2 Hours CPI Training + Sticky Notes = Saving Lives

During the second Gulf war, as coalition forces occupied Iraq, an insidious threat became commonplace and increasingly deadly…the Improvised Explosive Device, or IED for short. The enemy was taking grenades, C-4, artillery shells, or anything with an explosive charge and creating bombs. They’d be placed along roads or near paths and remotely detonated when coalition forces came near. They would often use cell phones to set them off. The explosives would be wired to the phone’s ringer. A call to the phone would then set off the device.

?IEDs became so prevalent in the culture, an Academy Award-winning film, The Hurt Locker, used them as a central theme.

A variety of countermeasures were developed; improved armor on vehicles, changes in convoy operations, and the creation of “The Warlock.” It was a jamming device that could be installed on vehicles. When activated, The Warlock would jam cell phone transmissions and prevent the IEDs from being triggered. It was a great piece of hardware, with just one drawback. It took about 8 hours to install a Warlock in a vehicle.

That doesn’t seem bad, but it was. The Warlocks were being installed in-country. Drivers would have to come in with their vehicles on their day off and sit around as the jammers were installed. The drivers worked six days a week, and time off was precious. They would rather sleep in, catch up on laundry, watch a movie...anything other than sit around a hot garage; even if it could save their life. And so the installation rate of jammers was woefully low, I don’t recall specific numbers, but believe it was in the 40% range. Then a new Navy Lieutenant Commander took over.

I first heard of all this at a 2010 Navy CPI Conference I attended. The Lt. Commander who took over the responsibility of installation was telling us the story.

As a naval engineer, he was tasked to support the Marines (as they often don’t like to admit it, the Marines are part of the Navy) and that is how he found himself in Iraq. Just before deploying, he attended a process improvement training program. It was just two hours long and provided quick overviews of the concepts of lean and some of the tools used.

When he got to the station he saw the abysmal install rates. Another officer may have just barked orders and issued notices about the need to get the jammers installed. The same approach that had been used since the program was introduced (and obviously failed).

But this Lt. Commander saw the root cause right away: his team was not meeting the customers’ needs. He understood the customer. They had precious little free time and did not want to use it sitting and waiting, for a long time, in an uncomfortable area…even it if was for something that could save their lives. With this in mind, the Lt. Commander knew what needed to be done. He and his team needed to decrease the time it took to install the jammers. But how?

While mulling this over, the Lt. Commander remembered those couple of hours of CPI training and the bit about process mapping. There was a stack of sticky notes on his desk, grabbing them, he assembled his team. The team was small and was a mix of military and civilian contractors. There was a sense of frustration among them as they felt they were not doing the work they should, so they were enthusiastic when the Lt. Commander asked for their help.

Within a few hours, they mapped out the process, and several opportunities for improvement jumped out at them:

• Variation: There were a lot of different vehicles: 5 Tons, Deuce and a Halves, Humvees, and more. Each type needing different installations.
• Labor Intensive: The installation process required drilling holes in the vehicle, which had to be measured differently for each vehicle. Cables needed to be run throughout the vehicle, each strand needing to be measured and cut. All this took a lot of time.?
• Customer Service: Long and uncertain times were the key issue here.

So they began to address these issues. It wasn’t rocket science, but they were actions that would not have been taken had not been for a focused effort on improvement.

The Lt. Commander worked with his team, to come up with:

• Standard Work & Training. They listed the different types of vehicles and then pulled the Technical Orders (the official installation instructions) to ensure they had them all in one place and everyone was trained on them.
• Jigs. The team created metal templates with holes they could place on the vehicle and then mark where holes needed to be drilled. These jigs greatly reduced the time needed to measure where to drill and reduced errors of errant drilling.
• Move Work Upstream: Work with Suppliers. The Lt Commander contacted the supplier of the wires used. He provided them with a list of wires and lengths needed for each type of vehicle. The suppliers agreed to precut and package wires for various vehicles. Now when a Humvee came in, they could just grab a “Humvee Kit” and everything they needed would be there. Again, a huge time saver.
• Improved Customer Comfort. They made a little waiting area, scrounging up an air conditioner and providing water, and, on occasion sodas and snacks. And as the processes improved, the team was able to give better time estimates of installations.

The results were immediate. Times dropped from 8 hours per install to 5, then 4, and continued downward until they hit just over 2 hours. The install rates began to climb; from below half to 60, then 70, then 80 percent. I believe they hit a max installation rate of the high 90s.

The Lt. Commander was presenting all this at the conference, showing various charts and graphs. Correlating with the increase in installation rates was a decrease in IED causalities and death. He was humble in that he mentioned all the other initiatives going on to reduce IED damage. But the data clearly showed that his team's work had directly saved lives.

As mentioned in previous articles, I did CPI in the Air Force, but had the privilege of meeting, and working, with all the branches. And I have to say, I really believe the Navy (and Marines!) were the strongest, most impactful programs of any organization I’d ever seen (private or public). And this is my favorite story that supports that statement.

Think of it…a new leader, faced with daunting cultural resistance to change (even though the change could save lives!), seeks to improve things. And he’s successful! Wildly successful! With just a few hours of training, and a stack of sticky notes.?That truly is the power of Process Improvement.

#quality #lean #leansixsigma ##operationalexcellence #processimprovement #totalqualitymanagement #storytelling #Navy #CPI