Case Studies

Case Studies

The Best Practices Case Studies listed here are provided as examples that can be utilized to improve your existing processes and practices. We do not endorse any practice listed here.

Management Services

Manage Information Technology

• Intranet Web Site - General Dynamics Armament Systems - Burlington, VT - In 1998, General Dynamics Armament Systems established an Intranet Web Site that provides employees with easy and quick accessibility to company policies, procedures, forms, calendar-of-events, bulletins, internal news, and special announcements. Designed with the user in mind, this on-line system is now integrated into the workforce environment as a single-source information and communication tool.
• Intranet Website - Raytheon Missile Systems Company - Tucson, AZ - Developed an intranet website to promote and manage equipment design center activities. Also provides customer feedback, organization charts and design standards. Provides easy access for any employee working on a related task. This website also provides the latest news, features and announcements. Estimates a 30% reduction in labor and development cycle times. Should save 10% across all projects in the future.
• Web-based Data Systems Solutions - NASA Marshall Flight Center - Huntsville, AL - A series of web-based data systems solutions were developed to manage information and documents. This was part of the ISO 9001 certification process, which called for a paperless environment, as well as immediate access to information. One application provides project managers with a documented, ISO compliant system to review and approve in house and external documentation. These systems reduced the time required for systems development and changes and reduced resources required for operation and maintenance.

Provide Administrative Support

• Contractor Evaluation System - Naval Sea Logistics Center, Detachment Portsmouth - Portsmouth, NH - The Naval Logistics Center developed the Contractor Performance Assessment System as an easier way to evaluate potential contractors. The system is a standardized database used to collect and process past history on contractor performance by commodity, via the Federal Supply Classification.
• Financial Reporting Tools - Orenda Turbines, Division of Magellan Aerospace Corporation  - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - The Finance Department of Orenda Turbines developed user-friendly tools and resources to assist managers and supervisors in managing their resources effectively and efficiently. They developed visual methods to display overhead costs and turnaround times by placing white boards on the shop floor. They developed utilization reports and other tools. Orenda's tools and resources raised the visibility and level of understanding of critical financial measures and them useful to line managers for improving overall performance.
• On Call and Just in Time - Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems  - Ft. Worth, TX - These programs were implemented as part of an effort to reduce inventory and acquisition costs. Close to $1 million in material investment savings was documented since their inception.
• Shop Stores Contract - Letterkenny Army Depot - Chambersburg, PA - A firm fixed price indefinite quantity service contract was awarded to a local vendor to handle the purchase of common materials and supplies. The contract streamlined the process for obtaining materials and supplies. Customer satisfaction improved. Inventories were reduced by 50% and deliveries were on time over 95% of the time.
• Tool Maintenance and Management System - Rock Island Arsenal  - Rock Island, IL - Developed a system that streamlined and improved the acquisition process for procuring shop floor items. This change drastically reduced inventories and expedited the procurement process.

Provide Human Resources Services

• Flexible Workplace - Crane Ammunition Activity  - Crane, NJ - Crane Army Ammunition Activity needed a better way to provide a win-win situation for both the Activity and the workers who were hired to maintain a competitive edge within workload peaks and valleys. Crane Army Ammunition Activity adopted a flexible workforce approach, hiring workers, as needed, on an intermittent work schedule. Two types of work schedules were implemented: an intermittent schedule and a full-time work schedule.

Provide Quality Performance and Organizational Improvement Development Services

• Continuous Improvement Process - Frontier Electronic Systems  - Stillwater, OK - They implemented the Continuous Improvement Process to maintain its competitive edge, improve customer relationships, and eliminate waste caused by inconsistent processes between business units. The company realized a three-fold return on investment in the first year.
• Electronic Production Work Order - Frontier Electronic Systems  - Stillwater, OK - A streamlined process for releasing production work orders to the manufacturing floor has resulted in significant savings in cycle time and rework costs for Frontier Electronic Systems. The in-house developed Electronic Production Work Order release system takes advantage of existing data resident within the company, and enhances production documentation configuration control.
• Internal Audits - Frontier Electronic Systems  - Stillwater, OK - In 1998, Frontier Electronic Systems developed a structured guideline for its Internal Audits to comply with ISO-9001 process requirements. The result has been an increase in customer satisfaction, significant improvement in on-time delivery, and a reduction in defects. The audit data is archived for customer and external auditor review.
• ISO 9001 Implementation - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center  - Huntsville, AL - NASA mandated that all centers become ISO 9001 certified. This provided and opportunity to improve self-discipline and internal communications, facilitate communication among centers and attain better alignment with support contractors. The most important benefit derived from this process was better communication. The Procurement department experienced a 65% reduction in procedures. Formal mapping processes eliminated redundant functions and documents.
• Partnering Program - General Armament Systems  - Burlington, VT - The Partnering Program provides a framework for government and industry team members to work together to solve problems and informally resolve disputes. Success is dependent on the preparation for change, management commitment, development and use of tools for teamwork, and the feedback and reinforcement of team members.
• Performance Measures Reporting System - General Dynamics Armament Systems  - Burlington, VT - General Dynamics Armament Systems uses a Performance Measures Reporting System based on an Essbase backbone and a Kaplan-Norton Balanced Scorecard model. The system provides a consistent method for tracking Integrated Product Teams' performances as well as monitoring and managing the company's performance through a standard set of performance measures/metrics.
• Product Recognition Technology Project - Stryker Homedica Osteonics  - Allendale, NJ - Many orthopedic parts within a family are almost identical in size and shape. To resolve misidentification during batch runs, Homedica Osteonics developed the Product Recognition Technology Project which consists of three elements: the Product Verification System; the 2-D Data Matrix Marking System; and the Elimination of Manual Data Entry. Each element's goal is to reduce the number of product identity errors.
• Project Performance Measurement - Frontier Electronic Systems - Stillwater, OK - Frontier Electronic Systems developed Project Performance Measurement as a way of providing real-time accurate measurement data to its senior executives and front-line managers. The company realized a return-on-investment of 1400% for implementing this simplified-shared Access database.
• Strategic Mission and values Statement - Stryker Homedica Osteonics - Allendale, NJ - With the 1998 merger of Stryker Osteonics and Homedica, the leaders of the company wanted to bring the employees together with a clearly understood mission, not just a poster on the wall. In addition, the company wanted to gain customer loyalty by exceeding their expectations and establishing a unique bond with them that transcends everyday business interactions. As a result, the company developed its Strategic Mission and values Statement. An ongoing company-wide campaign keeps the mission, objectives, and values message fresh and highly visible to employees.
• Teaming Skills - Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University - State College, PA - Describes the benefits of partnering between, government, private industry and educational institutions which supports technical excellence, innovation and facilitates the support necessary to sustain and complete projects.

Program and Employee Services

Manage Travel Services

• Travel Information System - Department of Energy  - Oak Ridge Operations - Oak Ridge, TN - In 1994, Oak Ridge installed a travel information system, a multi-platform application to electronically process travel requests and authorizations. This system reduced the average processing time for travel authorization forms from about 2 weeks to 2 days.

Manage Transportation and Parking

• Van Pool Program - Electric Boat Corporation - North Kingstown, RI - Implemented a vanpool program to reduce their workforce's commuting costs and extend the company's potential recruiting area by minimizing the impact of travel and to compensate for lack of on-site parking. Program reduced vehicle emissions, eliminated cars from local roads and saved gasoline each year.

Real Estate and Facilities Development

Manage the Design and Construction of Major Capital Projects

• Collaborative Engineering Center - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center - Huntsville, AL - The Center was set up as a way to improve quality and reduce the cost of its proposals and pre-projects. Through the use of networked tools and databases, the design team obtains the necessary supporting information to make immediate design decisions. This system reduced cycle time for early design concepts while achieving more design iterations and identifying lower cost systems. In FY 98, 57 studies were completed.
• Composite Structures Prototyping - Applied Research Laboratory - The Pennsylvania State University - State College, PA - Developed a rapid prototyping capability for sub-scale and full-scale composite structures.
• Design Infrastructure - Applied Research Laboratory, the Pennsylvania State University  - State College, PA - Uses virtual prototyping to rapidly evaluate design/decision alternatives for cost, mission effectiveness, reliability, maintainability and manufacturability.
• Interactive Collaborative Environments - Sandia National Laboratories  - Albuquerque, NM - Developed a concurrent engineering tool that will allow project team members physically isolated from one another to simultaneously work on the same drawings. Allow up to 20 different workstations at different locations to work on the same drawings and have changes immediately seen by everyone.
• Integrated Materials Parts Management - Northup Grumman Military Aircraft Systems Division  -  El Segundo, CA - Implemented an integrated materials part management process to eliminate weekly shortages. The new process established a closed-loop metrics collection and reporting system, root cause determination and detailed management review. The company significantly reduced its parts shortages and achieved $29 million in savings in inventory.
• Knowledge Based Engineering - Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University - State College, PA - Implemented a generative technology approach to rapidly develop virtual prototypes. Generates various outputs such as CAD models, dimensional drawings, analysis reports etc.
• Simulation Based Design Cost Estimating - Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University  - State College, PA - Developed and implemented a Simulation Based Design (SBD) cost estimating system to perform rapid financial evaluations of virtual prototypes.
• Welding Quality Accountability - Electric Boat Corporation - North Kingstown, RI - Developed an automated weld process selection system in the 80s to locate information regarding welder qualifications and welding specifications. Enhanced this system in 1998. Employees can now electronically sign off on a routing activity, which prevents activities from being, done out of sequence. The system also checks the qualifications of an employee signing off on an activity. This new system simplified weld tracking and quality control processes and can also track the number of completed welds.

