US Army Adopting Lean Six Sigma

US army is building the principles of business transformation into its workforce introduced by Lean Six Sigma (LSS). The US army is doing this to make available resources for the personnel engaged in military operations along with providing the soldiers with necessary equipment quickly. Around 1,400 leaders in the US army have received training for teaching others the ways to execute business practices.

Lean Six Sigma in the US Army began in the corporate way to eliminate the time being wasted, the money involved and the material as well. It puts together two improvement tools developed independently. One is Lean and other is Six Sigma. Lean is a product of Toyota Production System (TPS). Its prime focus is to increase the efficiency and minimize the overall wasted time.

In 1970, Motorola had developed this system for improving quality and efficiency through the control of statistics. The roots of Six Sigma date back to over 150 years. A mathematician from Prussia introduced the overall concept. Jointly, Six Sigma and Lean transform organizations. The system makes possible modernization, which listens to the customers, their questions and improves outcome through the decisions based on facts.

Lean Six Sigma Deployment:
The US army has started deploying Lean Six Sigma as the methodology to improve business transformation within the US army. This increases efficiency and quality and reduces cycle time. It reserves the much-needed financial and human resources for greater priorities.

Lean Six Sigma or LSS adds together the doctrines of Lean, which eliminates and reduces activities that are of little or no value, which in turn increases quality. Lean Six Sigma is of utmost benefit to processes such as purchase, administration, manufacturing, service, or logistics.

Due to difference in each organizational structure of the US army, there has to be a balance between flexibility and standardization within the organization. Organizations need to have a centralized design of Lean Six-Sigma.

Power Steering: The US Army uses power steering as the record system for all the efforts related to business transformation. Power steering acts as a repository for the initiatives taken to business transformation and Lean Six-Sigma. Individuals involved in business transformation/LSS may derive several benefits associated with power steering.

The benefits are as below:

1. Mentors and project sponsors use power steering as an important tool for managing portfolios connected to projects. They get the opportunity to monitor the financial/operational benefits of a group.
2. Power steering acts as an oversight and management tool for leadership in the US army. Executive reviews and control panels make aware of huge amounts of real-time projects.
3. Power steering is a collaboration tool that helps in tracking projects routinely. Status reports, version control, document sharing and issue logs are certain features that ease the execution of a project.

Other Initiatives: The US army has also introduced the US Army Installation Management Agency BPI (Buying Power Index) program. The program focuses on applying and redesigning newer processes for managing and delivering its services for installations. It measures the overall improvements in effectiveness and efficiency.

The US Army Material Command uses Lean Six-Sigma for providing vital support to soldiers. It incorporates commercial practices to achieve savings and improve quality along with the increasing buying power of the customers.

Success:

Within a couple of years, Lean Six Sigma has emerged as an important application for the US army and for the department of industries associated with defense work. Waste resources are freed and repair costs along with time are reduced that has certainly increased the efficiency and cut costs.

Lean Six Sigma lays stress on what actually works for the US army practices. It gives importance on the sustainable growth within an organization through its effective implementation.

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