PHILADELPHIA –
The Defense Logistics Agency Clothing & Textile supply chain in Philadelphia accomplished a continual process improvement project that aimed to address missing required information discrepancies on their management review charts in August, 2023.
The problem arose when the management review charts were missing information. Data fields that should have read “N/A” were left “blank”.
The charts held information that included items currently in back order, items at risk to go in back order, items newly acquired and items destined for Recruit Training Centers.
“Management review charts are charts containing all the information required by C&T leadership,” said Juan Sanchez, Continuous Process Improvement coach. “C&T point of contacts which include, Material Planners, Demand Planners, Customer Account Specialists, Acquisition Specialists and Product Specialists are responsible to fill out the charts with the required information.”
When the project began in December 2021, the percentage of completed charts were 80.5%.
“Before the improvements were made, meetings were scheduled to be held once per week. Our goal was to increase completed charts to 90%,” said Sanchez.
As a result of the CPI, a newly established tracking system ensures management oversight and process sustainably. Team members surpassed their goal of 90% completed charts and achieved 98.1 % charts completed.
“Seeing this project from its beginning was a great way to review the process,” said Lisa Raucheisen, chief of plans and integration for Clothing and Textiles. “When the process was finally completed, I was glad to see we were able to make improvements to the process which benefits the warfighter.”
C&T now has a sustainable process and documented job aid to effectively prepare for high vizibility management review meetings. Fewer meetings and timely reviews, result in a labor reduction of 137.6 hours per month, or a cost offset of just over $292,000 over the next 3 fiscal years.
The new standard and sustainable process in place not only produced the 98.1% completion rate for management review charts, but a 100% reduction of NATO Identification Item Numbers.