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| Essex Industries: Vital Components for Life | Volume 58 Winter 2006 | Archives | |
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Essex Has Embarked on a 6-Sigma
Journey 6-Sigma stands for six standard deviations from mean. Originally developed by Motorola, it is a continuous improvement toolset named for Sigma, the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet used to represent standard deviation in statistics. 6-Sigma aims to reduce business performance variability to as close to zero as possible. The two significant differences between 6-Sigma and other approaches are 1.) the development of practitioners at different levels of certification, each with a different “belt” much like in martial arts and 2.) the deployment of a rigorous, continuous-improvement methodology focused on the bottom line known as DMAIC (Define opportunities, Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improve performance, Control performance). Industry has found that 6-Sigma dovetails flawlessly with LEAN’s goal of minimizing consumption of resources that add no value to a product. So Essex is now formalizing our continuous improvement initiatives as LEAN/6- Sigma. Adopting the 6-Sigma model also satisfies requests from several of Essex’ major customers. The Essex LEAN/6-Sigma Plan is to have a core of Black Belts within the organization, supported in their continuous improvement efforts by several Yellow Belts at each facility. Three Essex employees, Russ Zavadil, EMD Quality Manager; Mathew Manuals, PB&R Quality Manager; and Cyril Narishkin, Director of LEAN /6-Sigma, are working on their Black Belts. Black Belt is the highest level of 6-Sigma certification and requires the aspirant to complete a successful 6-Sigma project and pass a 6-Sigma test. Russ and Mathew have attended four weeks of class, are working on a project and preparing for the test. Yellow Belt certification requires two days of training by Emerson Motors Company Black Belts at Emerson’s training facility. Seventeen Essex employees have received or will soon receive their Yellow Belts in 6-Sigma training. To complement 6-Sigma Yellow Belt training, all 17 of the Yellow Belts will also complete Boeing’s LEAN Accelerated Improvement Workshop (AIW) Leader training. Five more Essex Employees have received Boeing’s
LEAN AIW Leader Certification. To become a Boeing Certified Accelerated
Improvement Workshop (AIW) Leader, one must complete the following steps
and have each step approved and signed off by Boeing. The steps are: 1.)
participate in a week-long training program at Boeing; A certification award ceremony was held at Essex Aerospace and Defense last summer, during which Keith Guller, Essex CEO; Mike Schneider, Boeing Supplier Quality & Development; and Jack Hitt, Boeing Crew Systems, presented AIW Leader certificates to Jeff Arter, Design Engineer/LEAN Coordinator PB&R; Jennifer Schoen, Automotive Sales/LEAN Coordinator, EMD; Kim Matheny, Sr. Mfg Engineer/LEAN Coordinator, EMD; Ryan Langdon, Product Test Supervisor/LEAN Coordinator, EMD; and Thomas Gruzeski, Supervisor/LEAN Coordinator, EMD. Cyril Narishkin received his AIW Leader certification in September 2004, giving Essex a total of six certified LEAN AIW Leaders. 1 John Nycz, Director, 6-Sigma Solutions
Kudos to Essex for their great job on the Boresight Reference Unit (BRU) project for Boeing. Bob Fleig, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems’ Crew Systems Team Leader, came to Essex Industries to present the BRU team at with a framed picture of the BRU’s first flight. The caption reads: First Flight, JHMCS Boresight Reference Unit, 25 January 05. The successful first flight was in an F/A-18D Hornet with JHMCS (Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System) installed in both the front and aft cockpits. The combat-proven F/A-18 Hornet is a single- and dual-seat, twin-engine multi-mission tactical aircraft. It is the first tactical aircraft designed from its inception to carry out both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The Essex-supplied BRU is an optical alignment device with illuminated crosshair that is mounted on the upper right side of the F-18 instrument panel. The BRU works in conjunction with the JHMCS to align the pilot’s helmet with the aircraft. The JHMCS is comprised of a magnetic head tracker which projects a display onto the pilot’s visor, creating a targeting device that can be used to aim sensors and weapons wherever the pilot is looking. With JHMCS, the pilot can aim radar, air-to-air missiles, infrared sensors and air-to-ground weapons merely by pointing his or her head at the target. The WSO (Weapon Systems Officer) can align his JHMCS to the aircraft by aligning his helmet crosshair with the BRU and pushing a button. Realignment can be done any time during flight. Once aligned to the aircraft, the JHMCS displays target information to both the pilot and the WSO simultaneously and either may designate a target or engage a target. Essex created the production-drawing package and met all Boeing design, data, testing and program management requirements. The actual design was a joint Essex Aerospace & Defense/Seiler Instruments effort. Key contributors were Tom Bollinger along with Steve Pinkston, Ed Wilke and Scott Selph at Essex, and Brian Worthlin at Seiler. “When Boeing needed bidders for the BRU, they came to Essex based on our previous experience designing and developing electro-mechanical aircraft products” notes Ed Wilke, Program Manager at Essex Aerospace & Defense. “ We expanded our capability by teaming with Seiler Instruments for their optics experience and utilized Essex design, development, testing, data and program management experience to complete the program. Seiler Instruments manufactured the BRU; we handled everything else.” Twenty BRUs have been delivered to Boeing with an additional 180 orders expected this year for deliveries through 2008. As other two-seat aircrafts like the F-15 and F-16 are equipped with JHMCS units, Essex expects to receive BRU orders for those as well.
