Naval Special Warfare Group Four (NSWG4)

Black Belt - Commander Eric Miller, USN

Using BizFlow BPM and Lean Six Sigma to Improve Navy SEAL Team Performance

NSWG4 Overview

Mission Success

Strengths

Challenges

Threats• Preeminent and finest

world-wide operators.

• Operate on less than 1% of the total Navy budget

• Access to Unsurpassed equipment

• A belief they could not increase efficiency without compromising effectiveness

• Culture change

• Disparate Process Across Group

• Department of Defense budget cuts

• Stretched resources due to expanded and enhanced missions

• Aging craft and equipment

Project Name: SWIFT Special Warfare Information Fast Tracker

• Responsible for the development and testing of combatant craft and associated ordinance and equipment.

• Tasked to create different business sustainment model to meet missions with fewer assets.

• Gives objective of accelerating procurement process (order cycle time) for craft repairs and spare parts to ultimately reduce the number of craft and assets required to meet military engagements.

• Used Lean, Agile and BPM to streamline and automate the process.

Methodology

Workflow Automation for Acquisitions is the Second Prong of a Three Step Approach to Improving SEAL Operational Readiness by:

• Driving JIT for Repair Parts• Increase Time on Water for Craft/Engines

Move Contracts to repair craft, engines and order parts to NSW (Upstream towards Customer)•Decrease Ordering Cycle time•Increase Contracting Officer Skills (Job Declassification)

Show Contract Visibility to Customer •Workflow Automation

Using Acquisition Strategy of Moving Contracts Upstream to drive Just in Time (JIT) Logistics

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Step 1: Conducted customer survey to identify logistical challenges facing the enterprise. Identified several key areas of customer dissatisfaction:• Lack of contracting visibility;• Late notification of errors or missing paperwork• Inconsistent process times for awarding contracts to suppliers

Step 2: Selected micro-purchase process for improvement and automation. Reasons included:• Small in scale and large in impact (5,000 for NSWG4 and > 25K for NSW totaling over $26M)• Pilot at NSWG4 • Microcosm of challenges facing NSW acquisitions• Standardize and streamline a process which was geographically dispersed and touches every

command

Step 3: Measured existing process:• Average sampling of 50 purchase from each team• Sample size N=207• Average Cycle Time= 6.70 days• Median Cycle Time= 6 days• Process Cycle Efficiency = 7% (4 hours out of 6.7 days is considered value added which is

actual purchase time)

Step 4: Identified causes of defects:• Incomplete or missing paperwork (rework)• Inability to automate reminders to approver to process paperwork on their desk• Lack of trained personnel on acquisition process

Understand and Measure Existing Process

Get Employee Engagement & CommitmentEmployee Engagement: Conducted a Kaizen Event with representation from ALL stakeholders, including SEALs, SWCCs, and support personnel, as well as representation from all Teams, and Commands.

Create Workflow and Capture Rules

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Create Dynamic User Experience

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Personalize UI by Role and Group

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Tech Edit Tab Budget Review Tab

Receiving Tab

Create On-Demand Print Capability

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Results from Using BizFlow BPM

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Fast to deploy, inexpensive to modify and maintain• Consistent methodology based on Agile + Lean• Drag-and-drop development environment gives end-users the chance

to “change their mind”

Standardize business processes and rules across the command• 100% Visibility & accountability• Immediately answers the question “where’s my request”

Self Service Reporting • 1 Click Dashboards for Leadership • Ad hoc, web-based reporting

Results from Using BizFlow BPM

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• Decreased Ordering Cycle time from 6 days to 3

• Increased Process Cycle efficiency from 7% to 18%

• Reduction of 6.3 man years of processing time

• 100% Visibility, Accountability and Audit

• Projected paper reduction of 25,000 purchasing packets indirectly helping to “green” the command

• 27% “Rejection Rate”

• Fully Operational in 6 months

Go Green Perspective

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One Year creates 163,000 transactions.

Six Years creates 347 feet of paper, 47 feet taller than the Stature of Liberty.

Naval Special Warfare Group 4 SWIFT

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Any Questions?