By Vicky Falcon
NAVAIR Headquarters Public Affairs

Commander Tom Wheaton is a busy man.

Wheaton is one of 180 class desk engineers within NAVAIR. As a class desk engineer (formally known as the Assistant Program Manager Systems Engineer) for the Aircrew Systems Program (PMA-202), Wheaton is in charge of the overall systems engineering of projects within his program office. His responsibilities include coordinating the entire process (from concept through production) to make sure the project continually meets the performance parameters initially established in the concept phase. He also makes sure that project testing is valid and specific to the requirements. He administers and coordinates the risk management process of all programs and oversees Systems Engineering Tech Reviews. He is also a self-described “sanity check” for his program office.

Added to his already very full plate was an AIR-4.1 Class Desk Weekly Report where he was to outline top issues by priority, including multiple contact information for each issue. The report was also to include upcoming program events and detailed risk descriptions.

Thomas LaBatt is a class desk engineer at the United States Naval Test Pilot School who is now a NAVAIR AIRSpeed Black Belt. LaBatt faced the same duties as Wheaton prior to taking on his current responsibilities - but now he is in a position to help.

“I kept thinking, ‘There’s gotta be a better way!’” said LaBatt. “The 4.1 Class Desk Weekly Report was a requirement, but it also seemed to be redundant because the same information was already being rolled up in several other reports.”

LaBatt decided to apply his own sanity check to the process and take on the 4.1 Class Desk Weekly Report as his first Black Belt project. Mike Persson (AIR-4.1G) was identified as Project Sponsor or Process Owner. As such, he was in a position to pull in resources to ultimately make the changes or improvements to the process based on the outcome and recommendations from the Black Belt team (members included Steve Bizzarro, Rich Kerzner, Robert Smith, John Hassinger, Cindy Carrol and David Meiser as an extended team member).

“First and foremost we needed to determine if there was a need for the Class Desk Weekly Reports,” said LaBatt. “If there was a need (for the report), then how should it be compiled and formatted consistently by the Class Desks without adding non-value-added work to their daily tasks?”

For this project, the Black Belt team used a number of Lean Six Sigma tools, including an online survey tool that enabled them to get honest feedback - voices of the customer (VOC) - without knowing who had responded. One hundred and eight of the 180 class desk engineers responded to the team’s survey, an astounding response.

“I went into it with an open mind,” LaBatt said. “First I wanted to see how we can improve this process and make it more efficient. Then I asked how much value-added work went to NAVAIR and/or to the Fleet in this process.

“The more we looked into it, and the more VOC we got,” said LaBatt, “the more we started wondering if NAVAIR could live without the process or if we could eliminate it entirely.”

The VOC the team listened to also included Assistant Program Executive Officers and some in the SES.

“The Class Desk Engineers were receiving no feedback from their reports,” said LaBatt, “Because management just didn’t have the time to read the report.”

LaBatt began to take a look at the cost savings of stopping the report. Based on the current actual labor spent on submitting and reviewing the report there was a Type II savings of more than $360,000 per year.

According to LaBatt, Type II savings are actually waste elimination where assets/resources are freed up to be reassigned to other value-added work and/or potential future savings.

“By eliminating the report, we are freeing up Class Desk Engineers to do the equivalent of $360,000 more work in their fiscal year on value-added work,” said LaBatt.

“Savings in the category of Type I benefits have a direct and certain impact on the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) resources made available to the Navy for recapitalization,” explained LaBatt. “Potentially they are pulled out of the budget and ultimately returned to the Fleet. Type III savings are generally understood to be cost avoidances or savings that are non-quantifiable.”

LaBatt credits his Black Belt team and Project Sponsor for their involvement and their provision of time and energy to attack this project and finish it in a timely manner. “To be an effective team each member must be effective,” he said. “Everyone involved needed to understand the Lean Six Sigma terminology and tools, and needed at least Yellow Belt Training prior to being assigned to the Black Belt team. Team members also needed to be proactive in learning about Lean Six Sigma.”

“NAVAIR has been tasked by CNO with providing cost-wise readiness and dominant maritime combat power to make a great Navy / Marine Corps team better,” said LaBatt. “This is how we are going to achieve that goal.”
Though his first Black Belt project took less than five months and brought a significant cost savings, LaBatt says the real success of the project was in the elimination of a redundant and unnecessary report that only added more stress and effort to a group of engineers within NAVAIR who are already fully engaged in the important role they fill.

The ‘sanity check’ is still in place.

For more information about NAVAIR AIRSpeed, go to http://www.navair.navy.mil/navairairspeed/.