MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Something stinks all around this air station.
It’s in our offices, in the barracks, the townhouses, everywhere ... waste.
While the nature of this waste is more complex than office theft, there is no reason to contact the fraud, waste and abuse officer.
There is a free class offered to teach industry tried-and-tested tools to help anyone identify and, in most cases, reduce or eliminate the waste.
Waste comes in eight broad forms, such as transportation, the time it takes to move things is time wasted, or over-processing, think producing forms in triplicate when one person will have to sign off on them.
The Business Performance Office runs a monthly Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt course open to everyone and conducted one here April 6 and 7.
At the end of the course, students can expect to have an understanding of the nature of waste, theory of constraints and a new way of continuing process improvement.
Along with that understanding, students will be armed with a useable, handy set of tools to assist them in understanding ways to eliminate or reduce waste, exploiting constraints, improving processes and reducing variation.
“Nearly everything we do can be broken down into a process or multiple processes, and all processes can be improved. What theory of constraints, Lean Six Sigma, CPI teaches us are industry-proven tools to use to improve our processes,” said Gregory Gendron, the BPO Director.
It’s important to realize the concepts are not just applicable to production; something as simple as labeling Styrofoam cups is a way to reduce waste day-to-day.
Instead of thinking in terms of manufacturing, think in terms of pieces of paper generated; e.g. reports.
The concepts can even be used in the home because processes are everywhere.
The course isn’t just a scrolling PowerPoint presentation whereby the instructors attempt to drill concepts and the only moments of excitement are getting to a break.
Instead, Gendron and the BPO team skillfully blend concept presentation with hands-on demonstrations to illustrate the concepts.
“Seeing it in action really helps,” said Linda Cordis, course participant and Lifestyle Insights Networking Knowledge Skills trainer. “And it was fun and entertaining.”
To achieve this, the BPO team uses a variety of LEGO building projects culminating with a final practical exercise where students must run a mock company and use the tools they have learned to reduce waste, improve processes and reduce variation.
Variation can more easily be understood as defects or an incorrect result.
As a point of comparison, if hospitals operated at “Three Sigma,” more than 450,000 newborn babies would be dropped in hospitals each year. Operating at “Six Sigma,” three newborn babies would be dropped in hospitals in 100 years.
While the concepts and terms may seem complicated, the course demystifies the language and fosters a new understanding of processes and waste.
“I think that I have applicable tools to use in the office,” said Scarlett Henson, course participant and the Director of Marine Corps Family Team Building. “They’re easy concepts to take back to your office.”
More importantly, the course helps clear away the fog-of-war in the office environment.
“All the eight forms of waste you learned about, if you never thought about them you just go on doing your daily task and you don’t realize this stuff’s all around you,” said Gendron.
The course isn’t just for one group of people; everyone can benefit from this training.
“I think that everyone on the air station should take this,” said Henson. “It’s applicable to every role here. It’s something we all need to work on.”
In addition, the more people who take the course, the more the improvement mindset can be instilled into the culture.
“Ideally everybody on the air station would have gone through yellow belt; so we’re always thinking improvement,” said Gendron.
Garnering this culture of improvement is so important to the Marine Corps that finding smarter ways to meet mission requirements can provide additional benefits.
“In the Marine Corps, if you free up resources or money, you can reinvest it in yourself,” said Gendron.
If after going through the course there are issues just beyond control in an office, the BPO can be contacted directly to request assistance.
Assuming some initial criteria is met, the BPO will assemble its black and green belt Lean Six Sigma team and provide free assistance.
“We try to align future process improvement opportunities with the strategic direction of the air station,” said Gendron. “So it’s great to go fix all the pizza deliveries and stuff, but if we have a project for something that would help save money with station funding or improve a process directly relating to the air station, that’s how we would prioritize.”
The most important thing to remember is anyone can take this class and start benefitting from it.
“When you see the charts that he provided us, you see it’s really impactful,” said Cordis.
The BPO is scheduled to run two-day yellow belt courses every third Wednesday and Thursday each month.
For more information about Lean Six Sigma or to sign up for the next course, call 253-6308.