Headquarters Battalion commander grapples with training problems using Lean Six Sigma

Photo by Andrew Sharbel
2nd. Lt. Joshua Jones (top) trains with Pfc. Christopher Kaffka for the Military District of Washington Combatives tournament Friday. Both Soldiers are members of the Old Guard, 4th Battalion 3rd Infantry, 529th Regiment Support Company. The Tournament is double elimination and participants from all across MDW will battle it out in Wells Field House.

The Army's business- and process-improvement program is being applied to an unlikely area of attention at Fort Belvoir.

The garrison's Headquarters Battalion launched a Lean Six Sigma program earlier this year to improve the way Soldiers throughout the National Capital Region are trained under the Modern Army Combatives Program.

LSS is a combination of two business improvement techniques, Lean and Six Sigma. Lean focuses on eliminating waste and constantly shortening the cycle time. Six Sigma focuses on variability reduction and quality. The Installation Management Command follows LSS principles to better provide services.

When Belvoir officials wanted to decrease wait times at the identification card issuing center, LSS provided the solution. Today, the waiting room is sparsely
populated and wait times are normally a few minutes instead of several hours.

Lt. Col. Kevin McKenna, Headquarters Battalion commander, has proposed an LSS project, which he hopes will lead to such a dramatic improvement in the battalion's ability to provide combatives training.

Currently, Soldiers receive basic combatives - familiarization training - during Basic and Advanced Individual Training. The Army regulation on training, AR 350-1, requires commanders to integrate combatives into their training programs.

The regulation also requires that instructors be certified to conduct the training. Since the publication of the new training regulation last year, units have struggled to meet the requirement.

According to the Army's Combatives School at Fort Benning, Ga., instructor training is divided into four levels. Two of the goals in school's mission statement are to have at least one level-two trainer per company and at least one level-three trainer per battalion.

Since the school offers training at only levels three and four, the dilemma for Soldiers who want to become level-one and level-two instructors is they are dependent on qualified instructors at the higher levels being present at the duty station to which they are assigned.

"We have determined there is a shortfall in our certified instructors," McKenna said. The same is true within the National Capital Region-District.

Every battalion should have a level-three instructor to oversee the program and certify Soldiers for level one said Capt. Erik Salus, commander of 212th Military
Police Detachment.

"The problem is Fort Benning doesn't provide level-one or level-two training and there aren't any level-three or level-four instructors in the area to certify the lower levels," Salus said.

McKenna said LSS makes it possible to validate the standard is not being met, then to develop a solution to meet the requirement.

Though the project is still underway, a tentative solution seems to be emerging. McKenna and Salus agree that eventually Belvoir could become a regional combatives training center.

"Either with (Military District of Washington) or NCR-D consolidation, we can combine resources and be more effective," McKenna said.

Until then, the battalion is addressing the shortfall by partnering with other organizations. In July, the National Guard Bureau brought instructors to Belvoir to teach and allowed units on post to send their Soldiers to attend. This month, the 529th Regimental Support Company of The Old Guard brought instructors to the post.
Again, Belvoir Soldiers were allowed to participate.

According to 2nd Lt. Joshua Jones, the 3rd Infantry Regiment is using the 529th as a test program to model its own program. The plan is to bring trainers to the area to certify the lower levels, and then send those Soldiers to Benning to achieve levels three and four.

Once enough level four instructors are certified, a facility within MDW can provide training to all Soldiers in the area. The regiment tasked Jones to begin training Soldiers in the 529th so they can receive their certifications and then train the rest of The Old Guard.

Jones previously served with the 32nd Medical Brigade at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He knew the brigade had certified level-three and level-four instructors, so he formally requested two be sent to train his Soldiers. Finding a facility with the proper mats and two weeks' worth of training days available at Fort Myer was a
challenge. Belvoir had a facility that met his needs.

By partnering with McKenna and Salus, Jones reserved Wells Field House to hold the classes and allowed Belvoir Soldiers to attend.

About 20 Soldiers and one Marine graduate Friday from the level two class Jones put together.

U.S. Army Combatives Program director Matt Larsen said the difficulty units in the NCR-D are experiencing is not unique.

"Everybody is in the same shoes. If there isn't an existing program, they have trouble starting one," he said.

The Belvoir pilot has implications for use Army wide: the mobile training team method the battalion is using now and the consideration of developing a regional training site has Larsen's attention.

"They're showing great initiative ... They're looking around for ways to correct the deficiency," Larsen said. "We have to have a plan in order to spread combatives throughout the Army. Units can benefit from what's being done there. It's like the best-practices model."

Larsen said for the Army's combatives program to be successful and have a program that can sustain itself, units have to create level-one and level-two
instructors on their own and send them to Benning for training at levels three and four.