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Marines are always looking for ways to better themselves and their units, and the Continuous Process Improvement program helps them do that. Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 26 took advantage of CPI to change their unit for the better.
“We have gone from worst to first in this last year,” said Lt. Col. Edward Carpenter, commanding officer, MALS-26, after he and his Marines used the CPI program to become the only squadron on Marine Corps Air Station New River to receive 100 percent on the Aviation Maintenance Inspection in 2017, which was conducted by 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
The application of CPI methods helps leaders identify and prioritize opportunities and problems and then apply a disciplined, proven method to incrementally and continuously improve performance. That’s exactly what the Marines of MALS-26 did in 2017 after failing the AMI at the beginning of the year.
“When we had our inspection early in the year, we failed completely and that was kind of an eye opener for me as a commander,” said Carpenter. “This is a program that I am very passionate about personally. I thought we were doing very well but when it came down to actually documenting things in writing and having all of the right stuff in place, we were not doing a good job.”
When Carpenter realized things were not running properly, he ensured all of his Marines were implementing CPI methods.
Giving Marines the skills to fix processes is one of the many things that CPI is made for, but without practice and a positive leadership it doesn’t work as it is intended to.
“You can tell a lot about what an organization cares about by what they block time for,” said Carpenter. “We care as much about CPI as we do about field day, so we have actually blocked an hour every week that we take just as seriously.”
Although every Marine in MALS-26 is required to be CPI trained, there are different levels of training which are identified by six “belt” levels: white, yellow, green, certified green, black, and certified black.
“Everyone in the squadron is required to be trained in yellow belt within one year of getting to the squadron if they haven’t been already,” said Capt. Christopher Attaway, Air Speed officer in charge, Process Improvement Office. “Everyone in the office is required to be trained in green belt and be certified within a specified period of time.”
No matter what CPI belt level or rank, every Marine and Sailor plays an important role in identifying problems and hazards in the work place. They document their findings and submit them through the chain of command to be approved or denied by the commanding officer.
“Most of our better ideas actually come from lance corporals and corporals, so typically if a Marine has an idea they’ll go to their direct leadership and get the idea approved,” said Attaway. “The next step comes to my office in the form of a charter, where (the idea is) outlined: this is what we want to look at, this is why it’s important, this is what the problem is, how long the problem has existed and this is our goal of what it will look like after it is fixed — even if they don’t know how to fix it.”
After the project is approved by the CO, the process improvement office identifies a team of Marines who will analyze the entire process and weed out the parts of the process that are useless or are a waste of time and money.
Master Sgt. Rodger Carr, process improvement chief, MALS-26 said that the teams are made up of Marines from different sections. Typically, Marines who work in the sections with the problem everyday become so used to it that it doesn’t seem problematic to them. A fresh set of eyes from a Marine from another section or unit is helpful in these cases.
“This program is best used when you have no clue about the process,” said Carr in reference to having the team made up of Marines from different sections or units. “You ask the obvious questions that everyone thinks they know the answer to but really don’t. We identify the problem and we analyze it to come up with a solution that is most beneficial.”
For more information on how to better your own section, contact the Process Improvement Office on MCAS New River at 449-6483.
| Date Taken: | 01.19.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2018 07:48 |
| Story ID: | 267617 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, MALS-26 receives perfect score on inspection, by Cpl Nikki Morales, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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