DLA Troop Support offers Green Belt training to employees

PHILADELPHIA, PA, UNITED STATES

10.25.2018

Story by Alexandria Brimage-Gray 

Defense Logistics Agency   

PHILADELPHIA – Large sheets of butcher board paper covered in flow charts served as wall décor inside the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support training classrooms as instructors from the Continuous Process Improvement team taught analytical skills during Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training Oct.15-19.
More than 20 employees from across DLA Troop Support’s five supply chains received the training during the five-day course of instruction.
The goal of the training is to promote a culture of continuous improvement, said Maximo Ayala, the lead instructor and chief, Lean Six Sigma training and project management support branch. And teaching Lean Six Sigma to employees is through this type of training is a tactic to promote the culture change.
The International Association For Six Sigma Certification set the training standards for professionals who want to understand how to implement, perform, interpret and apply Lean Six Sigma methodologies.
“We usually conduct the course twice per year,” Ayala said. “Students are required to attend the 40-hour class and pass a test with 70 percent or better. At completion of the course, the employee is considered trained. But to obtain the certification, the student has to complete a project.”
Attendees of the hands-on course included both interns and employees who had been with DLA Troop Support for a few months to several years.
“We learned about basic process flow mapping and how to relook at problems that are taking up time or creating a bottleneck within your workflow,” Erica Vazquez, Medical supply chain intern, said.
“Not only are we able to identify a problem; we learned analytical skills, better survey usage and how to put information into graphs so that you can present information and data better to prove why the change is necessary.
Dan Keenaghan is in charge of the Process Compliance directorate, which oversees the Lean Six Sigma training at Troop Support. But he was a student during the latest course and deemed the course benefial to employees at all levels.
“Whether at the strategic or the operational level, the training allows one to consider and better define the statement of work, better map out existing processes, identify where change is needed and how to measure the success of the change,” said Keenaghan.
“The course of instruction caused me to reflect on my experience here at DLA Troop Support,” Keenaghan said. “It forced me to think about those sticking points and how I can immediately employ the Six Sigma tools right away within my team.”

• Date Taken: 10.25.2018
• Date Posted: 10.25.2018 09:53
• Story ID: 297650
• Location: PHILADELPHIA, PA, US