CAAA Seeks Continuous Improvements with New Green Belts

By Mr. Thomas Peske (AMC)December 20, 2007

New CAAA Green Belts
CAAA Commander Col. Charles Kibben (center) presents Green Belt training certificates to CAAA employees Walt Shearin, Bobby Webber, Dennis Sickel, Mike Budarz, Byron Steele, Jerry Tompkins, Randall Burcham, Tom Hedges, Don Neukam, Mark Helms and Chuc... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

CRANE, Ind. - Eleven Crane Army Ammunition Activity employees took a step forward toward the goal of becoming Lean Six Sigma Green Belts when they received their training course certificates Dec. 6.

The two-week course provided students an introduction to Lean Six Sigma and is the first of a two step process to becoming a certified Green Belt. All students passed the written exam at the end of the course, and move to step two of certification which is completing their Green Belt projects.

According to one of the course's instructors and Master Black Belt, CAAA Program Manager Paul Allswede said, "The projects being worked on by this class range from stenciling defect reduction to improving efficiency in the excessing of material. All of the projects are directly linked to enhancing Crane Army's business strategy."

Allswede said the two week course teaches students the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control methodology, as well as sundry support, lean and basic statistical tools use within each of the before mentioned phases. Sundry support includes project management, chartering, and tollgate reviews. Lean topics included value stream mapping, rapid improvement events, and the value to lead time. Basic statistical tools included control charts, process capability, measurement system analysis, hypothesis testing, and design of experiments.

The day-to-day value of the training became evident quickly to its students, according to Logistics Management Specialist Bobby Webber. He added, "My recent Green Belt training provided me with understanding that Lean Six Sigma can help an organization become more data driven in its efforts to identify and eliminate process problems. It also establishes new methodologies that can continuously generate improvement within that organization and, in-turn provides the customer with a quality product, with timely delivery at a lower cost."

With this recent class, CAAA and Letterkenny Munitions Center have a pool of 53 Lean Six Sigma Green Belts working to reduce scrap, increase cost avoidance and improve efficiencies across the organization.