It seemed like a good idea at the time to Jon Shupenus, U.S. Army Forces Command’s process improvement specialist and lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Shupenus was attending a Department of Defense performance management seminar in 2010 when Kirk Nicholas, director of the Army’s continuous process improvement and lean Six Sigma program for the Office of Business Transformation, asked for volunteers to assist with Army projects in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So Shupenus stepped up and volunteered himself and his lean Six Sigma knowledge and abilities. The next thing he knew, he was with the Joint Plans Integration Center in Baghdad, Iraq, helping with plans for the withdrawal of Army personnel and equipment by the end of 2011.

As a production practice, lean considers expending resources for any goal other than creating value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.

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