MRO Today - Running to failure

Running to failure

by Tom Hammel

One of the loudest, most reverberant sentences I’ve ever heard was in an early draft of this issue’s cover story on AMCOM, the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Command, and it was spoken in a calm, stoic voice: “The one thing that separates aviation from all other commodities is this: We cannot run to failure.”

The implication is heart-stopping. When the evening news tells of another helicopter going down in Iraq or Afghanistan, whether from mechanical failure or enemy fire, those words turn very chilling, because at bottom they mean “When we fail, it’s fatal.” In fact, the very weight of that implication is what ultimately led to the sentence being cut from the final version of the story.

That sense of urgency is compounded by the need to maintain the scheduled rotation of overworked aircraft coming home from theaters of operation for repair, reset, retraining and redeployment. When you’ve got 14 facilities, 200-plus aircraft coming in, each one of which takes 100-plus days to turn around — and they need to turn around fast — that’s urgency. And it is this pressure that drives AMCOM’s continuous improvement programs to trim lead times, eliminate wasted materials and movement, and save time, money and lives.

Sound a bit like your organization? We thought so. The issues and challenges AMCOM faces are the same as those most manufacturers face today (except that in the private sector it’s the life of the business that’s at stake). AMCOM’s story is particularly pertinent to multi-plant operations where it’s often hard enough to share basic inventory information, much less continuous improvement lessons. AMCOM is meeting that challenge, and so can you.

Change is inevitable, but not inflexible. It can be influenced. The key is to actively direct the change around you, not just react to it. Reacting to change requires nothing, but directing it takes tools. There are many tools businesses can use to influence change or introduce it to improve efficiency and productivity. One, an easy-to-use Six Sigma project guide, is in this issue. We will present more in coming issues, all with the goal of helping you become more competitive in today’s changing market. That’s our mission and our sense of urgency.

Manufacturing in the United States is stronger than it has been since 2001. Recent surveys have borne out our 2007 projections (see the October/November 2006 MRO Today) of five-plus percent growth this year across most industries. The opportunities are there, the business outlook is good, so let’s get to it.

Stop, step back, and decide to stop that headlong run to failure. Decide and go for it. Try our Six Sigma worksheet. Let me know how it works for you.