Winter 2006, Vol. 3, Issue 4

Message from the President and General Manager

Funding reductions to infrastructure programs are significantly affecting Y-12's ability to execute production requirements. Click image for larger view.

With New Year's resolutions, quarterly quotas, strategic objectives and daily to-do lists, there is no shortage of challenges for Americans, professionally or personally. And whether you call it process improvement, efficiencies or productivity, at the Y‑12 National Security Complex it all means the same thing: We must do more with less.

This idea is not new at Y‑12. Thrift and innovation are deeply rooted in Y‑12's culture. The facilities we operate and occupy were built with borrowed materials by workers living on rationed food. More recently, when our funding was tight in 2005, employees across the site increased productivity by 15%. The resulting savings allowed Y‑12 to complete unfunded, but essential, modernization work at no additional cost.

The Y‑12 National Security Complex is committed to continually delivering improved value across the spectrum of our operations. When there is less to go around, creativity, teamwork and technology take on renewed importance. It is from those three pushes that we will find our greatest triumphs.

Improvements for FY 2007 are identified in many areas, but there is a special focus on manufacturing throughput. We have an increase in production requirements and a decrease in funding, and we must stay within established budget constraints. YTIP, the Y‑12 Throughput Improvement Plan, is our blueprint to achieve our production and deliverable goals.

We rely on all employees to achieve our desired goals. Y‑12 employees are the source of these improvements, whether they are meeting mission requirements, reducing on-site storage of hazardous chemicals, performing calibrations more quickly or electrical work more safely. Employees trained in Six Sigma and lean manufacturing principles will help us achieve the maximum benefit from our good ideas, including those focused on increasing throughput, reducing equipment downtime and reducing administrative burden.

I look forward to the further development of these, and many more, good ideas.

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