The goal of the workshop was to create a system by which Essex could identify and develop key management talent within the organization, set improvement goals and facilitate succession planning. Succession planning is defined as “a strategic, systematic and deliberate effort to identify and develop competencies in potential leaders through purposed learning experiences such as targeted rotations and educational training in order to fill high-level positions without favoritism.” As a result of the workshop, a Succession Management and Talent Review Program has been developed at Essex Industries which:
For outstanding individuals within the organization who clearly demonstrate potential for significant, ongoing advancement, the system is designed to:
The Succession Management and Talent Review Program is part of Essex’ ongoing effort to improve our internal systems and operations, and ensures that Essex Industries will continue to attract and retain exceptional people, enabling us to continue to provide the quality products and services our customers have come to expect.
The Automated Best Value System is a computerized ranking system that collects a vendor’s past performance data and translates it into a numeric score, ranging from zero to a perfect score of 100. To become a medalist, vendors must meet stringent quality and delivery requirements established by the Defense Logistics Agency. To qualify for the coveted Gold Medal, Cryo received a perfect score of 100. A score of 99.0 to 99.9 earned Silver and scores ranging from 98.0 to 98.9 were awarded Bronze Medals. Vicki Pettus, Cryo’s Contracts Administrator and Customer Care Supervisor, accepted the Gold Medal from leaders of the supply center, Navy Rear Admiral Mike Lyden and Major General Mary Saunders.
“This Gold Medal Supplier Award recognition
from DSCR is the highest honor Cryo can receive. DSCR is our largest and
perhaps most demanding customer when it comes to expedited deliveries
and multi-quantity pricing. We are especially indebted to and proud of
Vicki Pettus, our Contracts Administrator, for deftly managing overwhelming
production challenges and numerous government contract deliveries without
receiving a single rejection at any of the multiple acceptance points,”
says Tim Bannister, Vice President of Operations at Essex Cryogenics. Vicki Pettus, Senior Contracts Administrator at Essex
Cryogenics, has received her Masters Certificate in Government Contracting
from the George Washington School of Business. In order to achieve this,
Vicki flew to Washington D.C., then continued on to an off-site training
and education institute in Arlington, Virginia, on seven different occasions
over a two-year period beginning in April of 2003. Her courses included
five five-day core classes specific to government contracting. In addition
to the five core classes, Vicki was required to attend two three-day elective
classes to earn her Before pursuing her certificate, Vicki researched the course requirements and discussed the prospect of obtaining her Masters Certificate with her peers at the various government agencies with whom she works, as well as with the DCMA (Defense Contracts Management Agency) Team. The DCMA administers contracts for customers from across the United States and around the world. They were all extremely supportive of her effort and appreciate the steps she has taken to serve them better. Our congratulations to Vicki for her significant accomplishment
We are pleased to announce that the Board of Directors of AAIM Management Association has elected Keith Guller, CEO and COO of Essex Industries, as Vice Chairman of its association. Employers needing a regional resource for networking and training founded AAIM Management Association in 1898. Guided by its members’ input and changing needs, the organization has expanded to include over 1000 organizations from all sectors of the economy and serves as a primary resource for a wide range of practical business solutions.
Well, did you guess correctly? Last issue’s Mystery Baby was Mike Jenkins, HR at Essex Manufacturing. Mike is no longer a bouncing baby, but obviously is still having a ball.
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Home Page Essex Implements Succession Management and Talent Review Program Cryo Honored by DSCR for Sixth Year in a Row Cryo Employee Earns Masters Certificates in Govt. Contracting Keith Guller Named Vice-Chairman of AAIM Management Association |