Real Estate and Facilities - Installation Operations

Administer the Property Management Service Provider Performance

• Facilities Preventive Maintenance System - Northrop Grumman, Defensive Systems Division - Rolling Meadows, IL - Northrop Grumman implemented a Facilities Preventive Maintenance System that incorporates manufacturers maintenance interval recommendations and tracks P/M efforts for all equipment logged onto the system. It tracks all maintenance requests for service, enables the scheduling of maintenance based on manufacturers recommendations, and maintains the information for use in cost-benefit analyses.
• Facilities Service Manual - Northrop Grumman, Defensive Systems Division - Rolling Meadows, IL - The Facilities Service Manual was developed to aid in controlling facilities construction projects from inception to completion. It includes information for all aspects of facilities projects including approved contractor listings for source selection, methods for choosing contractors, approval process and necessary forms, various flow charts indicating the project process, as well as weekly status reports etc.
• Condition Based Maintenance - Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University - State College, PA - Uses sensors, algorithms, models and automated reasoning to monitor the operations of machinery and equipment and determines appropriate maintenance schedules prior to mechanical or equipment failure.

Manage Waste Stream

• Hazardous Material Materials Management Program - Northrop Grumman, Defensive Systems Division  - Rolling Meadows, IL - They utilize the Hazardous Materials Manager (HMM), a searchable database and display software package, which provides an integrated and systematic approach to managing hazardous materials activities (e.g. acquisition, day-to-day handling, final disposal, regulatory reporting requirements.)
• Paint Solvent Recycling - Nascote Industries, Inc  - Nashville, IL - Implemented a paint solvent recycling program to eliminate problems associated with recycling spent purge solvent from its paint system. This recycling program collects over 85% of all spent solvent and it is recycled to remove impurities. The clean solvent is returned to the company for reuse. This capture method shows a 91% average recyclable rate for solvent, and also greatly reduces the cost of purchasing new solvent. The company saves $100,000 annually by recycling spent solvent.
• Paint Fumes Management - Nascote Industries - Nashville, IL - Installed a regenerative thermal oxidation system to control volatile organic compound emissions from its paint lines created by escalating production levels. Through this purging process up to 99% of all volatile organic compounds are destroyed. This investment allowed the company to exceed EPA requirements as well as avoid potential bottlenecks in the future, as production capacity increases.

Perform Utilities Support Services

• Energy Management System - Electric Boat Corporation - North Kingstown, RI - Implemented an energy management system to regulate various processes and operations throughout the company. This system monitors alarm points, sends visual warnings to designated computer terminals and pagers when triggered. This system also tabulates utility usage reports and provides notification when preventive maintenance is required on monitored machines. This change reduced steam costs by 51% and reduced overall energy consumption by 10%

Scientific Resources

Maintain Safe Working Environment

• Ergonomics Program - Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems - Surface Systems - Moorestown, NJ - The goal of the Ergonomics Program is to reduce work-related musculoskeletal disorders known as ergonomic injuries. Since implementing the program, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Surface Systems significantly reduced its workers compensation costs and is providing a better working environment for its employees.
• Worker Safety Improvement Program - Dayton Parts Inc.- Harrisburg, PA - Program for increasing safety awareness in the work place. The introduction of this program reduced the days lost to work place injuries. Also developed a safety incentive program that has been effective in reducing workplace injuries.

Security Services

Provide Readiness and Response to Medical, Fire and Hazardous Incidents

• Emergency Response Team - Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems - Surface Systems - Moorestown, NJ - The Emergency Response team provides response services for hazardous material spill events and health-related situations within Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Surface Systems, and operates as back up resources for local rescue units. The team's average response time of 30 seconds contributed to saving two lives in 2000.

Provide Security Guard Services

• Security Management - General Dynamics Armament Systems - Burlington, VT - General Dynamics Armament Systems proposed and established the first known, prime contractor Security Management role for an arms, ammunition, and explosives contract. The company's innovative approach helped in winning a major contract for a non-traditional business venture. In addition, General Dynamics Armament Systems is exceeding the requirements of the awarded contract and building strong relationships with its customer.

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