Video: Our Debt & Our Future

February 27, 2011

Strong America Now is a non-profit organization dedicated to paying down the U.S. national debt by 2017 by deploying Lean Six Sigma waste reduction methods.

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The GOP presidential field's embrace of Lean Six Sigma took another step forward on Wednesday, as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich signed a pledge to adopt the business streamlining principles in New Hampshire

Kendra Marr

for Politico

While presidential candidates furiously work to charm Iowa's Republican electorate, a visit with Texas businessman Mike George has become a vital stop on the road to the 2012 nomination

Aman Batheja

Star Telegram

Nothing could be more obvious, nothing could be easier to solve — and yet politicians have done nothing. Strong America Now is here to change that because debt is our greatest threat.

Mike George

from The Dallas Morning News

By signing the pledge, Congressman Paul and the other presidential pledge signers are saying that they take our national debt very seriously

Mike George

Strong America Now flexed its organizational muscle at its Deficit Free America Summit at the Polk County Convention Complex in Des Moines. Nearly 900 people were in attendance

Craig Robinson

The Iowa Republican

I commend Mike George and Strong America Now for bringing needed light to the pressing issue of government debt and efficiently spending taxpayer dollars

Rick Santorum

This is the biggest idea for rethinking how you run government

Newt Gingrich

...the Lean Six Sigma gains through waste reduction have grown under the leadership of my successors, and have not been “erased” as Mr. Pyzdek speculated. Why? Because Lean Six Sigma works in government.

Michael Kirby

Former Deputy Undersecretary of the Army for Business Transformation

Case Studies

Saving Heart Patient Lives

The Problem Insurance company notified Hospital that their cost of Cardiac Bypass Graft Surgery was not competitive and would receive no more patients. The Solution Lean Six Sigma* waste detection and reduction...

Reducing Costs in Coronary Artery Bypass and Heart Valve Surgeries

The operation of healthcare providers differs from that of most other businesses in three important ways: The most important outcomes are not measured in dollars, but in terms of patient survival and quality of life....

Lean Six Sigma Saves Lives

Problem The MRAP vehicle is a huge (up to 14 tons), heavily armored, personnel carrying vehicle that has been used in Iraq to protect soldiers and Marines from attacks by crude but effective, homemade bombs known as...

Naval Air Systems Command: Completely Eliminating Unnecessary Reporting

Problem Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is responsible for development of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and weapons systems for the U.S. Navy. Within the Command, AIR 4.1 is the organization that provides...

Improving ICU Patient Mobility to Shorten Hospital Stays

Reforming City Government

Problem The city of Fort Wayne, Indiana (population, 250,000) is credited as being the first city within the country to implement Lean Six Sigma (LSS) on a city government-wide basis. This was done in February 2000...

Lean Six Sigma Saves Jobs

Problem The HH-60 Pave Hawk is a day/night capable, armed helicopter that is used by the U.S. Air Force to recover downed aircrew or other stranded personnel during wartime. It can make recoveries either by landing or...

Eliminating Overpayments Waste

Problem The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) protects the retirement incomes of more than 44 million American workers in more than 29,000 private sector, defined - benefit pension plans. PBGC was created by...

Increase Repair Capability

Problem The F-16 Fighting Falcon is the mainstay of tactical aviation within the U.S. Air Force. It is a supersonic, single-engine all-weather-capable air superiority fighter is also used in ground attack roles. The F-...

Irving's Healthy Budget

Problem Irving, Texas is a city of approximately 200,000 residents located in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It operates on a yearly budget of $350 million and has 2,180 employees. In 2006/2007, the city wanted to...

Reducing Costs and Improving Performance in the Sterile Processing Department

The operation of a healthcare provider organization differs from that of most other businesses in three important ways: The most important outcomes are not measured in dollars, but in terms of patient survival and...

Reassigning Unnecessary Staff

U.S. Army Forces Command places many contracts with private companies to get the goods and services it needs. Reviewing contracts prior to placement for cost validation and alignment with the Command's mission was...

U.S. Army Central Command: Improved Funds Management Regarding Strategic Airlift Bills from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service

U.S. Army Central Command (ARCENT) provides support services to in-theater Army forces as well as directed Army support to other military services. ARCENT also conducts theater security cooperation activities and...

