Opportunities for Improving Productivity at Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant

A review of operations at the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, which is government-owned and contractor-operated, showed that efforts to increase productivity through the development and use of a work measurement program were partially successful at Lone Star, but did not fully meet the objectives intended by the U.S. Army Armament Command (ARMCOM). The objectives were only partially realized because: (1) method improvement and line balancing studies needed to establish valid engineering standards for direct labor were not done or were inadequate in some instances; (2) some standards were not used to achieve optimum productivity; (3) standard hours were overstated in some instances; (4) production employees were allowed to quit work early; and (5) actual staffing of some production operations was not consistent with standards. In addition, Lone Star had not developed normal or acceptable scrap or rework rates for any of the ammunition items it produces. The Secretary of the Army should take appropriate action to have ARMCOM: (1) review the work measurement programs established at the Army ammunition plants to ensure that objectives are being accomplished; (2) review the optimum production rates reported by the plants to determine if they are the most economical rates and, when economically feasible, schedule production at these rates; and (3) require contractors to establish normal or acceptable scrap and rework rates and rework criteria.