美国海军陆战队应用TOC案例
Interview with Robert Leavitt, Colonel,
United States Marine Corps retired.
Manager, Sierra Management Technologies
采访美国海军陆战队退休上校、西埃拉管理技术经理 罗伯特‧利维特
DW: You were responsible for implementing a TOC-bad program in the Marine Corps?
伟福：你曾负责在海军陆战队实施一个TOC项目，是吗？
RL: Yes, when 1 was commanding officer at the Naval Air Depot in Cherry Point, North Carolina. I started the implementation there, which they have continued. As a colonel I had in esnce a $625 million company and 4,000 people working for me. Everybody says the government is always the last to get the message. I don't know if that's true. My personal belief is that the government gives guys like me the opportunity to try things a little differently.
利维特：是的，当时我在北卡罗莱纳州切利角海军航空站当指挥官，我在那里开始实施TOC，后来他们继续至今。作为上校，我就像掌控着一家六亿二千五百万美元的公司，有4000人为我工作，人人都说政府总是后知后觉，我不知道是否真的如此，我个人认为，政府让我这样的人有机会试试不同的做法。
DW: Tell us about your implementation.
伟福：告诉我们你是怎样搞实施的。
RL: We had problems delivering H-46s on time. The H-46 is a 25-to 30-year-old Boeing helicopter ud extensively in the Marine Corps as part of their assault support role. Becau the airplane is so old and in frequent need of maintenance, anything over a single-digit number of airplanes on our hangar deck meant that you took a shadow off the flightline. If you took a shadow off the flightline, that meant they didn't have an airplane to do their mission. Our negotiated norm for turnaround time was 130 days, and on average we were somewhere between 190 and 205 days.
利维特：我们无法准时交付H-46，H-46是二十到三十年机龄的波音直升机，被海军陆战队广泛用于攻击支援，由于这飞机很老旧，经常需要维修，只要飞机库中待修的飞机超过十架，就意味着候命执行任务的飞机缺少了起码一架，我们议定的交货期一般是130天，而实际上我们平均要花190至205天。
DW: Sounds like you had a problem.
伟福：听起来，你们好像出了问题。
RL: A problem, yes. So we implemented critical chain, and ultimately cut the number of airplanes in flow from 28 to 14. We were able to ll that to our customers. And the turnaround time went from 200 days to about 135. Now that in and of itlf is probably a significant improvement. But at the same time we were starting the process, they added 30 days more worth of corrosion work to be done to the cabin. We accommodated the 30 days within that 135-day delivery. So we went from what would have been about 230 or 240 days to 135.
利维特：的确有问题，因此我们实施了关键链，最后将维修中的飞机从28架减少至14架，客户接受了，交货期从200天降低到大约135天，这本身就是一个巨大的改善。但是，我们开始这个进程的同时，他们又加入了30天的机舱除锈工作，我们把这30天的工作量也纳入了135天的交货期中，换言之，我们将本来的230至240天减少至135天。
DW: Why did this approach work where others had failed?
伟福：为什么这方法成功了，而其他方法却失败呢？
RL: We had looked at a lot of the project management solutions, including material resource planning (MRP). TOC was the one that worked from all dimensions; building teamwork, understanding variability, and with a grounding in scientific thought. It was a holistic approach to solving the problems. It looked at the entire system and said, hey, once you find the key leverage point you'll get some significant returns. And then you can go back and find the next leverage point, or constraint.
利维特：我们审视了很多项目管理解决方案，也看了物料资源计划（MRP），而TOC在多
个角度都是可行的，例如建立团队精神、了解变数等，它植根于科学的思维，从机构整体的角度解决问题，它检视整个系统后，会说：“嗨！只要你找到主要的杠杆点，就能够获得巨大的效益。”然后，你就回头找下一个杠杆点，或制约因素。
Did it take you a long time to find the constraint?
伟福：你是否花了很长时间才找到制约因素？
RL: No, it didn't. And within about 120 days we were already beginning to e the results.
利维特：不是，而在120天之内，我们已经开始见到成效了。
DW: What was the constraint that you found?
伟福：你找到的制约因素是什么？
RL: It was the schedule-the way the schedule was developed. The biggest thing was the
way we applied available resources; it didn't make any n. The estimators and evaluators really had about two days worth of work and they were taking about 14. We figured out what was going on-why that was a problem, why the scheduler t that up-and then reorganized.
利维特：是排程——制定排程的方式，最大的麻烦就是我们运用手上资源的方法，简直毫无道理，评估员实际的工作只需大概两天，但却花了14天，我们想知道当中因由，问题是怎样出来的？为怎么排程员定出排程，然后推倒重来？
DW: Bottom line?
伟福：收支情况有改善吗？
RL: Well, the way it worked with the government, we were funded for a certain number of airplanes each year. We started burning through the backlog and we actually produced a few extra airplanes. I know from talking to the new commanding officer down there that they've incread the amount of product every year as they've gone forward.
利维特：嗯，政府的运作模式是，每年我们根据既定的飞机数量得到拨款，我们很快就把积压已久的工作清理了，甚至还多出了几架飞机，那里的新指挥官告诉我，他们每年的产量都在增加。
DW: And you had another example?
伟福：再举一个例子好吗？
RL: I also implemented TOC in the tail rotor blade cell at Sikorsky Aircraft, the overhaul and repair division. We were averaging some 73 days to finish a tail rotor blade and we had as many as 75 or 80 tail rotor blades in flow. Well, we changed the flow to more than 30 tail rotor blades in process, which means our turnaround time actually was about 28 days.
利维特：我还在西科斯基飞机公司维修部机尾螺旋桨片组实施了TOC，我们平均要花73天完成一个机尾螺旋桨片，而生产线上有多达75至80片，嗯，改革后，生产线上只有30多片，而交货期只需大约28天。
DW: How quickly did this improvement occur?
伟福：这改革花了多少时间才见到成绩？
RL: Three months. Now you can understand why I'm trying to build a consulting practice around TOC.
利维特：三个月，现在你就可以明白为什么我正尝试建立一个提供TOC服务的谘询机构。
