335th Signal Command (Theater)
Written by Bryon Matthews and 1st Sergeant D. Keith Johnson
Reserve Command one of first to
complete Lean Six Sigma project.
Imagine walking into Office Depot with 100 requisitions for supplies for your subordinates and being told that only 52 of the requisitions would be filled. This was what was going on with the Standard Army Retail Supply System (SARSS) at an Army Reserve command in East Point, Ga. SARSS is the system that the Army and Army Reserve use to order materials and supplies for its downtrace units. At the 335th Signal Command (Theater), only about half of the requisitions were making it through the system. Lieutenant Colonel Ardis Ferguson, from the 335th’s logistics office, recognized this was a problem, but he didn’t have time to delve into it at the depth required to completely solve the issue.
“As I worked through the symptoms, I realized there were too many fire missions,” Ferguson said. “It would take a coordinated effort to ensure we achieved a solution to this problem.” Lieutenant Colonel Harry Yates, comptroller for the 335th and deputy deployment director for Lean Six Sigma (LSS), was also aware of the situation. Both Yates and Ferguson realized this was a good Lean Six Sigma project and the assignment was given to Captain Brenton Briggs as his black belt certification project. Ferguson, from the 335th’s logistics office, recognized this was a problem, but he didn’t have time to delve into it at the depth required to completely solve the issue.
“As I worked through the symptoms, I realized there were too many fire missions,” Ferguson said. “It would take a coordinated effort to ensure we achieved a solution to this problem.” Lieutenant Colonel Harry Yates, comptroller for the 335th and deputy deployment director for Lean Six Sigma (LSS), was also aware of the situation. Both Yates and Ferguson realized this was a good Lean Six Sigma project and the assignment was given to Captain Brenton Briggs as his black belt certification project.
The 335th was one of the first five Army Reserve commands to implement Lean Six Sigma in early 2007. The methodology is part of the Army’s plan to transform its business practices. It combines the disciplined problem solving methodology called Six Sigma made famous by Jack Welch of General Electric, with principles of Lean processes made famous by Toyota. Lean principles involve eliminating waste in processes, not just manufacturing processes but all processes including office and clerical work. Essentially Lean is about speed and efficiency while Six Sigma is about quality and accuracy.
Experts in Lean Six Sigma are called “Black Belts.” The deployment of Lean Six Sigma involves dedicating your best employees to fixing processes and training them to be Black Belts. These employees receive four weeks of intense training on problem solving, statistics and team leadership. To be certified, a Black Belt must take a project from start to finish.
This project was Briggs’ certification project and the first for the 335th.
Briggs used the tools and training of Lean Six Sigma to investigate the requisition process with SARSS. He found that the probability of a requisition making it through the system was only about 52 percent. A rejected requisition might or might not be revised and resubmitted. One that was not resubmitted could become a “ghost,” meaning it was something that was tracked but was essentially stuck in limbo. Briggs found over 1,400 of these ghosts at the 335th’s headquarters alone. If they were revised, the time involved was around 30 minutes per request.
“That’s 700 hours of time better spent,” said Briggs. Lean Six Sigma calls that “non-value added” or wasted time. Briggs and his team determined that some quick fixes to the system could be achieved. Although, even after deploying the quick fixes, there was still a significant rate of requisitions being rejected by the SARSS.
Lean Six Sigma taught Briggs to let the data lead him. He and his team examined those failed and ghost requisitions to determine the root causes. He learned that in most cases, the failures were due to only a few causes. Because SARSS is a relational database and an automated system, it is upset when it is not fed the information in a particular way.
Briggs had to create some documentation on how to implement the recommendations of his team of experts. He also worked to create several ‘how to’ procedures on fixing problems and a troubleshooting check list that would lead an operator to the specific procedures to fix a problem. And to aid in that, the SARSS weekly report was changed to add the failure codes to provide more feedback to the logistics professionals.
The results were spectacular—from a 48 percent rejection rate down to 3.5 percent. Master Black Belts are highly skilled LSS experts that mentor Black Belts and provide technical assistance when needed. Captain George Harris is a Master Black Belt with the Army Reserve and worked with Briggs as a mentor on this project.
“This is a classic, textbook LSS project,” said Harris. “The data gave us a pure path to improvement.” That path led to a significant increase in the number of requisitions coming in.
“We have had more valid requisitions in the last two weeks than we had in the previous six months,” said Lieutenant Colonel Foster Hudson, a logistics officer at the 335th.
At first Hudson thought something was wrong because so many requisitions were coming through the system. The truth was that the log jam had been removed and the river supplying our war fighters was free to flow.
Colonel James Pierson, the chief of staff and the LSS deployment director at the 335th, reinforces the idea that this is a force multiplier.
“The focus of the Army’s Lean Six Sigma effort is not so much on saving money as it might be in private industry,” Pierson said. “The Army’s focus is on maximizing resources to effectively support the warfighter and their family.”
Major General Dennis E. Lutz, commander for the 335th, agreed.
“I have been involved with Six Sigma for many years, and I know that it is a powerful tool to improve efficiencies,” Lutz said. “These efficiencies in wartime can translate not only as a cost savings benefit to the Army and ultimately to the taxpayer, but they also will directly support our ability to win on the battlefield.”
Illustrating a point that is unique to the Army and federal government Lean Six Sigma environment, Briggs said: “It is hard to put a dollar figure on this in terms of dollar savings. We are actually spending money, but we are spending it on things we really need to fight the war. Before, we would have to do without.”
The 335th Signal Command (Theater) completed its first Lean Six Sigma Black Belt project—a project that greatly improved its requisition process. But it wasn’t the trip to Office Depot that improved. It was getting the right “beans and bullets” to the right warfighter faster.
And, sometimes, literally, that can be a matter of life and death. ♦
