CLAY NATIONAL GUARD CENTER, Aug. 30, 2010 — The Commander of the Georgia Army National Guard, Brig. Gen. Maria Britt, recently announced the designation of Mrs. Dena Jester as an Army certified Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Green Belt practitioner within the Georgia Army National Guard.

Jester is just the second member of the Georgia Army Guard, following Maj. Tiffany Sneed, to complete the intense training program cumulating in the completion of a Process Improvement Project.

This training and process improvement resulted in her earning the recognition by the United States Army Enterprise Transformation Task Force. She joins an elite team of less than 50 peers within the National Guard.   

Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) is a strategic approach for developing a culture of continuous improvement in the areas of reliability, process cycle times, costs in terms of less total resource consumption, quality, and productivity. Deployed effectively, it increases quality and productivity, while reducing waste and cycle time.

In late FY2007, The Georgia Department of Defense embarked upon one of the largest enterprise-wide deployments of Lean Six Sigma within the state of Georgia in an effort to institutionalize the tentes of CPI, a component of Business Transformation. LSS combines the principles of Lean (reducing and eliminating non-value activities) with Six Sigma (reducing variation, increasing quality) to improve process effectiveness and alignment with the Voice of the Customer. This approach can be applied to any process, whether it is manufacturing, acquisition, logistics, administration, or service. The objective of using LSS methodologies is to deliver high quality products and services more efficiently (e.g., faster) and effectively (e.g., increased ready units.)

“To sustain the force and transform the Georgia Department of Defense, we have to find efficiencies wherever we can and then take those savings and reapply them to other areas in the organization," said Mr. Larry Deaton, Georgia Strategic Management Director and  Lean Six Sigma deployment director.

"The resources that we save through (Lean Six Sigma) projects – whether it's optimizing training and operations or streamlining staff or office service operations – will stay within the Georgia DoD  and can be redirected to other military requirements here," said Deaton.

Lean Six Sigma was launched in the Ga. DoD with executive-level awareness training and a projects sponsor workshop. The participants gained an understanding of Lean Six Sigma methodology and identified underperforming processes. A list of those processes was formed, and initial projects were selected from the list and led by personnel attending either a Green Belt or Black Belt course.

The students attend two and four-week courses, respectively, of classroom time learning advanced problem-solving tools and techniques while simultaneously completing a project. A Green Belt project is smaller in scale and can take up to three months to complete, Deaton said, while a Black Belt project is a larger-scale, more complex project that can take up to six months to complete. Dena attended the Green Belt Course.

“LSS is not an easy process and that it takes command involvement. The only way it will be successful is if you have commanders who support the approach and intent behind the project, and the commitment to see it through,” Deaton said.

Commenting on Dena’s accomplishment, Col Richard Poppell stated, “This project will increase the funds available during the year of execution and eliminate DA penalties against current year funds.  This is a worthwhile project that will significantly benefit the USPFO and the entire GA ARNG.  Congratulations to Dena and her team on this important accomplishment.”

Dena’s project involved the reduction of unliquidated funds (growback) Management Interagency Purchase Request (MIPR).  The goal of her project was to decrease the amount of growback caused by MIPRSs. Growback happens when prior year funds de-obligate after the year of execution.

When funds are not properly managed during the year of execution, it creates an availability of funds only after those funds are no longer accessible for use.  This problem has been ongoing for over 20 years and occurs across all federally funded programs in the Georgia National Guard.  Historically, more than $500,000 per year is lost to growback, negatively impacting the ability to execute efficiently within the current year.

The largest growback occurs in the Dept. of Logistics, Operations, and Joint Operations Directorates.  These represent the biggest accounts in the Georgia Army National Guard. They also issue the most support MIPRs.

Large accounts are particularly challenging to keep track of MIPR status and other “high potential growback” categories such as training, contracting and logistics. In recent years, Infantry Division and Infantry Training Centers as well as NAVSEA appear to be particularly vulnerable to growback potential.

Data and process analysis revealed that not all growback originates – or can be managed – in the same ways.  Therefore, Dena and her team categorized different types of growback as either preventable or non-preventable relative to the capacity to manage, report and take action within the same fiscal year. 

The completion of Dena’s project garnered more than $500,000 in additional funds available during the year of execution and eliminated the penalty against current-year funds. 

Story and photo by Maj. Jacqueline Jackson
Strategic Management Office
Georgia National Guard