U.S. Army Continues Lean Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 27 July 2008 | 8:53 pm
iSixSigma News reports:
The U.S. Army, in keeping with its long-term strategy to become a self-sustaining Lean Six Sigma/Continuous Process Improvement (LSS/CPI) organization, graduated its fifth LSS Master Black Belt (MBB) class. The class, MBB08-03, graduated six Army officers and five Department of the Army civilians. 62 Master Black Belt Candidates have graduated from this course since the first class graduated in August 2007.
Way to go U.S. Army! Despite what the naysayers are saying, you’re still at it!
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Training, Military, US Army, Black Belt
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“Six Sigma Semper Fi”
Posted by: meikah | 2 June 2008 | 9:47 pm
Quality Digest Magazine features how United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel and Harrington Institute Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Richard P. Faucher gets things done during an economic mission in Iraq.
With much tenacity and charm, Mr. Faucher went into Six Sigma, of course. With a team of four other military personnel, he narrated their Six Sigma Semper Fi:
“I used the DMAIC [define, measure, analyze, improve, and control] method and an easy form that groups could use. I asked, ‘What are the things that need to be defined with a focus on the Iraqi people, which means feeding them, protecting them, getting them taken care of?’ Then I said, ‘Define what you see now. Define where you want to go, measure what you think you’ve got, analyze everything, and give a timeline.’ They had one day to do this, and then we looked at how they could improve what they presented.”
“After we defined it, measured it, and analyzed it, we saw that there was a lot we could do, and it was very encouraging. Then we had legitimate goals. In this case there’s been no government organization in the Anbar region for the small and medium business companies or entrepreneurs. That’s what we’re targeting.”
“I went back to what Juran and Deming had done with statistics in order to create goals. That required more accurate statistics, which meant a lot of ground work, talking to people, keeping my hand in everything.”
“The engineers were mostly in their 50s and 60s, and were aware of Six Sigma based on going through the ISO 9001 process with French and Italian companies during the embargo. I coordinated restart events and goals based on Six Sigma principles without them having any clue about DMAIC. I just asked them leading questions to help them down the path.”
Source:
Six Sigma Zone
Filed under: Deployment, Military, DMAIC, US Army, Six Sigma, Joseph M. Juran
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Six Sigma Black Belts at US Forces Korea
Posted by: meikah | 27 April 2008 | 7:47 pm
About a week ago, Stars and Stripes reported that 19 members of the 8th US Army Korea became Black Belts. The new Black Belts would be part of Lean Six Sigma, now in its third year at U.S. Forces Korea.
So far the the 8th Army has completed 51 Lean Six Sigma projects, saving about $51 million. According to Ron Rezek, a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army who works in business transformation, U.S. Forces Korea’s Lean Six Sigma program is ‘at the front of the pack’ Army-wide, and students get an unusually high amount of support from their commanders. Read more…
It seems that US Army is also getting its other bases outside of the U.S. into Lean Six Sigma. This should be a good thing.
Source:
iSixSigma News
Filed under: Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, US Army, Black Belt, US Forces Korea
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Empowering Employees Through Lean Six Sigma Training
Posted by: meikah | 11 November 2007 | 9:36 pm
Lean Six Sigma is not only used to remove barriers to smooth operations, or to reduce processes, but it can also be used to involve employees and empower them.
Fort Leavenworth did exactly this. When they started their Lean Six Sigma training, they used Lean Six Sigma to encourage their employees to share their ideas on how to improve processes.
This is because Leavenworth management believes that it is the employees who are the frontliners of a business, and thus know better as to how to serve customers or clients.
At first, Garrison employees were hesitant to put out their ideas for fear that they could be fired for them or that their suggestions would be ignored. They were wrong. In fact, many of them got rewards for good ideas, which were actually put into use.
Here are some of the brilliant ideas from employees:
- getting a trainer to Fort Leavenworth instead of taking employees to train somewhere
- streamline passport approval
- express check-in at the lodging facility
- use fewer hours to light the airfield
- improve the profitability of the Havana Beach Club
- streamline the process for getting safety glasses
- reduce overtime worked by civil servant officers
Source:
The Fort Leavenworth Lamp Online, an iSixSigma featured link
Filed under: Benefits and Savings, Services, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma Organizations, Human Resource, Military, US Army
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Lean Six Sigma Improving Processes at the U.S. Army Recruiting Command
Posted by: meikah | 19 June 2007 | 8:17 pm
We know that the U.S. Army has been implementing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and has been reaping the benefits through these years.
In 2005, the Army’s Recruiting Command (USAREC) division at Fort Knox adopted Lean Six Sigma. With Lean Six Sigma, Army recruiters now work fewer hours and are enjoying the benefits of productivity and time management.
Using Business Transformation (BT)/LSS methods, the Army Accessories Command (AAC) has been able to accomplish the following:
- Leads refinement – Recruiters’ prospecting time has increased by 75 percent. Contact-to-conduct appointment time has also increased by more than 200 percent. Leads defects have decreased by 60 percent.
- Early background checks – Will save up to 8 hours per applicant of processing time for the recruiter and potentially increase the efficiency of recruiting and training dollars by eliminating the loss of morale if a soldier is removed from the Future Soldier Training Program and Initial Entry Training for having a criminal record.
- Waivers – Reduced submission-to-decision time by 45 percent and reduced document requirements by 50 percent.
- Warrant Officer Flight Training (WOFT) Selection Board – Reduced processing time by 85 percent.
- Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Leader’s Training Course (LTC) – Reduced the enrollment process by 40 percent and increased post-LTC contracts by 30 percent.
- Four-year scholarship survey and interview process – Reduced variation in the Professor of Military Science (PMS) interview and time by 60 minutes.
- Junior ROTC command-and-control – Reduced duplication of processes and functions by 100 percent and reduced lead time by 50 percent.
*Photo from ArmyOCS.com
