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The basis for the 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s commitment to the LSS program was succinctly stated by the command’s deputy commanding general, Brig. Gen. Jimmie Jaye Wells, at a graduation ceremony April 30 at the Learning Center on Landstuhl.
“We are a lean Army and we are attempting to be leaner,” said General Wells as he explained that eliminating wasted effort and redundant work frees human and financial resources that can then be applied to warfighting requirements. “Ultimately, it is about being better in combat.”
LSS, which is a combination of Lean and Six Sigma, holds that any process — manufacturing, acquisition, logistics, administration or service — can be improved using its principles. Lean seeks to reduce and eliminate non-value activities, while Six Sigma is about reducing variation and increasing quality. However, the Army, with its diverse organizations, must balance standardization and flexibility while operational readiness and the Soldier remain as focal points.
Four of the 19 black belt graduates are members of the 21st TSC and 7th CSC. Lt. Col. Thomas Hays, 21st TSC Operations Research/Systems Analysis chief, Lt. Col. George Loughery, with the 7th CSC, Nina Ligons, a business operations specialist with the Theater Logistics Support Command, Europe, and Kai Perschmann, with the Ammunition Center, Europe, established their projects with these goals in mind.
Therefore, the spotlight should be on the projects and their organizational benefits — not the graduates, Lieutenant Colonel Hays said.
“LSS aims to do things better, faster and at less cost. The training empowers the students to use the tools of LSS to solve problems, to fix things. This is all about doing something for the organization, not about getting certified,” he said.
Lieutenant Colonel Hays and his team seek to decrease the time it takes to hire a Department of the Army civilian employee from the current average of 180 to 120 days.
“Right now, there are more than 100 vacancies at the 21st TSC. If you consider the current average length of time it takes to fill those positions, lots of man-years of work aren’t being done,” he said.
Clearly operational and logistics readiness at the 21st TSC will increase if 60 days are cut out of the process, especially if that happens 100 times now and continues to happen in the future.
