "innocent spies" you mean Wen Ho Lee, you are very wrong. Guilt was never proven in court. Neither was innocence. That's why "not guilty" verdicts are not "innocent" verdicts. The case was not proven because the bulk of the evidence was never presented.
June 11, 2014 at 8:36 PM"
Or maybe the evidence never existed. The whole thing was a total sham, and no you do not have insider information.
Be that as it may LANL is indeed the problem lab. Someone pointed out that the only thing that matters is perception and LANL loses every time. If you say not-guilty means not innocent than indeed the person was guilty and the LANL should be closed down for being a bunch of cowboys. It all makes so much sense and it is the perception so it is true. I think a better solution is to shut all the labs down, they are all riddled with problems and it is clear that we can no longer manage them. It would be better to shut them down now before something else happens. It would save a lot of taxpayer money that could be used for something usefll.
Both LLNL and LANL will continue to shrink and no one in positions of power will give a cold bucket of spit about it. That's the reality, like it or not.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Barack-Obama-In-Prague-As-Delivered
" This goal will not be reached quickly –- perhaps not in my lifetime."
He's a lame duck. Both labs will outlive this fleeting thought.