Beyond Lean and Six Sigma

Abstract

Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Division at Naval Air Station Lemoore achieved time and cost reductions using the Naval Air Command Enterprise AIRSpeed program of Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints; but, could changes in organization structure or management practices provide further improvements? Organizational simulation software was employed to test interventions that could reduce throughput time for the F414 aircraft engine. A baseline model was developed and interventions were modeled and simulated. The simulated results indicated that paralleling some tasks could significantly decrease maintenance duration, while maintaining quality. The intervention was implemented saving 26 days per engine. Organizational modeling and simulation can identify and pre-test time and cost savings over and above techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma.