Depot commander praises Letterkenny workers after 10th Shingo medallion
Letterkenny Army Depot Commander Col. Deacon Maddox presents coins to members of the PATRIOT Launcher New Build team at the ceremony honoring the Depot’s 10th Shingo Medallion. (Photo: Submitted)
(Chambersburg) — Letterkenny Army Depot Commander Col. Deacon Maddox on Wednesday recognized depot employees for winning a 10th Shingo medallion.
The depot won a bronze Shingo medallion in a competition for what Business Week has dubbed the “Nobel Prize of manufacturing.”
The depot won the 2017 bronze Shingo medallion for building Patriot missile launchers. Twelve years ago Letterkenny won its first medallion, a silver, for repairing the launchers.
Letterkenny’s program to build the Patriot launcher began in 2009. Raytheon, a private corporation, managed most of the supply logistics. Letterkenny provided highly skilled artisans with over 20 years of Patriot experience as well as the infrastructure necessary to integrate, test, paint, package and ship missile launchers.
The built team exceeded the customer’s requirements and completed more work in the same space with the same number of people. The team always delivered on time.
The Shingo Institute, part of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University, announced the award in March.
Ken Snyder, executive director at the Shingo Institute, said that awarding of the bronze Shingo signifies an organization’s mastery of fundamental tools and techniques for improving operations.
Letterkenny began full production of the launchers in August 2011. The team delivered 37 launchers in less than two years and three months ahead of Raytheon’s deadline.
As a result of Letterkenny’s “excellent performance,” Raytheon awarded contracts for 50 more launchers through July 2015 and pledged additional workload from foreign military sales.
Works centers across the depot had a hand in the program – from the paint shop to shipping.
Letterkenny, located in Greene Township, supports soldiers worldwide as a center for technical excellence. Crews manufacture, repair and overhaul air defense and tactical missile systems, mobile electric power generation equipment and route clearance vehicles.
The Shingo Institute is named after Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo. He distinguished himself as a world leader in concepts, management systems and improvement techniques that have become known as the Toyota Production System.
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