Original Date: 09/15/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

In 1995, Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) experienced trouble sustaining a production rate on demilitarization of items in the Ammunition Peculiar Equipment (APE) 1236 M1 Deactivation Furnace. The unpackaging of items to be destroyed and the cleaning of the coolant blocks on the Air Pollution Control System were main contributors for non-productive hours.

TEAD began burning the inner-packaging material along with the munitions to be destroyed through the furnace. This solved the unpackaging time and increased the feed rate to the furnace. This procedure increased production 20%, although the furnace required more frequency in cleaning due to the packaging material residue.

TEAD solved this problem by changing the crew start times. The shift was split by starting one person one hour earlier than the rest of the assigned personnel. This individual’s tasks were to perform equipment tests, start the furnace(start-up time to function is approximately one hour), and unpackage items from outer packs. The remainder of the assigned crew reported with start-up responsibilities being minimal. This procedural change allowed the furnace to run for half the shift and then be shut down for cleaning. Cleaning time and start-up would take one hour. The furnace would be in operation again for the duration of the shift.

During a program in which TEAD was demilitarizing cannon primers, the production rate was increased to 45,000 cannon primers on a daily basis (from 18,000 to 22,000). This increase was reached without additional manpower or overtime.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.