ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala.--Leadership of the U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command made a site visit here Tuesday to receive status reports on the operations of the Anniston Munitions Center and pass along lessons learned.
Brig. Gen. James Rogers, JMC commanding general, was hosted by ANMC Commander Lt. Col. Garry McClendon and his team while the depot tenant activity had the opportunity to show off its accomplishments within the ammunition community.
Before and after their tour of the munitions facility in the Ammunition Limited Area, Rogers and JMC's Sgt. Maj. James Taylor were able to sit with ANMC leaders to discuss organizational concerns such as personnel strength, budget and continuous improvement events.
McClendon told Rogers how ANMC has reduced its compensation costs by 57 percent and that injuries are less severe than in recent years. ANMC has had 121 days without a lost time injury.
"Our leaders are paying attention to these issues of safety, and here at ANMC you can ask anyone about safety in our operations because we're all responsible for safety," said McClendon.
Rogers said it is important to report every single accident, no matter how minor. With regard to the risk in any situation, he said ANMC should determine the mitigation plan and make sure it's followed.
One major focus at most Army depots is Lean/Six Sigma, or LSS-a continuous improvement concept that eliminates waste within an action and provides the customer with the best product in the shortest amount of time. ANMC is no different, as its value stream analyses have already saved $160,053.
It defeats the purpose when depots that have completed a LSS project and then fail to share the results with others in the same command or within the Department of the Army, said Rogers. "We should share the work among installations so we don't double or triple the work," he said.
Leadership is high on the list of concerns for the commanding general, so much so that a working lunch was devoted to the theme. Rogers said everyone can be a leader, but the key to being one is recognizing it and doing something about it.
"The more you read about leadership you will begin to argue the points in the books. The same is true for books on continuous improvement. It will help you determine what works and what doesn't," said Rogers.
It has been Rogers' experience that a great challenge in leadership is the decision-making process. He said he hopes supervisors within ANMC recognize the same differences in their employees and make decisions that will improve the ANMC workforce and the Army.
The working lunch opened a line of communication rarely seen between generals and depot-level supervisors, who were able to express their organizational concerns directly to Rogers.
The current workload and post-war operations were two of the concerns addressed by ANMC supervisors.
An integrated logistics strategy and data-driven studies assist the JMC in spreading workload among the depots in its command and help determine what best serves the warfighter, said Rogers.
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