Service Management 101 Case Study Article

US Navy Bahrain Take Leaner Focus

07/14/2008

Like many military organizations the US Navy N4/TNOSC continues to seek improvements in their operations through speedy and tactical application of best practices. Familiar with ITIL, the desire was to explore Lean Thinking for faster and more tangible results.

Theater Network Operations and Security Center Middle East (TNOSC ME)

The TNOSC ME is responsible for operating, maintaining, and securing the OCONUS Navy Enterprise Network (ONE-Net) for the Middle East. This Government Owned Government Operated (GOGO) Network provides services to several sites in the Kingdom of Bahrain and United Arab Emirates. The TNOSC directly supports C4I IP services and functions for 5000+ shore based personnel throughout the CENTCOM AOR.

Some examples of the services provided over both SIPRNET and NIPRNET include internet, intranet, email, file storage, Blackberries, and OWA. Additionally, TNOSC ME provides transport level services to several other Program of Record "POR" enclaves such as CENTRIXS-M.

PROBLEM:

The project overhead and suspected effort of 'implementing' the concepts within the ITIL framework were cost and skills prohibitive. The team required a more targeted method of applying 'best practice' quickly, where and when it was needed on a case by case basis.

Also, occasional staff turnover would mean that embedded ITIL knowledge would be lost. A method was required to identify and address organizational issues rather than enable specific knowledge in individuals.

SOLUTION:

A series of Lean Thinking workshops was delivered to explain how Lean methods can help identify problems and translate them into an ongoing queue of opportunities for improvement, without the need to design and implement a multitude of artifacts.