$ EFFICIENCIES How Letterkenny Army Depot built a


GOING LEAN


prize-winning culture of process improvement by COL Cheri A. Provancha I


n late 2002, Letterkenny Army Depot, PA, (LEAD) began a journey in transforming business practices to become a powerful, dynamic, and agile Army industrial facility.


To start the process, LEAD implemented the Lean Six Sigma Manufacturing approach, focusing on principles of oper- ational excellence and embedding them into the organizational culture. The Lean Six Sigma philosophy considers the expen- diture of resources for any goal other than creating value to be wasteful for the cus- tomer. These expenditures become targets for elimination, thus reducing costs and increasing productivity.


The Shingo Prize for Operational Excel- lence was established in 1988 to educate,


SHOWING THEIR WORK


Letterkenny Army Depot (LEAD) displays two-piece summaries by employees supporting the Aviation Ground Power Unit (AGPU). The two-piece sum- maries are LEAD’s tool to capture employee-driven improvement initiatives. The Power Generation Branch, encompassing AGPU, leads the depot in employee-driven initiatives for improvement in their processes. (Photo courtesy of LEAD.)


assess, and recognize world-class organiza- tions for creating a culture of continuous improvement through employee empow- erment and effective leadership. LEAD is a seven-time recipient of prestigious Shingo awards, most recently receiving the Shingo Bronze Medallion in August 2011 for the Aviation Ground Power Unit Value Stream.


Previous awards include Bronze Medal- lions for the Patriot (Phased Array Tracking Radar Intercept of Target) missile system in 2010; the Biological Integrated Detec- tion System manufacturing process in 2008; and Power Generation Equipment repair in 2007. LEAD’s Shingo Silver Medallions include High-Mobility Multi- purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) Recapitalization in 2006 and 2007; and Patriot Recapitalization in 2005.


The awards confirm LEAD’s Lean success, but how did an organization thought to be on the brink of elimination in 2002, before LEAD employees embraced Lean Six Sigma and Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) brought a larger workload to LEAD in 2005, become an example of efficiency, cost- effectiveness, and worker empowerment?


SURVIVAL STRATEGY Initially, the Lean vision was based on the reality that LEAD needed to improve pro- ductivity and reduce cost to survive the BRAC reviews scheduled for mid-2005. COL William A. Guinn, then Depot Commander, said that leadership needed to maximize the use of the depot’s facili- ties and equipment, as well as the skills of the workforce. The depot also needed to expand, modernize, and improve these


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EFFICIENCIES


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