WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 25, 2015) — Ten Army organizations that streamlined their business operations by eliminating redundancies and saving the service millions of dollars were recognized Wednesday for their excellence in Lean Six Sigma practices.
Acting Undersecretary of the Army Eric K. Fanning hosted the Pentagon ceremony paying tribute to the winners of the 2014 Army Lean Six Sigma Excellence Awards Program, known as LEAP. He then presented framed certificates and plaques to the winners with Robert Swan, deputy director, Army Office of Business Transformation.
Now in its seventh year, LEAP recognizes outstanding project teams and organizations, which have demonstrated excellence in implementing results-driven process improvement projects using the Lean Six Sigma, or LSS, concept to adopt new ways of doing business, while streamlining processes and reducing costs.
“It’s not just the cost-savings and avoidance that you realize… you actually introduce real efficiencies for our Soldiers, for their Families and our civilians,” Fanning said. “You make a difference in people’s lives every single day. You make their lives easier.
“I just want to thank you again for all that you do on behalf of the Army and all the help that you are providing year after year,” he added. “Congratulations to the winners. Thank you.”
Winner of the Lean Six Sigma HQDA Principal Staff in the Organizational Deployment Award:
• Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs/G-1 for outstanding efforts in the deployment of LSS methodologies and the achievement of exceptional process improvement results.
Winner of the Lean Six Sigma AR 10-87 Organizational Deployment Award:
• U.S. Army Medical Command for outstanding efforts in the deployment of LSS methodologies and the achievement of exceptional process improvement results.
Winner of the Lean Six Sigma Subordinate Organizational Deployment Award:
• 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Europe for outstanding efforts in the deployment of LSS methodologies and the achievement of exceptional improvement results.
The next seven awards are project team awards, which recognize the outstanding contributions and results of the individual project teams of master black belt, green belt and non-gated projects:
• U.S. Army Dental Command, U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School, U.S. Army Medical Command, or MEDCOM, for the outstanding enterprise level project, “Decrease Process Cycle Time for Dental BOLC [Basic Officer Leadership Course] Graduates to Receive Clinical Privileges and Treat Patients.” The project resulted in a 57 percent reduction in the time between the dental professional’s arrival on station and a release to treat patients. The solution was replicated to all Army MEDCOM Dental Clinic Commands encompassing 40 installations worldwide.
• Logistics and Readiness Center, U.S. Army Materiel Command for the Non-Enterprise Level Project Team Award (Black Belt) for their outstanding project, “Streamlining the Acquisition Requirements Package Process.” The process was transformed and as a result, lead time was reduced by 65 percent and a considerable financial benefit of cost avoidance was generated.
• Europe Regional Medical Command for the Non-Enterprise Level Project Team Award (Black Belt) for their outstanding project, “Improve the Europe Integrated Disability Evaluation System [IDES] Soldier Reassignment Process.” This project resulted in exceptional operational improvements of an 80 percent reduction in process cycle time for exception to policy and a 90 percent reduction in the process cycle time for IDES.
• 21st Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Europe for the Non-Enterprise Level Project Team Award (Green Belt) for its outstanding project, “Improve the 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion Chapter Initiation Process.” This project resulted in a 67 percent reduction in the cycle time and a 38 percent reduction in the average cost per chapter.
• U.S Army Public Health Command for the Non-Enterprise Level Project Team Award (Green Belt) for its outstanding project, “Reduce Process Cycle Time of the Ergo Course Planning and Execution Process.” This project applied distance learning practices, eliminated all travel temporary duty assignment, or TDY, from the training delivery, and achieved the removal of 97 percent of recurring labor hours and reduced process cycle time from 124 days to five days.
• Program Manager Apache, Program Executive Office Aviation, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) for the Non-Gated Project Team Award, “Cost Analysis Support for Contract Negotiations.” This project’s goal was to improve the effectiveness of contract negotiations delivering reductions of 3 to 5 percent in negotiated versus budgeted costs for procured products and services. The team was successful in exceeding their goal with a cost avoidance of seven percent.
• 1109th Theater Aviation Sustainment Maintenance Group, Connecticut National Guard, National Guard Bureau for the Non-Gated Project Team Award, “Improve the UH-60 Blade Cuff Restoration Process.” The project focused on cost, rework and lead time processing. The result was a 50 percent decrease in average blade cuff repair time and a stable increase in monthly production throughput by a factor of eight times.