When a combat general wants to get a true gritty flavor for how things are going with the troops, he might participate in some squad maneuvers or roll up his sleeves for some weapons cleaning in the arms room.
So what do two Army top research center leaders, who each marshal hundreds of doctors, engineers, future weapons systems managers and developers, do to get a flavor for what it's like for their troops -- after all, a slide rule rarely needs cleaning?
The answer is they join them in a classroom and on a science project to earn a Lean Six Sigma "Black Belt."
Director of the Armament Research Development and Engineering Center, Gerardo Melendez, and Weapons and Systems Engineering Center Executive Director, David R. Castellano, received their Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certifications in a ceremony on Dec. 9 at Picatinny Arsenal after completing an approximately year-long program.
Lean Six Sigma combines the Lean and Six Sigma managerial concepts to cut waste and improve performance. LSS is based on a book published in 2002 Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma with Lean Speed by Michael George and Peter Vincent.
Personnel in Lean Six Sigma who complete various training levels receive colored belts that describe their training level in a manner similar to karate.
In order to obtain a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma at Picatinny one must take two weeks of classroom training at ARDEC's Armaments University and then select their project, its methodology and the Lean Six Sigma tools they will use to complete the project before presenting the proposal to the LSS Board for approval, according to Lauren Halonski an assistant administrator of the Lean Six Sigma Deployment Office.
The training then requires completing the project, which is based on a real-world scenario.
Melendez and Castellano worked as partners with a master black belt, ARDEC LSS Deployment Director Paul Chiodo, who mentored them throughout.
"Paul Chiodo was a real task master," said Melendez. "He squeezed us to get the job done," said Melendez.
Why Take on Lean Six Sigma?
"I work for an organization that values Lean Six Sigma," said Melendez.
Melendez had previously gone to annual LSS ceremonies to hand out certificates to newly minted green and black belts.
"We had some discussions about the proper curriculum," said Melendez, who felt that in order to make decisions that might impact the curriculum, he needed to be more closely involved.
"It seemed the best way to do that was to walk the talk," said Melendez.
"It turned out to be an extensive time commitment," said Melendez. "I was overly optimistic about how long it would take to get through the different phases."
Much of that time was dedicated to completing their black belt project.
"At the time the discussions ongoing within the ARDEC leadership was about how to pursue projects within 'lanes,'" said Melendez who elaborated by explaining that the organization needed a better way to help make executive-level decisions regarding which organizations -- internal, external or in collaboration -- had the competency to take on any project that could help with the ARDEC's research and development mission.
"Is there a process we can define that can help us select projects that are within our core competencies?" Melendez asked.
Melendez said that sometimes when there were decisions to be made about taking on a project, emotions would cloud the discussions among the potential participants. "We hoped that we could take the emotion out of the discussion by having a process."
Melendez explained: "I began to ask, is it worthwhile to apply the rigor of Lean Six Sigma to this problem"
Later, Castellano, another member of the senior executive service, joined the project. "Dave had great ideas, and even though it didn't start as a joint project, he became my partner," Melendez said. Their project was later named, "ARDEC Core Competencies and Alignment of Projects."
The result was a "to-be" top-level collaboration business model and an enterprise-level decision-making process scalable to all organizational echelons, according to Chiodo.
"Dr. Melendez and Mr. Castellano's project has paved the way for an expanded and different way of thinking about achieving best value outcomes for the Army," Chiodo wrote. It is now being implemented at ARDEC and is being integrated as a key element into the collaboration policy at ARDEC's senior command, the U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command.
"We're going to ask all the right questions from the beginning," Melendez said. "What it will do is help us execute our mission more efficiently and more effectively."
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