Improved Maintenance Process

The U.S. Navy’s premier tactical aircraft is the F/A-18 Hornet. It is the workhorse of the Naval Aviation enterprise which also includes aviation units of the U.S. Marine Corps. The F/A-18 is a supersonic, twin engine,...

Changed Employee Behavior

Problem Quality of performance within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was sufficiently poor in the 1990s that in 1998, Congress passed the Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA 98). Problem areas identified for...

Money Saved, Acquisitions Made

Problem The Department of the Navy has been a huge user of information technology (IT) items. (These items are: computer hardware and software, operating systems, telephones and other telecommunications products...

Personnel Assignment Efficiency

U.S. Army Central Command routinely sends personnel to locations all over the world for temporary assignments. In many cases, mission accomplishment at these locations is placed on hold until the personnel arrive. It...

Issuing Orders Faster

$612,000 per-year cost savings. | 75% cost reduction During the 2000 decade, U.S. Army Forces Command needed to mobilize individual soldiers and units for various functions. The 45 to 60 days it took to issue...

Limiting Regulatory Impact

Minnesota Improved Performance of Pollution Control Agency Problem In 2003, Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency (PCA) was experiencing an increasing number of complaints from industry, and had received an audit by...

County Uses Lean Six Sigma

Problem Erie County, New York is located in the western part of the state and contains the city of Buffalo. The county borders on the shore of Lake Erie and is home to approximately 1,000,000 residents. In 2007...

NASA's Lean Six Sigma

Problem NASA did not embark on its Lean Six Sigma (LSS) journey in response to some pressing problem or serious issue. Rather, LSS got its start in NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center as a result of an employee-...

Faster Professional Credentialing

Savings: $789,000 per-year. | Approximately 30% cost reduction Navy Medicine provides health care services to U.S. naval personnel worldwide. In order to perform this mission, contract providers and nurses are used. The...

Improved Cyber Security

U.S. Army Europe, Office of the Chief Information Officer used periodic inputs from subordinate organizations regarding information technology systems to make sure these systems were up to date with the latest software...

Improved Acquisition Process

Problem In today’s military operations, the concern over constrained budgets and the need for timely resource decisions has driven the need for changes in the current process used to buy equipment and supplies. By...

EPA Finds Inefficiencies

Problem In December 2008, a team from the EPA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer conducted a Lean improvement project known as a Kaizen event. (Such an event is an intensive, three to five day workshop in which...

Cost Effective Soldier Training

Prior to deploying overseas, U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) provides soldiers with realistic training regarding what they can expect to encounter when they get to their new duty stations. FORSCOM does this at two...

Cheaper Spare Parts

Savings: $6.26 million per-year. Approximately 12.4% annual savings The Defense Logistics Agency entered into a long-term (12 year) contract with Honeywell International, Inc. for provision of spare parts in June 2000....

From the Ground Up

Problem The population of the city of Mesa, Arizona grew 37% from 1990 to 2000 and is expected to grow 30% over each of the next several decades. In order to attract more commercial development during this economic...

Air Force Improved Repair of F-16 Radar Antennas at Ogden Air Logistics Center

Problem Also at the Ogden ALC, the F-16 Radar Antenna shop was facing problems both within the shop and across the entire F-16 fleet. The Radar Antenna shop was unable to repair and overhaul the radar antennas fast...

Saving Money on Submarine Procurements

Naval Sea Systems Command believed that the price it was paying for Virginia class submarines was too high. The Command used Lean Six Sigma process mapping methods to study the overall procurement process and make...

Accommodating New Work

Theater Logistics Support Center-Europe repairs and refurbishes Army equipment that was used in the Middle East. In order to make floor space and workers available for a new refurbishment line for a large tactical truck...

Reducing Waste in Pharmacy Services

Improving Processes While Improving the Environment

In 2003, Iowa wanted to improve any regulatory processes that could act as barriers to a business’s ability to develop and/or grow within the state. Various permitting procedures administered by the state’s Department...

