Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Lawrence Dugan, the state logistics officer with Joint Force Headquarters,...... read more read more
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By Major Amanda Harrah
The Pennsylvania Army National Guard Joint Force Headquarters maintenance community recently completed a Lean Six Sigma project on its Logistics Assistance Representative and Field Service Representative request process. LAR/FSR requests provide units with the equipment they need to conduct training.
LAR/FSR requests tend to be infrequent because they are generally scheduled around annual training. This means Soldiers often must request equipment for training after they complete their training schedules. Therefore, they frequently have to reorganize their planned training to accommodate equipment availability, which causes delays and duplication of effort among the planners.
Additionally, most units and Soldiers do not fully understand the LAR/FSR request process, which causes additional confusion. In recent history, it had been a struggle to marry the efforts of the planners with the equipment and asset schedulers and subject matter experts. That changed after Master Sgt. Charles Anthony Will, a surface maintenance specialist with the Pennsylvania National Guard, attended Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification at Fort Indiantown Gap in 2016.
“Some or most units didn't fully understand the process to request [training] support and didn't know what systems FSR/LAR they needed to request,” said Will. “Having the LSS eight-step process in place gave us tools to take a problem, find the root causes, invite the
supported community to hear the voice of the customer, and begin steps immediately, finding quick wins along the way,” he added.
Will said one of the things he liked best about the LSS problem-solving model is how it brought teams together to use a collaborative approach.
“Everyone in our maintenance community who became quickly involved in this LSS project found that they had developed immediate results regardless of their title or official duties within the process everyone was a leader and everyone had a part—or stake--in the solution.”
Will explained that over the years new technologies, additional requirements and increasing equipment, asset and systems complexity contributed to lengthy and confusing processes.
“As leaders, we are always taught to get our Soldiers involved in the mission… give them ownership. We found that through the ‘lean’ process that there were wasteful steps that we had been taking for years. We saved money and time by eliminating confusing steps and
we stayed ahead of our forecasted timelines. We gave our military logisticians more time to plan. We have a better opportunity of serving our Soldiers now with the same amount of resources we were given,” said Will.
Lt. Col. Lawrence Dugan, the state logistics officer with Joint Force Headquarters, Pennsylvania National Guard, said he is very proud of his team’s contributions to streamlining this process, reducing waste and clarifying the steps to requesting support.
“We are proud to be able to use the LSS tools to provide a greater level of customer support to unit commanders and enable them to maximize training opportunities. It’s really about the Soldiers, and we are here to do anything we can do to ensure the Soldiers are best prepared to meet the mission to serve the Commonwealth or the nation at home or abroad,” said Dugan.
Will said he looks forward to working on future LSS projects with his team, and working on other belt projects to continue to streamline their internal procedures and maximize productivity.
| Date Taken: | 06.03.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2017 07:46 |
| Story ID: | 236239 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 413 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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