Process improvements help Arsenal stay sharp

By Ms Rachel Newton (AMC)March 8, 2012

Pine Bluff Arsenal's Directorate of Material Management has been working on several different projects over the past few months and it has certainly been keeping them busy.

One big project that will directly impact the directorate once the construction is completed is the upgrades to the infrastructure of the Arsenal's south bomb storage buildings. According to Lavara Henry, chief of the directorate's storage division said that 71 buildings are being upgraded.

"Each building is about 2,740 square feet, so they are refurbishing 194,000 plus square feet in total. These buildings were constructed in 1942, and now there are new security requirements and concerns. The Army Corps of Engineers is managing the project and PBA's Directorate of Public Works is the site managers," he said. "The way it is designed is the contractor is completing 16 buildings at a time in a total of five phases. They have completed 32 buildings so far. Once they complete 16, MM is required to empty 16 buildings and turn over those buildings for refurbishment."

The $25 million upgrades include roofs, wall structures, doors, floors, lighting, security systems, ventilation equipment, loadings docks, roads, water supply systems, fire hydrants and new power supply systems. These storage buildings house ammunition and ammunition components.

Henry said that so far everyone has been very pleased at the progress of this project. "This just increases the morale of the employees going in and out of the buildings," he said. "This has been a great initiative for Pine Bluff, and the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. They are into Phase III of the project as of a few weeks ago."

Another exciting project MM is currently working on is the Task Manager Module or what is known as the Ammunition Operations Center or AOC. Henry said that MM has established a beta test AOC at Building 23-330 for ammunition movement by the storage crews.

"Basically what the program allows us to do is to be more efficient in our standard depot operation functions or SDO. It allows us to schedule our work, crews, equipment, keys and produces reports -- storing the information in one central area," said Henry. "So at the end of the day, I can go in and ask for a report in terms of the crews. It will tell me who is responsible for a particular task and how much time it took to accomplish it. It will also tell me where the lag time is so we can improve efficiencies."

Henry said that the system allows for accountability at all levels of the process. "The key players with this particular operation include all of MM and the Directorate of Logistics. DOL is involved because they handle all the forklift movements," he said. "This has really been a great tool. We implemented this AOC in August 2011 so it is still new."

The AOC is used at this time only for Class V ammunition movements. Rodney Rutledge is serving as the site manager of the AOC. Other sites that are using this process include Crane Army Ammunition Activity, McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, Blue Grass Army Depot, Anniston Army Depot, Tooele Army Depot, Hawthorn Army Depot, and Letterkenny Army Depot.

This project has high visibility with the U.S. Army Material Command, and Gen. Gustave Perna with Joint Munitions Command is very supportive of it, as is Col. Franz Amann here at PBA, said Henry.

Henry said the idea with this project is to look long range into the future and possibly duplicate the project for the chemical biological defense products that the Arsenal produces.

"In our major buildings we have everything set up with the monitors. At this time though, the system is not designed to handle the CBD element," he said. "Mattie Hollien manages the system for us here in this building. Our quality assurance people use it, transportation uses it, and DOL inputs into it for the forklift information."

MM is also using the new technology SmartChain AIT. "SmartChain is basically for Class V ammunition and allows the PBA worker to process receipt, bin to bin, re-warehousing by using scanners," said Henry. "In times past, we had to do all of that by hand with a pencil and paper. It allows us to be more efficient with what we are doing."

The information is then taken every day -- twice a day- morning and evening- from the scanner once it is docked, he said. "The information is then downloaded and flows into the Logistics Modernization Program or LMP," said Henry. "If there are some disconnects in the information at the end of the day. Then the individual has to go in the following day into SmartChain and reconcile that information. We have individuals that do the reconciling."

To increase the efficiency of SmartChain, Henry said that MM is going to start using smaller scanners. "The current ones are bulky and heavy," he said. "Two months ago, JMC wanted to come an assist us in piloting the AIT piece of SmartChain. They have provided us with four laptops and the goal is to have 12. These laptops will be mounted in the trucks so as material is moved -- the data will be uploaded in real time. MM has tried to be very proactive with the new technology."