PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. -- The Armament Research Development and Engineering CenterAca,!a,,cs Lean Six Sigma Competency Office staff, which provides Lean Six Sigma support to the Program Executive Office for Ammunition, ARDEC and Picatinny Garrison, recently recognized the Picatinny commanding general as one of its newest certified LSS black belts during a ceremony Sept. 8.
In addition to Brig. Gen. William N. Phillips, commander of the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command, Col. Andre C. Kirnes, project director for Joint Services, achieved black-belt certification, and Lt. Col. Albert J. Hedeen, the former assistant project manager for PM Joint Services, achieved green-belt certification for their efforts in reducing the cycle time in the Industrial Base Determination and Finding Approval Process.
Their LSS project resulted in significantly leaning the process and achieved a cycle-time reduction from four to nine months down to four weeks. As other certified LSS practitioners will attest, Phillips, Kirnes and Hedeen deserve significant credit for their efforts.
In addition to Phillips, Kirnes and Hedeen, the LSS Competency Office is also recognizing all personnel who achieved LSS Black Belt or Green Belt certification over the past year. During the course of fiscal year 2008, the ARDEC LSS review board certified 94 individuals on 36 green-belt project teams and 11 individuals on seven black-belt projects across the Picatinny community. Their projects' savings ranged from $170,100 to $1,542,523.
It is this success that has propelled the LSS Competency Office to continue making strides in becoming self-sufficient in teaching and deploying LSS across PEO-Ammunition, ARDEC and the Picatinny Garrison community.
Additionally, in the last year, the LSS Competency Office developed and fielded a Design for Lean Six Sigma course to address the needs of the armaments engineering and design community.
During the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, the LSS Competency Office will be teaching a redesigned LSS green-belt training curriculum, which will more appropriately focus on the requirements of the research, development and engineering community.
The curriculum will address the unique needs of the life-cycle managers and engineering organizations within PEO-Ammunition and ARDEC.
In addition, the redesigned curriculum will be offered to other Research, Development and Engineering Command organizations as part of ARDEC's role as the center of excellence for LSS training.
There are also ongoing efforts to redesign and deploy an improved LSS black-belt workshop curriculum, which is scheduled for release in the third quarter of fiscal year 2009, which will further meet the needs of research, development and engineering organizations.
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