WD team creates new way to manage documents, saves Navy $106K

NAWCWD's Radio Frequency Guidance Engineering Branch conducted a Kaizen event to successfully eliminate and manage an abundance of classified documents that were no longer needed. Solomon Waters was the black belt and leader of the project. Pictured from left are team members Tom Dilbert, Dave Morton, Brent Hedman, Waters, Dan Reider, and Kim Erskine. Photo by Dan O'Connor.

Date: 25-Apr-08
News Release Number: ECL200804251
By Renee Hatcher NAWCWD Public Affairs

What some might call an ordinary spring cleaning task turned into a Kaizen project for NAWCWD's Radio Frequency Guidance Engineering Branch (4.7.2.2) that resulted in a $106,000 savings for the government.

"During the last 10 years, we accumulated a huge amount of classified and personnel data that we no longer need to keep," said Solomon Waters, head of the RF Guidance Engineering Branch. "A lack of consistent housekeeping created a lot of dead documents and magnetic media so we created a core team, and turned this into a Kaizen project to improve our process for disposing of and managing this information."

Waters, a black belt, and David Morton, a green belt, led the project that took less than eight months to complete. The majority of this time was behind-the-scenes work that involved data collection and contract development.

The team used process improvement tactics to define the problem, measure the time and cost associated with the process, analyze that data, and make the necessary improvements to control the process. The current process for disposing of documents, which includes sorting, shredding and proper safe operation, took a civilian employee more than six hours to shred one drawer; they had 265 drawers. That task would take over 1,650 hours and cost more than $185,000, based on a DP-3 salary.

"Do we want our engineers shredding paper or supporting the warfighter?" asked Tom Dilbert, head of the NAWCWD Security Department and part of Waters' core team for this Kaizen project.

Analysis showed that shredding accounted for the bulk of the time required for the process. Waters and his team researched a variety of options and found that outsourcing the shredding to a government-approved mobile shredding company was the most cost effective and efficient way to go. The outside vendor shredded more than six tons of material in less than three hours. The total cost for the new process was $79,000, yielding a $106,000 savings in civilian labor costs.

"This is exactly what continuous process improvement is all about," Dilbert said. "And, it was completed in alignment with Admiral Dunaway's preferred approach of not making a big deal out of things if you don't have to. The team received their tasking, performed the necessary analysis, held one brainstorming meeting, came up with the best idea, and quickly made a smart decision."

Waters said they not only improved the process of getting rid of the documents, but they also established a process to continue to manage this task in the future. They plan to schedule periodic mobile shredding as the need dictates.

"This is an excellent example of AIRSpeed," said Brent Hedman, project sponsor. "The team solved a pressing issue quickly and cost effectively. It also created a spirit of cooperation and accomplishment."

Waters added this could not have been such a success without the support of 4.7.2.2 branch members who performed the tasks of sorting and loading materials.

"Our goal was to reduce classified and personnel documentation by 50 percent in our branch; we accomplished that," Waters said. "Eventually, we'd like to replicate this model and expand it to the division level, across the Weapons and Energetics Department, and even throughout NAVAIR."

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