*The following are narrative summary of case results reports. The savings were verified by General Dynamics cost accounting department: 

Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) in 1/3rd the time

…during our design & development of a new rugged interactive flat-panel displays system for the Abrams army tank, your process helped us  complete FMEA in 1/3rd the time. That saved $51,000 in man hours. You then helped the development team remove the most critical potential issues by suggesting specific correction concepts. This helped get the display system adopted, now saving the U.S. Army over $3 million a year in ongoing support costs.

                        –Mark Eden, David Valice, Matt Vestrand, Scott Stilson

Abrams Army Tank Modernization

…your principle driven approach and involvement in our Abrams Modernization program was “key” to not only identifying the most critical potential weak spots before we even built the first vehicle, your tools for identifying the correct principle to solve each of these problems helped us pass all check-point reviews. The new vehicle was adopted by the U.S. Army and your improved systems are now saving the Army $16.3 million a year in reduced repair costs.

                                               –GDLS Six Sigma Improvements analysis group 

Stryker Wheeled Vehicle Improvements

…We realized to successfully modernize the Stryker 8-wheeled army tank,  in the short development cycle given in the contract, that we would have to identify and remove critical problems to shorten final validation testing and win the big production contract. You helped use save $1,861,704 on identifying these problems. You also helped 13 of the 15 development teams to remove problems by applying correct principles, rather than by guessing, brainstorming, or by TAFT (Test, Analyze, Fix, Test…). The result was 13 improved systems, which are now saving the U.S. Army $155.7 million/year over the legacy systems they had been using.

–GDLS Six Sigma Improvements analysis group

Improved DX Databook Cleanup Process

…our Six Sigma group had struggled for months to identify the problem and correct our engineer’s complex component selection and obsolescence process. They knew errors were costing millions in design reworks and re-design mandates, so they asked Howard Cooper to get involved to facilitate with a few tools he had created for identifying, prioritizing and solving system problems; with correct principles rather than by guessing, brainstorming and hoping a solution would pop-up. Howard showed us again, “Hope is not a strategy.” Within 3 or 4 meetings with the team, Howard had helped us identify the problem and get a fix.

Problem: An open-loop procedure being used by the Component Obsolescence Department.

Solution: Adding a single task to the procedure created a closed loop procedure.

Savings:  $53,713,216/yr in engineering errors, rework and re-designs costs. 

–Antony Katoe, Jr.,  Lisa Moussiaux, Jim Dutta (Dir. Six Sigma)

Stryker Environmental Controls Critical FM Mitigation

…U.S. DoD was pushing us to improve reliability of the heating and cooling system, as we modernized the Stryker armored vehicle. But, at the same time they wanted us to further tax the heating system to allow the vehicle to start at 50 degrees below zero. Howard Cooper helped our Environmental Controls Design Team, by applying FMEA to identify the most likely and critical problems within the system.  He then applied a set of tools he had developed, to quickly look up the correct principle for solving various types of design constraints, critical failures, safety hazards, usability, reliability problems, etc.. Applying the correct principles, rather than wasting time brainstorming and guessing, the team was able to eliminate problems and improve the design before ‘final customer testing’. The new, improved system was adopted and is now saving the U.S. Army a calculated and verified $66,230,803/year in repair and support costs, over the earlier Stryker heating and cooling system.

                                                –GDLS Environmental Controls Design Team

Top 5 Six Sigma Projects (2009 – 2014)

“…Just wanted to let you know, good job!  The attached report shows our top 5 Six Sigma improvement projects over the past 5 years were led by Howard Cooper.  Each project saved the U.S. Army between $1.3 – $7.2 million each and saved more than the following 23 projects combined. It also look like you are on course to more than double that record in 2015.  Good job! Thank you for your leadership and example to the other Six Sigma Black Belts and the entire General Dynamics Engineering Design & Development team.”

–Elizabeth Lybrook

   (Staff Engineering Specialist and Six Sigma Master Black Belt)

You Topped Our Corporate Goal

“…This year (2015) you have, single handed, topped our corporate ED&T savings goal of $7.2 million with savings from just the projects you have led and completed, totaling $8.2 million savings. 

With the remaining projects you have in process, your savings should reach $21.4 million, tripling our ED&T annual goal! Your principle driven solutions-tool is waking up the world. Can we hold some of your savings back until next year?  Thanks for the help, Howard.” 

–Elizabeth Lybrook

   (Staff Engineering Specialist and Six Sigma Master Black Belt)

*The above are case report summaries. The savings were verified by the General Dynamics Land Systems cost accounting department.