Cheaper Spare Parts

Reassigning Work Responsibilities

The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics within U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) was experiencing multiple problems regarding repair/refurbishment of equipment after it had been used in a war zone....

Improved Equipment Availability

U.S. Army Forces Command was spending too much time planning and executing movements of equipment from one of its subordinate units to another. The lengthy process made the equipment unavailable for use which was not...

Proper Employee Utilization

Naval Air Systems Command is responsible for all aircraft used by the Navy. In order to keep these aircraft up to date and fully mission capable, modifications and improvements are routinely made to them over their...

Idaho's Lean Six Sigma Success

Problem In Idaho, whenever any business has the potential to emit pollutants into the air, that business is required to obtain an air pollution control permit. Permits are needed when either a new business begins...

Faster Deployment Orders

In 2007, U.S. Army Europe was experiencing 90 percent rework in processing orders needed to deploy soldiers to Iraq. This excessive rework drove the time needed to process these orders well beyond the time prescribed by...

Faster Budget Allocations

Within U.S. Army Forces Command, the process used to prioritize new operational requirements and assign funding to them was taking far too long. This impacted success in the Global War on Terrorism and needed correction...

Reduce Waste, Increase Morale

Problem In early 2004, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) was experiencing pressure from its regulated community, citizens and state government to have its Air Permit to Install (Air PTI) application...

Oregon's Improved Operations

Problem Water, soil and other environmental samples must be tested within a reasonably short period of time after they are collected—some as short as 48 hours—before the sample is no longer viable. The Oregon...

Reduce Rework and Backlogs

In 2007, Theater Logistics Support Center-Europe was receiving an unusually large amount of equipment for repair and refurbishment. A large backlog at one of the center's warehouses quickly developed. This backlog...

Building the Future Faster

Problem When real estate developers needed to deal with San Diego County in order to obtain building permits, they were required to make nine separate visits, on average, to various county departments and agencies, and...

Nearly Eliminating Backlog

Corrections Made Better

An unnamed county’s correctional system used Lean Six Sigma to react to unplanned changes in its operations during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. A Kaizen event was conducted that brought together individuals from...

Caring for Soldiers

In order to get to Iraq, all soldiers process through Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. In fact, Ramstein is their last stop in a comfortable environment prior to arriving in Iraq. Therefore, senior Air Force and Army...

Lower Manufacturing Costs

Precision Fabrics Group, Inc. supplies parachute fabric to the U.S. military. In 2001, the company was experiencing quality issues with this fabric regarding porosity. This was the company's highest priority quality...

Greatly Improved Process for Information

Problem The United States Army Europe (USAREUR), Office of the Chief Information Officer (commonly known as the G6) is responsible for deployment of software and information technology (IT) hardware systems across Army...

Reducing Waste in Pharmacy Services

Improved Personnel Requisition Process

The city of Springfield, Massachusetts used Lean Six Sigma to remove waste from its financial and administrative processes; saving $96 million over five years. Similar cost savings and efficiency improvements have been...

Fixing Root Causes

Fixing Root Causes Army Contracting Command was supporting U.S. Army Europe in 2006 as the latter worked to move soldiers and equipment to Iraq from European locations. Army Contract Command's mission was to supply...

Faster Staffing Process

With a total personnel count of more than 10,000 deployed at several locations within Europe, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel within the U.S. Army's 21st Theater Support Command had a non-stop job...

Doing More with Less

The 21st Theater Support Command provides services to U.S. Army forces assigned to Europe and consists of more than 10,000 soldiers, family members and civilian employees. The Office of the Inspector General within 21st...

Federal & State Cooperation

Problem In August 2008, representatives from EPA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., EPA Region 7 headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas, and the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska met to conduct a Lean...

Improved Maintenance Process

Problem The U.S. Navy’s premier tactical aircraft is the F/A-18 Hornet. It is the workhorse of the Naval Aviation enterprise which also includes aviation units of the U.S. Marine Corps. The F/A-18 is a...

Improved Services

Problem The 21st Theater Support Command (21st TSC) provides theater sustainment services for U.S. Army forces assigned to Europe. Further, the 21st TSC supports U.S. Army Africa and U.S. Africa Command by...

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