Photo By Maj. William Carraway | Major General Joe Jarrard, Adjutant General of the Georgia Department of Defense,...... read more read more
Subscribe
Dania Aponte, the planning and environmental division chief for the Georgia Army National Guard’s Construction and Facilities Management Office, has been certified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt practitioner by the U.S. Army's Business Transformation Office. Major General Joe Jarrard, the Adjutant General of the Georgia Department of Defense, presented Aponte’s certification during a ceremony at the Clay National Guard Center Wednesday.
"In the Army National Guard there are fewer than 50 Black Belt Practitioners," said Larry Deaton, LSS deployment director for the Georgia Army National Guard."
Lean Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology deployed by businesses to cut waste, reduce variation and solve production problems. Practitioners of LSS advance through training and are recognized by belts. LSS Green Belt and Black Belt students attend two and four-week courses, respectively. In addition to learning advanced problem-solving tools and techniques, belt candidates must complete a process-improvement project.
“A Green Belt project can take up to three months to complete,” Deaton said. “Black Belt projects are larger-scale, more complex projects that can take up to twelve months to complete.”
For her Black Belt project, Aponte sought to evaluate and improve the Georgia Army National Guard’s environmental compliance program. The goal of her project was to develop a new hazardous waste program, reduce compliance findings and the cycle time to investigate and close out findings, and reduce cost of operating the program. As a result of this project, more than 90 days have been cut from the investigative processing time resulting in over $76,000 in annual savings.
Aponte’s achievement is the latest example of the culture of continuous improvement at the Ga. DoD. In 2007, The Ga. DoD embarked upon one of the largest enterprise-wide deployments of LSS within the state of Georgia.
“To sustain the force and transform the Georgia Department of Defense, we have to find efficiencies wherever we can and then take those savings and reapply them to other areas in the organization,” said Deaton. "The resources that we save through (LSS) projects, whether it's optimizing training and operations or streamlining staff or office service operations, will stay within the Georgia National Guard and can be redirected to other military requirements here."
Deaton added that in addition to an engaged workforce, continuous improvement requires leadership buy-in.
“The only way it will be successful is if you have commanders who support the approach and intent behind the project … and the commitment to see it through,” Deaton said.
Commenting on Aponte’s accomplishment, Maj. Gen. Jarrard congratulated Aponte on her achievement and commended her work to improve cycle time and expedite compliance findings.
“The important part of this project is that I now have full confidence that our operations are meeting environmental regulatory guidance and that we are fulfilling our societal responsibilities to provide safe operations in the communities we serve,” said Jarrard. “I am very proud of Dania and glad to have her on our team."
| Date Taken: | 09.05.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.05.2018 09:31 |
| Story ID: | 291432 |
| Location: | MARIETTA, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 258 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Georgia Army National Guard Employee Receives Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, by MAJ William Carraway, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
