CRANE, Ind. - Crane Army Ammunition Activity recently completed a Green Belt Lean Six Sigma project designed to simplify, as well as enhance, the Capital Investment Program at the local level.
The goal of the project, completed by Depot Operations Director Joe Mikac, was to improve the content of CIP proposed project submissions in order to reduce man hours required for review and rework of submissions thereby reducing cycle time and improving likelihood of project validation.
Mikac said, "I took this project on because I could see that our manufacturing and logistics staff were frustrated with the CIP program. Not one CIP project ever made it through budget review without being kicked back for substantial rework. I was afraid that valuable investment dollars were being lost because people did not want to experience the frustration involved with putting a CIP package together."
The project utilized detailed process mapping, basic statistics, and conducted a user survey to determine prioritized root causes. The survey results indicated users believed the process to be too confusing and time consuming due to the lack of clear internal guidelines.
The core team assembled to carry out the project consisted of the Green Belt candidate and four members along with an extended team of four. It was made up of personnel from Directorates within CAAA (DO, ME, and RM) two of which are Green Belt Certified and one is Black Belt Certified along with a representative from LEMC.
The team instituted improved training materials, processes and established a CIP process SME within each directorate. It is assumed that these actions will improve the ease of the process for submitting a CIP project. The training should improve the understanding of the general population of the CIP process and encourage the utilization of the program. The improvements have been fully implemented, however, no project has been put through the process at this time.
Mikac said the project resulted in a comprehensive desk guide that gives step-by-step instructions for a CIP project and now subject matter experts are embedded in each directorate to provide guidance and instruction to potential CIP users. He said, "I expect that less rework will be required for CIP project packages and staff will be more eager to use CIP. With the introduction of more capital equipment, CAAA will be able to operate more efficiently and keep the rates we charge to our customers low. Personally, I enjoyed learning about the structured approach to problem solving that LSS offers and working with the amazing group of people who were on my team. The talent that they brought to the table and the synergy that we developed has convinced me that there is no problem too difficult for Team CAAA to solve."
The project, when it was finished was a great success because the goals were met and kept on schedule. The project is expected to net Type II - cost avoidance of approximately $96K due to decrease in rework time. The decreased cycle time and increased numbers of validated projects will allow CAAA to realize cost savings from improvements accomplished as a result of the projects. Additionally, it is anticipated that these changes will result in overall increased usage of the CIP process which will return additional cost avoidances. Type III - customer satisfaction will be immeasurable with the better understanding of the process resulting in increased ease of submitting a CIP project and faster realization of CIP benefits.
CAAA was established in Oct. 1977 and is a tenant of the Navy Region Midwest, Naval Support Activity Crane. The Army activity maintains ordnance professionals and infrastructure to receive, store, ship, produce, renovate and demilitarize conventional ammunition, missiles and related components.
Social Sharing