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Military Supply Chains – Applications for Lean and Six Sigma

Military supply-chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services for military material applications. Military supply chain management includes sub-suppliers, suppliers, internal information and funds flow* We’ll look at applications of Lean and Six Sigma and finish with an overview video of how ancient Roman armies were supplied.

*Source

Improving Weapons System Support Through Lean Six Sigma

In an article titled “Tobyhanna earns Shingo Silver” author Anthony Ricchiazzi covers the Tobyhanna Army Depot application of Lean Six Sigma for improved support of a weapons system used to train aircrews to avoid threats. The article discusses what went into winning the Shingo Silver prize.

"I feel the single most important improvement that helped Tobyhanna earn the silver Shingo award is employee involvement and dedication toward Lean, Six Sigma and Value Stream Analysis," said Mike DeAngelo, a work leader in the Tactical Vehicle Branch.

You can read the article here.

Military Supply Chain Management Using Lean Methods

In a master’s thesis titled “Implementation of Lean Methods into military supply chain management, a case study of the Danish Defence's spare parts supply chain” author Thore Bergenstoff discusses how Lean Methods can be implemented into the Danish Defence Spare Parts Supply Chain in order to improve the performance in a cost-efficient manner.

To access the thesis, use the following link, and when open choose Download Full Text PDF.

Using Lean Six Sigma to Recommend Smarter Logistics Support for Remote Areas

In a report titled “Increasing Combat Power through Smarter Logistics Support to Remote Areas” authors Adam Bradford and others discuss their comprehensive study of current commercial supply chain innovations that led to many best practices that should be adopted by the US Army. This was a Lean/Six-Sigma research project in which seven tools were utilized to develop the findings and recommendations.

Their six recommendations include:

  • Reduce Packaging Waste, Increase
  • Use Of Local And Renewable Resources
  • Employ Regional Logistics Experts
  • Increase The Prevalence Of Commonality Of Parts
  • Improve Logistics Communications Systems
  • Efficient Generation Of Operational Power.

The report includes:

  • Remote Supply Issues Pareto Chart
  • Priority of Supply Pareto Chart
  • Fishbone Diagram for Inefficient Support of Remote Regions
  • Impact Map
  • Remote Base Fuel Requirements
  • Number of Days to Deliver

You can read the report here.

Ancient Roman Military Supply Line and Logistics

See an overview of how the ancient Roman military supply lines worked in this video from Invicta.

You can watch the video here.

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2025-01-31T11:18:07-06:00By Endrea Kosven|0 Comments

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