The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense or the United States government.
I am amazed at the number of times that I’ve been told that somebody is “too busy” for process improvement. Many of our Sailors, Marines and civilians know ways by which they can improve their jobs, if only they had the time to develop their own ideas. These individuals believe they cannot afford to spend the time to design and implement their changes because their current tasks are barely completed in the time that they have available.
Below are two real-world examples of process improvements which were implemented as a result of supportive leadership and taking personal initiative to make the time for process improvement.
Maintenance Organization
A Marine Corps Lance Corporal transferred from a combat arms battalion to an Electronics Maintenance Company (ELMACO) in a Marine Logistics Group. As a Ground Electronics Transmission Systems Maintainer, he had just spent the previous 18 months working in the Shipping and Receiving Section, and was now expected to fix radios that he hadn’t seen since MOS school.
The Lance Corporal noticed that the other maintainers were very proficient at determining the cause of the issues, but spent most (between 80 and 90%) of their time filling out the paperwork (Equipment Repair Orders (EROs), ERO Shopping Lists, etc…). The Lance Corporal, however, had the opposite role. He would spend almost all of the time testing the equipment, in order to determine the cause of the errors, almost no time to finish the associated paperwork.
The ELMACO section was swamped with more than 1,300 EROs, with only a dozen maintainers.
A few weeks later, the section chief announced that the team was going to start port and starboard shifts, with a day crew and a night crew, in order to try to reduce the backlog of equipment waiting in the maintenance cycle (and not available for the Operating Force Marines to use).
The Lance Corporal asked the section chief if they could talk for a minute and explained his observations. The section chief noted that the section didn’t have enough time to stop fixing broken equipment and to train the other maintainers on the paperwork.
The Lance Corporal then briefed his plan. He recommended that the other maintainers concentrate on fixing the equipment, and that he would deal with the paperwork. Once they got “caught up” with the EROs, the Lance Corporal could teach the other maintainers how to complete all of the required documentation. The section chief accepted the risk of taking one of the maintainers off of the floor, and trying out a new process offered by his team member.
After six weeks, the section had reduced the number of outstanding EROs to less than 100 — a cut of over 90%. The remaining unrepaired equipment would be fixed as soon as the repair parts arrived. The section then had the time available to teach classes on completing the paperwork, without the need to work day and night.
Spreadsheet Macros
A Department of the Navy civilian working at the Pentagon received the task of processing procurement requests. The due diligence required for this role had many steps, including comparing five separate spreadsheets. The time required to process each request was about 2 hours, mostly taken up comparing the different spreadsheets.
With an average of 10-15 requests every week, this job was taking most of his time and, worse, the quantity of requests was increasing. The civilian realized that comparing spreadsheets was a process that could be automated, saving time and increasing accuracy. To automate the process, the civilian would need a program (a macro) to sort, compile, and compare the different spreadsheets and determine if all due diligence requirements had been met.
The civilian went to his supervisor to explain the situation and the estimated time savings from the macro at approximately 16-25 hours a week. The supervisor agreed the automation needed to be done, and was supportive of his suggestion. The two agreed to stop processing requests for one week in order to create the automation toolset. As the procurement requests had a tendency to ebb and flow, this temporary shutdown was implemented during the next slow period. A week was dedicated to its development and testing.
At the end of the week, the toolset had been created, tested, and implemented. The backlog of requests was “cleared” in just 2 days, and the time required to perform due diligence was reduced to only 20-30 minutes per request.
Way Ahead
Within the Department of the Navy, we must assume appropriate risk, within laws and regulations, to make the time to improve our processes. Along with the rest of DoD, the department’s budget is anticipated to fall across the next five years, if not longer, without a corresponding reduction in mission requirements. As a result, Department of the Navy must urge its leaders to support innovation, and leave individual service members and civilians enough personal initiative to continue to provide and improve the defense of the American people.
Visit the SECNAV Innovation website: http://www.secnav.navy.mil/innovation/.