Word: sigma
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...concepts of Lean and Six Sigma have been around the private sector for decades, and some parts of the Army have been using them since 2002. Lean is an outgrowth of the Toyota production system, developed in the 1930s, which focuses on increasing efficiency and reducing cycle time by eliminating waste. Six Sigma was first used on a wide scale by Motorola in the 1980s as an approach to improving quality through statistical measurements and benchmarking, Evans explains. Six Sigma entered the U.S. business lexicon in a big way in the 1990s when CEO Jack Welch embraced it at General...
Today on the bookshelves of nearly every Army office in the Pentagon, alongside military-history tomes, sits a stack of business books that try to decipher what Lean Six Sigma means. Harvey, the spiritual godfather of the Army's transformation, tries to cut through the jargon. "We used to call it 'quality and productivity improvement' or 'total quality management,'" says Harvey, who worked for Westinghouse for nearly three decades. "The bottom line is, you take the extra steps out of the system, and improvement should be ongoing and forever...
While Lean and Six Sigma have traditionally been applied to manufacturing, the Army is using them in administrative offices as well. Last year for the first time, Harvey began requiring precise monthly figures on how many employees the service had. Then he gave commanders the responsibility of scrutinizing every new hire. Largely through attrition, the Army recorded a mere 2.6% increase in civilian employees in 2005. And Harvey did his part: his office now has 30% fewer than when he took...
...officers are doing the same. General Ben Griffin, the head of Army Matériel Command--the service's central procurement organization for equipment--has dramatically cut the number of meetings, reports and briefings. He installed seven senior officers around the world, in part to track progress on Lean Six Sigma, and gets Army-wide operational updates every week by videoconference rather than in-person meetings. Griffin says his command alone saved $110 million last year, and military sources expect that to be doubled this year...
...large questions loom over the Army's efforts: Is Lean Six Sigma just a management fad? And can a system designed to maximize profits and market share work in an enterprise whose goal is national security? Says an analyst who studies government procurement: "How is the Army going to judge success? Cutting people or saving money is useful, but the challenge will be making sure all the changes are not only relevant to the soldier in the field but that there aren't negative impacts for war fighting." Some outside experts have also raised doubts about the Army's ability...