CRANE, Ind. -- Crane Army Ammunition Activity recently completed a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt project designed to reduce the number of nonconformities written under International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008, Clause 4.2.3, Control of Documents.
According to the project's team lead, Crane Army's ISO9001Management Representative Michael Roach, the goal of the project was to reduce the number of ISO9001 Clause 4.2.3 nonconformities by at least 50 percent.
"This project was a great success because the goal was exceeded and CAAA's overall awareness of the ISO 9001:2008 standard was improved," Roach said. "The project reaped a total cost avoidance of $10,640. A secondary and unanticipated benefit from the project was an 83.3 percent decrease in the total number of all ISO9001 nonconformities."
Roach lead a team of two other people who looked at records in Crane Army's Manufacturing and Engineering Directorate. He explained that the project stemmed from analysis of audits conducted within CAAA by internal and external auditors. This analysis revealed that of the 54 total nonconformities written during FY11, 11 were written on ISO 9001:2008 Clause 4.2.3 Control of Documents. The vast majority of Clause 4.2.3 nonconformities were caused by uncontrolled forms. This was the largest percentage (20.5 percent) of the total nonconformities and indicated that this clause was the largest area of opportunity.
He said, "To reduce the nonconformities associated with uncontrolled forms, the project increased awareness in the workplace by educating supervisors, assistant planners & estimators, and component control employees. This was accomplished by informal discussions after audits or production line checks and formal training. This has been ongoing since the implementation of the project."
Established Oct. 1977, CAAA maintains ordnance professionals and infrastructure in order to receive, store, ship, produce, renovate and demilitarize conventional ammunition, missiles and related components.
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