AC Summer 08 WIN-T Online - United States Army Signal Center of ...

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News and trends of interest to the Signal Regiment
LEAN SIX SIGMA PROJECT
SAVES ARMY MORE THAN $9
MILLION
By Gordon Van Vleet
A Lean Six Sigma project
initiated by the U.S. Army Network
Enterprise Technology Command/
9th Signal Command (Army),
focusing on optimization of the
Defense Message System, has
resulted in a $9.7 million savings to
the Army and could potentially save
more than $35 million if all recommended
improvements are approved
and implemented.
The project, which began in
March 2007, focused on restructuring
of the DMS contract support
requirements in Southwest Asia,
said project lead Lawrence Couture,
an operations research systems
analyst for Network Enterprise
Command.
“In the past, DMS required
special hardware and software right
down to the user’s personal computer,”
Couture said. “Now, as a
result of this project, there are
several options available that make
it possible to provide both classified
and unclassified DMS services from
a single suite of equipment to an
entire theater or regional area.”
DMS is the Department of
Defense system of record for
organizational messaging, Couture
said when explaining the importance
of DMS. “Organizational
messaging includes messages and
other communications that are
exchanged between organizational
elements of the U.S. Armed Forces,
our NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) allies, our defense
industry partners and other governmental
agencies in support of
command and control, combat
support, combat service support,
and other functional activities.
“Because of their official and
sometimes critical nature, organiza-
78 Summer 2008
DMS Optimization LSS project lead Lawrence Couture (left) receives his
Green Belt Certification from Dan Bradford, Senior Technical Director/
Chief Engineer, NETCOM/9th Signal Command (Army), during a ceremony
held in the command’s conference room.
tional messages impose operational
requirements on the communications
systems for capabilities such as
precedence, timely delivery, and
high availability and reliability.”
The objective of the DMS
optimization project was to reduce
the number and frequency of nondelivery
notifications occurring in
the Army Message Handling System,
thereby increasing message
availability and reliability while
streamlining the network for better
efficiency, said Couture.
“DMS optimization was
selected as a good candidate for LSS
improvements because prior to
March 2007, the AMHS experienced
a high rate of NDNs reducing the
effective availability and reliability
of DMS,” said Couture.
“Restructuring of the DMS
contract support requirements in
Southwest Asia was initiated this
year, and accounts for most of the
almost $10 million in savings so far,”
Couture said. “The plan now is to
continue with the same project to
further consolidate resources in the
Pacific.”
“This project was a great
example of the right LSS belt being
applied to a process problem they
know very well,” said Laretta
Hamlett, director, NETCOM Business
Transformation Office. “Mr.
Couture has been working with
DMS for many years. He is not only
well-versed in how the system
operates and how it is funded, but
also knows who the major players
are.”
The DMS optimization LSS
project is not a typical Green Belt
project said Hamlett. “LSS Green
Belt projects are typically small,
scoped to be completed within less
than three months, and do not
involve extensive cross-organizational
coordination to complete.