Operations Management Project Improvement Plan
Process Improvement Plan OPS/571: Operations Management Instructor: John Moye University of Phoenix October 30, 2010 Physical Training (PT) Testing is common among all military branches. The standards and requirements may be different, but all members of the Armed Forces are required to stay fit and will be tested on their physical abilities.
As a civilian employee whose job is to quickly and effectively test more than 5,500 members a year, it is essential that we continue to reevaluate our program to run more efficiently and not be wasteful of members precious time.Throughout the past five weeks, the time each portion of the testing cycle has taken was recorded. Changes were made during this time to use the time more effectively. The goal is to not only test the individuals, but also to be eventually able to increase the number of slots available each duty day. Many factors throughout a testing day can cause the whole process to become delayed. In week one of the recorded data no changes to how the testing cycle is conducted were changed.
The testing cycle remained the same to give an accurate number of minutes saved when new ideas were implemented.At the beginning of week two, changes during the sign in and waist measurement stage were applied, starting with the amount of time it would take between signing in and receiving their height, weight and waist taping. In week three, few changes were made, essentially to become comfortable with the previous changes and to make sure that everyone involved in this process were comfortable with the differences before moving on. Week four included a drastic change in our PT program.This change consisted of three of the six members per group testing at a time versus the normal one member to one tester ratio, therefore cutting down the time the strength assessment portion of the test takes by half.
In week six no additional changes were made just practicing the continual flow of the previous changes to move more efficiently. PT Testing is not necessarily placed in the seasonal category; however, there are seasonal changes that may affect the outcome of testing year round. In essence this is why a linear regression forecasting method was used (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006).These seasonal factors may include the current weather conditions and exercises conducted on base. During an exercise, most members on the base are required to participate, therefore testing will be effected. For example, an exercise can cut the amount of testers arriving during that week by up to 90%.
Weather conditions such as rain and snow may cause many members to decide not to arrive for testing and in situations such as heavy snow or typhoons, testing may be canceled or the base locked down. In the weeks of the data provided, none of the previously mentioned seasonal changes effected the numbers shown.It is visible though, not only in the number form but also more greatly in the graph provided that the changes made continually decreased the time each portion of the test required. More so the time the strength assessment area occupied. Bringing the sample mean of the times the entire testing cycle took as of week one down by 10 minutes total in week five. The next issue to address with this data is that although the time of the third stage of the test was drastically dropped, the next portion of the test stayed the same; therefore causing a much larger bottleneck then the previous weeks.
It is crucial that the run or aerobic stage of the test be modified to use more effectively the extra allotted time that the other changes to the test have made available. As the Fitness Assessment Cell (FAC) tester, it is my job to try continually to make the PT program a bigger success then the day before. This data has proven that it is essential to make constant changes for the better. However, data must be recorded in order to prove the changes were an accomplishment, otherwise certain changes may be detrimental to the program.The graph proves with the downward linear trend shows that the time the test takes each week has significantly began to decrease, therefore making the PT program another step closer to the goal (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006).References Excel Spreadsheet, 2010 Chase, R.
B. , Jacobs, F. R. , Aquilano, N. J.
, (2006). Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (11thed. ). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Retrieved October 22, 2010, from University of Phoenix Website: https://ecampus. phoenix.
edu/content/eBookLibrary2/
