Lean Six Sigma on a roll at SDDC

Translog: Journal of Military Transportation Management, Summer, 2008

From SDDC and Army News Service reports

For Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC), improving customer service means improving the nation's warfighting capability. A part of Army Business Transformation is already saving time and money while improving quality of service to our troops.

Starting December 2007, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) continuous process-improvement methodology has been introduced to SDDC in a series of "roll outs." More than 300 employees have completed familiarization training, and most of the headquarters staff sections have selected LSS projects to work.

"Everything you do supports the warfighter and you can improve processes in supporting the warfighter though Lean Six Sigma," said Col. Dave McClean, G5 and LSS deployment director for SDDC. "You can improve how we fight the Global War on Terror."

Throughout SDDC, LSS projects are underway to evaluate and improve the recruiting and staffing process, pre-acquisition planning, and three battalions are doing projects on reducing cargo port hold-time, according to Jim Coe, LSS manager for SDDC.

While the actual execution is in the hands of the workforce, leadership throughout the Department of Defense has sung the praises of LSS as its implementation produces the intended benefits. Since implementing Lean Six Sigma more than five years ago, the Army has saved more than $2 billion, according to Army News Service.

During his May tour of Red River Army Depot, Texas, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates learned how applying Lean Six Sigma principles drastically cut the amount of time spent resetting and refurbishing Humvees so they can be returned to the combat theater.

"Humvee production here has skyrocketed from about two Humvees a week in 2004 to an eye-popping 26 Humvees a day in 2006, and 32 a day now," Gates told reporters.

Assembly-line processes were cut to a fraction of the time it takes to rebuild battle-damaged vehicles, explained Patton Tidwell, the depot's director for contracting.

"We broke complicated procedures into smaller, simpler tasks," Tidwell told Army News Service. "It's enabling us to take care of warfighters in the field better every day."

The Red River employees also earned almost $600.000 in savings on projects involving the Bradley fighting vehicle and created fuel-recycling initiatives that saved more than 37,000 gallons of fuel in one year.

LSS success stories continue to emerge across the Army since the program's inception. In an Army News Service article announcing the Army's cumulative savings of nearly $2 billion. LSS was credited with shortening the Army recruiting process from 32 steps to 11 to bring in new recruits and reducing issue and mm-in times by 50 percent and inventory by more than 65 percent at the Central Issue Facility on Fort Bragg, N.C.

Lean Six Sigma's process improvement is reached by building teams within an organization. These teams include a project sponsor who is accountable for project results, a Lean Six Sigma expert (known as a "green belt" or "black belt") and subject matter experts. SDDC currently has 29 green belts and 12 black belts trained.

Green belts are basic LSS practitioners with a basic level of understanding and expertise (single-organization projects generally in their own lane) while black belts are trained to a greater level of expertise and are more into multi-functional, multi-generational projects, said Coe.

Projects are approached through a structured process called the Define--Measure--Analyze--Improve Control (DMAIC) method to achieve the project goals (see sidebar).

"Understanding the dynamic nature of our Service, the Army added an additional stage: Sustain," Coe said. "After the Control stage is completed, the team monitors the process for six months to make sure the new process becomes the normal way of doing business and is having the predicted effect."

"We're very proud of the number of green belts, black belts and master black belts we've got [in AMC]." Gen. Benjamin Griffin, commanding general of Army Materiel Command, said at the DOD Continuous Process Improvement Symposium in May. "We're also very proud of the fact that we're doing more and more training in-house."

The goal is to help the warfighters, Griffin said. Applying continuous process improvement, Lean Six Sigma and other aspects of efficiency improves support to the servicemembers in the field, he said.

Griffin urged leadership-management to explain the benefits o00f Lean Six Sigma; otherwise, "it will go nowhere," he said.

The adoption of the LSS methodology isn't an abandonment of earlier management styles, according to Coe, but rather an integration of complementary methods.

"Some of our people may have experienced Zero Defects or Total Quality Management," said Coe, referring to previous management-improvement methods. "The best aspects of these older programs are part of LSS, but significant changes were added based on experience from industry leaders including Toyota, Motorola, and General Electric."

One can earn a green belt, black belt, or even master black belt certification through SDDC-sponsored training. The SDDC LSS program will send employees to school, as well as coach and mentor them through the entire process. All one needs, said Coe, is the desire to fix a problem or improve a process.