'Faster, More Agile, Less Bureaucratic'

Army,  Oct 2006  by Griffin, Benjamin S

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Army Materiel Command's Evolving Role in the Warfight:

The Army Materiel Command (AMC) continues to transform into an operational command that provides cradle-to-grave logistical support to the joint warfighter-wherever and whenever the warfighter needs it. AMC is achieving success both in reaching forward into theater and integrating contemporary business practices into our acquisition, logistics, technology and contingency contracting capabilities. These efforts result in providing faster, better and often times cheaper solutions to the warfighter.

AMC is transforming from a production-based, commodity-focused and platform-centric organization to one that is service-based, capabilities-focused and unit-centric. The overarching strategy for this transformation is aligned along four avenues of change. The end state will allow us to sustain cradle-to-grave capabilities support, efficient production processes, customer-focused solutions and decisions based upon sound analytical data.

Lean and Six Sigma are the primary tools for imbuing a culture of innovation at Army Materiel Command. Lean is the toolset, successfully used by Toyota, that focuses on increasing efficiency by enabling process flow and eliminating waste-enabling efficient production processes. Six Sigma is the approach used by Motorola/General Electric to improve quality and effectiveness through statistical control-enabling data-driven decisions. We know our business is different, and we understand our mission is unlike any other in the private sector. However, we also know that to improve support to our customer-the soldier-we must be smarter and capitalize upon proven successes from the private sector.

A substantial degree of the success AMC has had with Lean and Six Sigma can be attributed to learning from many of our 304 industry partnerships. Among the efficiencies gained are:

* Abrams assembly: Reduced throughput time from 4.5 days to two days.

* Bradley 25 mm gun: Reduced man hours by 33 percent and increased output from 20 to 42 per month.

* AN/TRC-170 communications system: Reduced repaircycle time from 210 days to 145 days.

* Patriot recapitalization: Reduced cost by $11.9 million.

* UH-60 main rotor blades: Reduced repair-cycle time from 437 days to less than 300 days.

* Small arms ammunition production: Increased from 300 million rounds annually in 1999 to a projection of more than 1.6 billion rounds in 2007.

* High-priority repair parts: Reduced requisition wait time in Iraq from 26 to 14 days by aggressively attacking systemic shortfalls within the repair parts pipeline; each day saved directly increases critical weapon systems readiness.

While these accomplishments were made primarily in AMC depots and arsenals, AMC globally delivers customer-focused solutions to the joint warfighter; the field has become an AMC facility. One highly valued field service is our small arms repair team which deploys our depot employees directly into unit arms rooms to inspect and repair small arms. If a weapon requires extensive repairs, we will fix it or replace it on site. Another example is the projection of a depot-like capability directly into the warfight. AMC's forward repair activities are refitting infantry battalions in Afghanistan between rotations. The same is true in Iraq.

Another customer-focused field solution is our fleet management partnership with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). This partnership has AMC providing full service maintenance capability for the training fleet, currently at Fort Knox, Ky, and Fort Rucker, Ala., but expanding across all TRADOC installations. At both Knox and Rucker, we have dramatically increased the time that equipment is available for training while significantly reducing costs to TRADOC. This partnership allows TRADOC to focus on training and AMC to focus on providing equipment availability.

When the Army's prepositioned stocks on the Korean Peninsula needed major maintenance attention, the AMC Field Support Brigade-Far East was given the mission to correct all maintenance deficiencies on a very ambitious timeline set by our customer, Eighth U.S. Army. By integrating Lean, Six Sigma and Value Engineering, and with the support of Eighth Army, the mission was completed on time.

AMC, through the Aviation and Missile Command, Huntsville, Ala., and the Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Mich., is pursuing a program called condition-based maintenance, which will allow us to do predictive maintenance based upon sensor-sourced data rather than our current inspect-and-repair process. We are building one combined ground and air program. The aviation program already has more than 100 aircraft instrumented in the continental United States and in theater, while the ground program is preparing to instrument a continental U.S.-based fleet. The potential results are increased readiness and decreased costs. To date, millions of dollars have been saved.

Our Chemical Materials Agency is also applying the tenets of Lean and Six Sigma to the storage and demilitarization of chemical munitions. Successes at the Aberdeen and Newport Chemical Disposal Facilities and the Pueblo Chemical AgentDestruction Pilot Plant highlight the tremendous responsibility the organization has to safely store and destroy chemical munitions. As a result of these efforts, Anniston and Umatilla Chemical Disposal Facilities have been recommended for star status in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program.