Better business.

In reference to the March 2007 story, "Army Not Always Amenable to the Ways of Corporate America," on page 22, I believe that my views on the transformation of the Army's industrial base were not fully reflected. I believe that the application of Lean and Six Sigma techniques at the Army's depots has resulted in increased productivity, enhanced throughput and reduced work-in-progress. One only has to walk through Anniston, Letterkenny, Tobyhanna or Corpus Christi to see both the progress made and the tremendous pressure these depots are under given the demands to reset the force.

The point that I had hoped to stress was that it is not enough for the depots to rest on their laurels. The Army Material Command has cast a wide net across the military services and into the private sector looking for best practices and new ideas. The lessons learned must be injected into the Army's industrial base as rapidly and forcefully as possible. The newly created Life Cycle Management Commands must be given the necessary resources to fulfill effectively their responsibilities. Acquisition managers must be encouraged, even forced if necessary, to require new hardware programs to be designed with open architectures.

What logistics transformation requires now is the kind of integration of supply and sustainment activities common in the private sector among the managers of large fleets of vehicles and aircraft. Companies such as Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Standard Aero have set the standard in these areas. The more this experience is exploited by the Army, the greater the likelihood that a successful transformation will ensue.

Daniel Goure

Vice President

The Lexington Institute