Rapid Fire 2010-02-11: QDR Defense

• Vietnam to pay $1 billion for 12 Russian SU-30MKK fighters.

• Britain moves toward public-private partnership using S-92 Superhawks, for coastal search and rescue.

• US QDR author shoots back at critics.

Want an Effective Kaizen Event? Don’t Forget the Human Side!

Guest Article by Mark R. Hamel and Charles J. Wolfe

Tofukuji Reiun-in
Gaun-no-niwa

Kaizen events often represent the initial rapid deployment vehicle for lean transformations. Effective events drive step-function improvement, momentum and organizational learning and engagement. But while many people gravitate to the technical side of kaizen events (hey, check out this cool kanban system!), it’s as much, if not more, about embedding lean principles and capabilities within the culture.

Only then can improvements become sustainable. Only then can the organization move from purely event driven kaizen to the much more powerful combination of (occasional) events and true daily kaizen – the frequent, small, process focused improvements conducted by engaged and enabled employees in their everyday work. This is what separates the lean pretenders from the lean practitioners.

• The 2 Cores
  
• Case Study: An Aerospace Success
  
• Eleven questions that lean leaders need to answer
  
• Tip From the Pros: When the Kaizen Circus Leaves Town
  
• The Transformation Leadership Model [NEW]
  
• Case Studies: What about that second shift? [NEW]
  
• Emotions… really? [NEW]
  
• Tip From the Pros: Fear Not [NEW]
  
• Conclusion: Ultimately, more than an event [NEW]

Spectrum Reallocation: Shifting Frequencies for USAF F-15 Training

US Spectrum Chart

With the explosion in the number of cell phones and other commercial wireless devices, the US Federal Communications Commission has had to take spectrum used by US government agencies and shift it over to commercial use.

To fund this spectrum transition, the US Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2004 the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act, which provided over $1 billion to federal agencies to pay for the shift.

The largest US government user of spectrum is the Department of Defense. So DoD got the largest chuck of that money – $355.4 million.

From that pool, the USAF recently awarded Raytheon a $37.9M delivery order to modify weapons data link equipment used for F-15 pilot training…