Original Date: 07/10/2006
Revision Date: / /

Tobyhanna Army Depot (TYAD) is the largest, full-service electronics maintenance facility in the Department of Defense (DoD) with a total mission to “Sustain and Integrate Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Systems for the Joint Warfighter.” TYAD is the DoD’s recognized leader in the areas of automated test equipment, systems integration, and downsizing of electronics systems. TYAD is the DoD’s only Joint C4ISR Depot and its designated Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for “C4ISR and Electronics, Avionics, and Missile Guidance and Control.” The Air Force has designated TYAD as its Technology Repair Center for “Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.” The BMP Survey was conducted at TYAD in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, the week of July 10, 2006.

Located at the base of the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, TYAD is the largest regional employer. The depot’s total installation population of 4,404 includes 3,618 TYAD personnel, 508 contractors, and 278 personnel engaged in tenant activities. Approximately 190 additional TYAD employees are deployed at 34 Forward Repair Activity (FRA) sites worldwide. The facility’s 1,296 acres house 153 buildings and 13 test ranges. The depot’s high-tech Regional Training Center is the largest and most comprehensive reserve component-electronics training center, with 340 soldiers having graduated in FY2005. Other specialized facilities include Tactical End- Item Repair, Communications Security, Threat Test Range, Tactical Missile and Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems. TYAD’s new 91,000 square-foot Industrial Operations Facility provides a full range of surface treatment and plating processes in a safe, pollution-free environment. TYAD has allocated $70.5 million for future depot enhancements. The modernization efforts of other unique features include high-bay expansion of the Fire Finder Near-Field Probe, the Child Development Center, the C4ISR Refinishing Center, the Public Works facility, the Technical Training Center, and the SATCOM facility.

For more than 50 years, TYAD personnel have built a tradition of outstanding customer satisfaction through the delivery of timely, cost-effective, and high-quality products and services to ensure the readiness of the U.S. Armed Forces. TYAD’s state-of-the-art facilities, its full-service engineering capacity, its in-house Technical Training Center, and its highly skilled workforce contribute to the depot’s distinction as the DoD’s premier electronics industrial facility for the full-service repair, overhaul, and fabrication of hundreds of electronic systems. The Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance’s certified economic model reports that the depot’s total regional economic impact is $1.8 billion annually. TYAD creates an estimated 7,800 community jobs for residents of 10 surrounding counties with a total of 130 job skills required to perform TYAD’s missions, including engineers, electronics mechanics, computer specialists, and industrial trade workers.

TYAD’s continuous improvement initiatives have significantly improved the depot’s productivity since BMP’s first survey of the facility in 1998. The implementation of Lean Six Sigma alone has resulted in a total cost savings and avoidance of nearly $47 million to date. The depot’s active pursuit of lean manufacturing initiatives continues to streamline TYAD’s processes, improve the flow of systems through the installation, and return the highest quality systems in the shortest possible time to the warfighter. Lean programs, logistics modernization, workforce revitalization, and TYAD’s growing partnership programs are enabling the depot to exceed customer expectations through reduced costs and faster turnaround times.
Operating under the Army Working Capital Fund, TYAD has established a buyer-seller relationship with customers that allows the facility to focus on providing the highest quality support at the lowest possible cost. The depot’s 130 public-private partnerships with companies such as Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Dell, Raytheon, and General Dynamics provide diverse functionalities that include program management, reset, engineering, training, and testing and enhanced capabilities that include repair and overhaul, systems integration, manufacturing, and field technical support. TYAD’s business focus areas, which include systems integration, repair/overhaul, manufacturing, sustainment support, and force projection, are available to all DoD agencies and industry through the depot’s Public- Private Partnering Program.

As a leader in providing forward-deployed maintenance services for Army Commercial Off-the-Shelf/Non- Developmental Items (COTS/NDIs) automated data processing equipment, TYAD operates FRAs located worldwide that offer the field commander cost savings, quality, and convenience through in-theater maintenance support and depot-level expertise to the field, reducing transportation costs and turnaround times.

TYAD continues to progress as a team-based organization, with all employees fully aware of the depot’s key business objectives and their respective roles in improving TYAD’s operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Commodity management, TYAD’s process for technical and project management, is implemented through teams of commodity-based expertise to support weapon systems and technologies. Commodity Management Teams apply best business practices to high-visibility, resource-intensive projects and programs to ensure that all design, development, scheduling, coordinating, maintenance, and reporting requirements meet or exceed customer expectations. All teams are empowered with the necessary skills to maintain a business-focused and responsive culture, with all employees receiving mission core-workload training as well as training in team building, outcome- focused meetings, decision making, brainstorming, and scorecard development. These skills are transferable from organization to organization, allowing employees to immediately react to new or shifting workloads and creating a more flexible workforce.

TYAD’s commitment to a well-trained workforce is proactively supported through a variety of training and educational initiatives to enhance the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its employees that enable them to effectively accomplish their work. Training initiatives include on-the-job training, the opportunity to gain higher-level learning through TYAD’s partnership with area universities and colleges, and developmental assignments to challenge employees with diverse roles and greater responsibilities. The depot’s Technical Training Center provides advanced communications-electronics military occupational skill qualification and reclassification training for all branches of the military.

TYAD’s environmental stewardship has met all environmental compliance requirements and conservation objectives for ISO 14001 registration. TYAD is also an ISO 9001:2000-registered facility and the first DoD agency to be formally certified as a Voluntary Protection Program Star Site workplace safety program, having met standards in 19 categories set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s safety program. Employee health, safety, satisfaction and performance excellence are primary considerations at TYAD. The facility’s Workers’ Compensation Program is a recognized model for the federal government and has been benchmarked by the Department of Labor, the Department of the Army, and the Office of Personnel Management.

TYAD has been recognized as an award-winning installation at the national, state and local level, including the Vice President’s Hammer Award and the Presidential Quality Award; 4 Army Community of Excellence Awards (Chief of Staff level); 8 awards for excellence in personnel management and education, including the Federal Teaming Award and the Army’s Best Disability Program Award; 32 environmental awards, including the Secretary of Defense/Army Environmental Award and the Governor’s Award for Excellence; and the 2006 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Award (Bronze level).

The BMP Survey Team congratulates Tobyhanna Army Depot for winning the 2006 Best Manufacturing Practices Award for Excellence and considers the following practices in this report to be among the best in industry and government.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS
The following acronyms were used in this report:

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