By Bill Sumners, NAVAIR-AIRSpeed Deployment Champion and
Allison Stahl, George Group Master Black Belt

Rear Adm. Mark Skinner, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division commander and AIRSpeed champion, is practicing what he preaches.

Skinner, Green Belt, along with project sponsor John Rutledge identified a problem with the accounting structure used to manage customer money to provided products and services, an issue affecting a large percentage of the working units at the Weapons Division and the Aircraft Division. They pulled together a cross-functional team from WD and AD to improve efficiency by eliminating re-work and non-value added work within the cash distribution account (CDA) and direct product accounts (DPA) processes.

The problem was when a high level manager identified a need to use a DPA or CDA, it took about six months or longer to get approval. This delay in time resulted in the inability of the customer to get their product or service until the method for handling their money was in place. While investigating the problem, the team found that multiple loops for getting and giving information often occurred, and there were different processes followed at AD and WD.

Skinner’s team met regularly to work through the Lean Six Sigma Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control methodology, using separate, but tightly scoped projects, to improve the processes in a short period of time. The team’s efforts cut the approval time in half, clearly defined the final processes, and established standard processes across AD and WD.

“This team showed that with dedicated time and discipline, a significant improvement can be made in processes, resulting in more time being made available for the people to do other work,” Skinner said. “No personnel reductions resulted from this project and the DPA/CDA managers will see major differences in the approval process.”

PHOTO CUTLINE

Rear Adm. Mark Skinner, Green Belt and Kaizen lead, is joined by members of his team that recently completed a project that improved processes across the Weapons Division and the Aircraft Division. Pictured with Skinner from left are: Merrie Giles, project sponsor; Genesis Smith, subject matter expert; Charlotte Hoffman, 7.8 deployment champion; Melanie Lawson, subject matter expert for WD, Tim Wolfe, subject matter expert for AD; Allison Stahl, George Group Master Black Belt; Bill Sumners, Black Belt mentor and 5.0 deployment champion; John Rutledge, project sponsor; and Jay Kovar, subject matter expert/customer. Also on the team but not pictured is Joe Guyther, subject matter expert/customer.