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From testing aircraft to testing assumptions
In God we trust. All others bring data." That's the main lesson that Tom Wallace learned from conducting airworthiness flight testing as an Army test pilot. Now that he is out of the cockpit and part of the Program Executive Office for Combat Support and Combat Service Support (PEO CS&CSS), that lesson-"the fundamental importance of collecting sound, healthy data and the utilization of systematic analysis techniques to convert that data into meaningful and actionable management information," as Wallace puts it-still guides his work, which has earned him and his team recognition from the Army Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Excellence Awards Program, known as LEAP.
Wallace led a team that used Lean Six Sigma tools to develop a multigeneration project plan (MGPP), a group of synchronized but independent projects and events that together explore a larger challenge-in this case, the use of special tools to execute field-level maintenance across the Army, with the goal of increasing Soldier-maintainer effectiveness and efficiency while reducing life-cycle costs and the total logistics footprint. The 2013 award is the second LEAP honor for the team, which was also recognized for its work on the Special Tool Accountability Project in 2012.
For Wallace, serving the Army is part of who he is. He spent 21 years on active duty, retiring as a lieutenant colonel, and comes from a family with a long history of Army service. "My grandfather and father retired as Army colonels, and my father, my nephew and I all graduated from the U.S. Military Academy. Bottom line: Army service was always in my blood."
What do you do, and why is it important to the Army or the warfighter?
As a Master Black Belt, my primary responsibilities are teaching LSS skills, mentoring continuous process improvement initiatives and leading LSS-related projects. The body of knowledge and projects executed within...