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From Activity to Effectiveness: Unifying Efforts with a Common Vision and Roadmap

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In 2012, the Navy reorganized the administration of pay and personnel under a consolidated organizational hierarchy. Part of the reason for the reorganization was to improve the capabilities and standardization of the Command Pay and Personnel Administrators (CPPA).   Work began immediately on improving systems for CPPAs, improving training for CPPAs, improving policy for CPPAs, etc. The work was somewhat unbalanced though, because some streams of the development could proceed much more rapidly than others. In fact, the difficulty surrounding lack of synchronization among the development streams created significant friction on more than one occasion.   Because the pace of improvements accelerated in 2017-2018 to coincide with other developments around the domain, these lack of synchronization difficulties became unbearable. Through a series of weekly meetings with a cross-section of stakeholders, we carefully documented requirements for a mature CPPA capability and th

AISES and SWE 2018

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I continued to support the Navy’s recruiting mission in 2018 by attending the American Indian Science and Engineering Society conference and the Society of Women Engineers conference. At the conferences, we provided instruction in lean six sigma fundamentals as a way to support the conference communities and to acquaint participants with Navy career opportunities. We also participated in the career fair to have a better opportunity to share details with individuals interested in Navy career paths.  

Lean Six Sigma Milestone: 1,000 Students

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At the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) annual conference, professionals crowded in to the room to hear the Navy presentation on Lean Six Sigma. A total of 82 students packed a room designed for 50; somewhere in the room is my 1,000th student! The good news is that the demand for Lean Six Sigma content remains strong; young professionals clearly see the link between process improvement skills and career advancement. If there is bad news, then it lies in the Navy's drifting away from the tools and techniques of Lean Six Sigma toward other process improvement systems. This may in fact be the end of a chapter --- we are now looking ahead to DESIGN THINKING as a way to improve Navy processes. DESIGN THINKING captures the basic essence of Lean Six Sigma, but it focuses more deliberately on design from an end-user's perspective. Okay, so now it is time to find my first DESIGN THINKING student!