THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608170490
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 144 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding brought Dan Heflin and Paul Williams together. The two men set out to look for potential cost overruns in the yard's plan to build the Seawolf attack submarine.
But the Cold War ended, the Seawolf building program was dramatically cut and, in a move to save the United States' only other sub-building yard, Electric Boat, all the Seawolfs were promised to the Groton, Conn., yard.
Newport News Shipbuilding cut workers and managers in its sub program. Heflin took an early retirement ``offer,'' and Williams was just laid off.
But that didn't stop them. Over lunch one day in 1992, the furloughed engineers launched their own project, the consulting firm Heflin & Williams.
``What we wanted to do is apply the lessons learned through the years to help generally small businesses run their operations better,'' Paul Williams said.
Heflin and Williams have made that simple goal a successful and enjoyable second career, thanks to that experience and their connections in the shipbuilding industry.
These buttoned-down engineers also enjoy the newfound freedom of entrepreneurship. They no longer have to contend with layers of bureaucracy at the giant Peninsula shipyard.
``Dan and I have had a ball from day one with this company,'' the 50-years-old Williams said. ``I still have many friends back at Newport News Shipbuilding, and I don't think they're having as much fun as we are.''
Heflin, who turns 65 next month, said he's enjoying the consulting business too much to even think about retiring.
Their work ranges from project management to accident reconstruction. Heflin & Williams will trouble-shoot and evaluate ship designs and construction programs with an eye for potential cost and engineering hangups. The company will also perform independent compliance audits for government contractors.
One of their more spectacular projects involves advising a Florida company that is considering building giant submarines that would collect oil and natural gas from submerged wells under the Arctic Ocean icecap (See story at right).
But most of their work is more modest and seemingly mundane. They also tackle engineering issues that aren't related to the marine industry.
They've even served as expert witnesses in trials, including one involving an all-terrain vehicle accident.
``We were asked to consult on probable cause of the accident, to explain from an engineering standpoint how it might have happened,'' Heflin said.
Prevention of problems in a design or a vessel construction project is a more significant part of their business, however.
It's a direct offshoot of the work they did at Newport News Shipbuilding. Williams was assigned to determine why the shipyard was having cost overruns in the Los Angeles-class attack submarine building program. Heflin was director of engineering and one of the initial designers of the Los Angeles-class.
When the Seawolf was being developed as the next big Navy sub program, the yard brought them together to try to avoid the same problems with the Seawolf.
Then their jobs disappeared.
At least the yard had brought the right two people together. The pairing has worked out ``magnificently,'' Heflin said.
The two men say they think alike. Each recently bought a new car. They both wound up with identical Volvo 960s in decisions they say were independent.
Both live in Norfolk, Heflin in Ocean View with his wife Trish, a real estate agent, and Williams in Ghent with his wife Pat, a professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Williams has two children, a sailboat and an old British sports car. Heflin has no children and a classic Ford Thunderbird that he's trying to sell.
A native of Detroit, Williams first love was not cars, but boats. His father owned a cruiser with a sailing dinghy. During summers while studying naval architecture and marine engineering at the University of Michigan, he interned at Newport News Shipbuilding. The yard hired him when he graduated.
Heflin grew up in Norfolk, going to the Stuart School, Blair Middle School, Maury High School and Virginia Tech. After a stint in the Army as an engineer, he was hired by the shipyard as a junior designer.
Both men worked their way up through the shipyard's ranks until the Congress and the Pentagon pulled the Seawolf out from under them.
``The shipyard made a large mistake in letting those two go,'' said Robert Mann, owner of a small Tampa, Fla.-based pipefitting company that was one of the first to hire Heflin & Williams.
A Newport News native, Mann used to work at the shipyard, where he first became friends with Heflin.
Mann's Global Piping Inc., ``did not have the background or skills for project management under government contracts,'' Williams said.
After hiring Heflin & Williams, Global Piping promptly won a contract to make and install systems aboard a new class of coastal mine hunters being built for the Navy by Intermarine Inc. in Savannah, Ga.
``Heflin & Williams totally manages the project for us,'' Mann said. ``It's more like we work for them.''
The Norfolk firm handles contract negotiations, change orders, invoicing and scheduling.
Global Piping fabricated the pipe assemblies based on designs provided by Heflin & Williams.
It's a relationship that will continue to grow. The companies are working together to develop new business in which Heflin & Williams would design and engineer and Global Piping would fabricate, Mann said.
``Whenever we feel like we need a little savvy advice we get in tough with those guys,'' Mann said.
In addition to managing the Intermarine project, Heflin & Williams also recruited all the skilled tradespeople doing the installation.
``They call themselves the `Over-the-Hill Gang,' '' Williams said. ``They are all early retirees out of Newport News Shipbuilding who relocated to Savannah.''
Heflin & Williams is more than just Heflin and Williams. The firm employs four others, two at its office in Norfolk's Monticello Arcade and two in Savannah, Ga.
The firm also has a network of retired engineers, shipyard workers and Navy personnel like themselves that they know and can call upon to help on a given project. There are about 30 people they tap on a regular basis and another 100 or so they've used before, Williams said.
``We literally have cost estimators working for us with hundreds of years of experience,'' Williams said.
That cost-estimating and design trouble-shooting is one of Heflin & Williams' strongest assets.
``It's unique to have that capability outside of a shipyard,'' Williams said. ``I firmly believe we have the best independent cost estimating of ship construction, ship modification and ship repairs of anyone on the East Coast.''
While the firm relies heavily on old-fashioned experience, it doesn't shy away from new-fangled technology.
``We very early realized that we have to rely on computers to keep our overhead low,'' Williams said.
The firm has an extensive computer-aided design system and hired a young upstate New Yorker, Jennifer Joyce, who ``is marvelously skilled with computers and keeps us abreast of the latest applications,'' Williams said.
Still, Heflin & William's greatest selling point is experience.
``From our experience we can see a successful solution or see where a project is going to run in to problems,'' Heflin said. ILLUSTRATION: Color cover photo
Dan Heflin and Paul Williams
Color photos by BETH BERGMAN\The Virginian-Pilot
Dan Heflin, above left, and Paul Williams are using the skills they
developed at Newport News Shipbuilding in their consulting venture
Heflin & Williams. They have four employees - two in Norfolk,
including Ken Holden, at right, and two in Savannah, Ga. - but they
draw on a network of retired engineers, shipyard workers and Navy
personnel like themselves that they know and can call upon to help
on a given project. by CNB