Members of the 86th Airlift Wing are taking the initiative to better manage the resources that they are in charge of through the Surplus Supply Lean Initiative.
The Surplus Supply Lean Initiative was started at Ramstein last year as a way to re-utilize non-accountable government purchase card excess items and has been headed up by the 86th Logistics Readiness Group here.
“Those items are mostly office supplies, chairs, paper shredder oil and other like items,” said 2nd Lt. Adam Andrews, 86th Vehicle Readiness Squadron, Readiness and Resources Flight commander. “We just got a list from one unit, and they had four bottles of excess paper shredder oil, which sell for $12 for a small bottle, that someone else can use. That’s $48 that the wing won’t have to use.”
Units will be able to identify these items through Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, Sustain, Safety, or 6S process.
“6S was initially intended for manufacturing,” said Master Sgt. Tariq Abdullah, 86th VRS, Vehicle Operations Flight operations manager. “For the purpose of Surplus Supply Lean Initiative, we extrapolated some of its processes to give units a systematic approach to identify excess untracked GPC items.”
Each unit should have a representative to help them with the 6S process. Units will sort and tag the items that they need for everyday missions. When they straighten, they will organize and arrange the work centers. Then, they will shine and clean up the areas. Once that is done, the representatives will help standardize the process to prevent regression and sustain the program by training others. Of course, safety is always key and foremost throughout the entire process.
After completing the 6S process, units will be able to list their excess items on a SharePoint site where other units have the option to claim them and save their unit and the wing money. The site is tentatively scheduled to be up from Aug. 12 to Oct. 12, the time of the fiscal year when units may be out of these small items but may not have the funds to purchase them.
Though the items may seem like insignificant purchases by themselves, the numbers can add up quickly when looking at the number of purchases a wing such as the 86th AW can make on non-accountable items. Last year, the wing saved an estimated $30,000 using this method.
“Bottom line up front, we are redistributing the 86th AW non-accountable GPC items from units that aren’t using them to units that could use them and saving the wing money,” said Andrews.
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