ARMY AL&T
improved LSS tool set. Intuitively they knew that if we collectively remained on our current path, we would make LSS certification a destination versus the start of a cultural journey.
In that regard, it was their intent that employees achieve learning on their first few projects and work to achieve practitio- ner status with each project undertaking.
Taking It to the Top In early April 2010, we elevated our customer VOC needs to the DA, Office of Business Transformation (OBT), via the ASAALT. LTG Robert E. Durbin, OBT Director, understood the message, reacted positively, and immediately directed that we conduct a pilot pro- gram to address the CPI/LSS process concerns. He agreed to co-sponsor, with his office and ASAALT, a two-site program to increase the overall effi- ciency and effectiveness of the Army’s CPI/LSS deployment.
Durbin included PEO Ammunition at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, the Army’s 2009 Public Sector Malcolm Baldrige Award winner and CPI/LSS leader. He acknowledged the need for posi- tive cultural change, created a pathway, established a timeline, and enabled an environment for CPI/LSS process improvement throughout the Army. Immediately, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Strategic
One of the PEO MS VOC needs was to reduce Green Belt and Black Belt training time and focus the POI to better align the content between the two training levels. (U.S. Army photo.)
Communications and Business Transformation within ASAALT, using its already established Training Integrated Process Team (IPT), began to address all aspects of the VOC process concerns.
By mid-September 2010, the IPT team, with input from DA and ASAALT co-sponsors, had developed VOC solutions with approved process changes that would make CPI/LSS significantly easier to deploy and use in the Army’s organizational and business environments. We collectively assessed, developed, and improved the deployment techniques, methodologies, and POIs, ultimately developing the process into LEAN Lean Six Sigma.
A key challenge was to address VOC issues and maintain standards with- out compromising the POI’s body of knowledge, which is based on the American Society for Quality (ASQ) education base line. The team measured and developed a Lego-style or stackable, aligned, and consistent ASQ standard of knowledge for Green and Black Belt training. ASAALT, working with the training IPT, approved the team’s rec- ommendations, which institutionalized solutions that provide practical guidance on 16 major CPI/LSS process issues.
Seven Solutions The seven approved VOC solutions represent changes in the way the Army will deploy its CPI/LSS practitioners to become more efficient and effective:
• Approved pilot site POIs that reduce all Yellow Belt: 6 hours of training
LSS belt training times by 50 percent. }
} Green Belt: 1 week of training } Black Belt: 2 weeks of training
• Authorize local Master Black Belts to teach Yellow Belt, Green Belt, and Black Belt POIs.
• Authorize local Black Belts to teach Yellow Belt and Green Belt POIs.
• Authorize local Master Black Belts and local panels to DA-certify Green Belts and Black Belts.
• Authorize DA certification for methodologies other than Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control for DA Green Belt and Black Belt certifications.
• Authorize scheduling and administra- tion of local DA-approved training and certification to meet the needs of the deployment, customer, and culture.
• Develop reasonable and accept- able project certification-level documentation.
Each VOC solution addresses a particu- lar need for change that was apparent to everyone we talked to or briefed and was not specific to PEOs Ammunition and MS. The VOC solutions go a long way in addressing systemic change man- agement and clearly demonstrate DA’s and ASAALT leaders’ commitment to LSS—that they, too, recognize that change, regardless of how useful or ben- eficial, is difficult for people to accept.
Many original CPI/LSS change agents and practitioners no doubt will see the revised LSS pilot deployment strategy as unnecessary, possibly as a threat to what they have fought to build or achieve. Ultimately, they will realize that the only constant is change. They will real- ize that the leaning of Lean Six Sigma is an organizational and systems approach to business process and organization cul- tural change, which is what we should be doing daily to support the Soldier.
FRANK J. DE LUCA JR. is the Assistant Program Executive Officer for Strategic Planning and Operations, PEO MS, Redstone Arsenal, AL, and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with 31 years of service. In November 2006, he was recruited from industry to be an Army civilian. He holds a B.S. in aviation busi- ness management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and an M.A. in contracting from Webster University. De Luca is certified Level III in program management and life-cycle logistics and holds an LSS Black Belt certification.
APRIL –JUNE 2011 75
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