GOING LEAN
same capabilities to position LEAD as the provider of choice for current and future systems and stakeholders.
Ten employees were handpicked to imple- ment Lean principles established in the depot’s Strategic Business Plan. The Lean team quickly realized that a change in culture would not be achieved through top-down directives but needed to flourish through camaraderie among employees sharing and pursuing a common goal. The team strived to train the workforce to be proactive in recognizing opportuni- ties for improvement, suggesting changes, and applying the modifications.
“At first it was a battle, because no one understood Lean and everyone was reluc- tant to embrace it,” said Keith Collins, Chief Steward of National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) Local 1429.
“Veteran employees were set in their ways and saw this program as something that wouldn’t last.”
Standard work events were established to provide firsthand demonstrations of ways to accomplish a job more efficiently. This training was instrumental in securing Lean buy-in as employees began to realize time- and cost-saving opportunities.
The initial strategy was developed to implement Lean initiatives for the depot’s largest maintenance, repair, and overhaul program: Patriot Recapitalization. Value stream analysis activities were the first step. These tools documented the current state, created vision for an ideal state, and displayed the future state over the next year for the Patriot system.
The cost savings quickly became obvious. In September 2003, the Lower Tier Project Office received $1.2 million in cost savings for LEAD’s Patriot Recap. Less than a year later, in August 2004 the depot returned
112
AWARD-WINNING TEAM
For their workmanship and alignment with the Soldier, the AGPU team received the Shingo Bronze Medallion in August 2011. Here, COL Cheri A. Provancha, LEAD Commander, congratulates the AGPU team. (U.S. Army photo by Don Bitner, LEAD.)
$1.5 million to U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command’s Integrated Materiel Management Center for Patriot Reset. By returning money to the customer, the depot achieved an unprecedented efficiency.
GETTING RESULTS Earning a Shingo award is not easy; doing things well on the shop floor is only the first step. An extensive process of document- ing the improvements must occur. The assembled documentation must be verified both internally and externally by a Shingo inspection team. Wayne Eichenlaub, Major Item Division Chief, said it was a learning process for everyone involved, with guidance from the Lean team.
The hard work came to fruition in 2005, when LEAD became the Army’s first Shingo award winner for Excellence in Manufacturing. The award proved what a team committed to improving could achieve and, perhaps more important, demonstrated to Army leadership that Lean principles could support Army mis- sion requirements. Not long afterward, the Army officially adopted Lean business processes as a servicewide business trans- formation tool.
In 2006, the Lean team became a for- mal entity, the Office of Continuous
Improvement (OCI). The team’s next focus was a new program at the depot: the HMMWV Recapitalization line. The mechanically inclined HMMWV team required a completely different approach than the electronic and technological focus mastered in the Patriot program.
At the outset of the HMMWV program, five vehicles were produced per day from a static, single bay. Lean thinking indi- cated that assembly-line production could make LEAD more economical. Moving the product down a line was a new con- cept. Employee involvement and proper part flow were critical to the success of the assembly line. By 2006, the depot was completing 19 HMMWVs per day. The HMMWV line became LEAD’s “model cell,” showing how much faster and more efficient LEAD could be by adapting and supporting new ideas.
Success continued to produce success, and in August 2006, the savings from the HMMWV program made it possible for the depot to provide the customer, U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, 27 HMMWVs for free. “The HMMWV program award validated that the depot could run a full production line, and customers could see that Letter- kenny could do that type of work,” said
Army AL&T Magazine
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180
