DSCA Director's Blog

Here you will find thoughts and messages from the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and his staff.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Continuous Process Improvement on Equipment Shipping Documentation

This year, my number one priority project for continuous process improvement is to fix our problems with incorrect shipping documentation. Since we ship millions of defense articles around the world, this is a target-rich project.

The transportation and logistics professionals have a unique term for equipment that did not get to the intended destination…they call it “frustrated”. A perfect characterization! And a perfect project for a team equipped with the tool set of Lean Six Sigma.

We have a diverse team, an aggressive schedule and motivated group that can directly and significantly improve our output. Recently, we had several folks from the DSCA staff at a logistics site on the East coast. They briefly viewed a number of crates with boxes of equipment queued up for delivery. What they saw were too many boxes with labels that were incomplete, or inaccurate.

Now, we begin the project of value stream mapping, identification and analysis of root cause of the problems, and improving the process. Getting this project right will truly be a win-win.

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