Using PDD principles in consulting, Howard Cooper (i3DAY Founder) received the following excerpt quotes from various companies, in their case results letters: 

“… We have reduced electrical ‘downtime’ by 70% on all applicable automated machines and systems.”

— Clair Bentezl, CNC Technician, Caterpillar, Inc.

“Circuit board failures for 30 NC and CNC systems has dropped from three to four per month to three to four per year, a 92% reduction.”

— Howard Olson, Manager Manufacturing Engineering, Colt Industries

“We fully agree with the principles taught in your FISHing seminar and the report which resulted from your survey of our 100 NC Machines. As a test, we installed all stress elimination systems on our 15 worst-case computer controls. The results were so impressive, we applied these principles on the other 85 machines during the next year. We now “harden” each  new machine we get. With J.I.T. manufacturing, your hardening methods are a must.”

— Charles Bakey, Maintenance Engineer, The TRANE Company

   “I am Roger Sanford the Electrical Tech on the ExxonMobil Jade Platform, off the coast of West Africa.  I located Mr Cooper to innovate a effective lightning protection scheme for our Oil Drilling Platform. We already had a protection package installed, but we still sustained heavy losses during lightning storms, on our electrical and electronic gear, including;

  • Power Generation Equipment
  • Variable Speed Motor Drives
  • Power Factor Correction Controls
  • PLC Controllers
  • Computers
  • Telemetry Equipment
  • Communications Equipment an
  • Other Industrial Electronic Controls.

We have in the past few years sustained damage from multiple nearby lightning strikes, causing $50,000 to $60,000 equipment damage per occurrence, not to mention huge costs of down-time and lost production.  When I started looking around for someone in this field all of the vendors I contacted pointed me to Howard C Cooper. . .  By implementing Howard’s innovative protection principles, we now get through lightning strikes without any further collateral damage to our systems.  We have since had even stronger closer strikes and a few direct hits, but no more problems.”

 — Roger Sanford, Helmrich & Payne

“By applying your principles we have cut equipment downtime, malfunctions and electronic failures to near zero. Thanks, we will expand application of these most cost, innovative and effective concepts”.

— Dick Kohli (Maintenance Manager), Minster Machine Tool

“With a new building and all new CNC machines, we were plagued over the first 15 months with unscheduled maintenance downtime of 40%, and machine utilization of 50%. This changed dramatically after applying your
innovative stress elimination principles. Unscheduled maintenance downtime dropped to 6 – 8% and has remained there for over a year. Machine utilization jumped above 90%, continuously.”

— West Code, Inc, a Pennsylvania train valve manufacturer

“As a lead technician, I installed your recommendations in my area. The result was so dramatic that I was promoted to maintenance supervisor over the worst of four areas within Signetics’ Orem, UT plant. So I implemented the same methods. Our downtime not only dropped again, our yield and throughput went up. So, I was promoted to Maintenance Manager over all four areas. As you recall, the first thing I did was call you again. Following your lead has proven dramatic with 3-4 month ROI for all four areas; Masking, Diffusion, Test, and IC Assembly. Thanks for the career.”

— Marvin Applone (Maint. Mgr.) Signetics Semiconductor Co.

“As a Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) Master Black Belt in General Dynamics’ continual improvement and Six Sigma training department, I always requested Mr. Cooper’s help, to facilitate principle driven innovative solution sessions and Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) sessions. He always seemed to pull innovative solutions from a group.  I was his coach throughout his Six Sigma training and noticed even as a Green Belt candidate he identified and lead projects with multi million dollar savings. Since his DFSS Black Belt Certification from both General Dynamics and from Air Academy Assoc., Mr. Cooper became our foremost expert in FMEA and replaced brainstorming with eTools which allowed engineers to quickly identify correct principles to solve their design constraints, safety, reliability, ease of use and manufacturing problems, etc. from any desk-top or conference room, without needing reference books or previous training. The last five years, he led 26 projects saving General Dynamics and the U.S. Army over $233 million.  I highly recommend his i3DAY-Innovation group to help your organization move into rapid and continual innovation.”

–Andrea Stamps, DFSS MBB, General Dynamic Land Systems

Partial List of Past Clients Include:

  • General Electric
  • Cummins Engine
  • National Semiconductor
  • FMC
  • The Trane Co
  • Rockwell
  • Intel
  • BF Goodrich
  • Honda
  • American Express
  • Hercules Aerospace
  • General Dynamics
  • Colt Industries
  • Rexnord Pneumatics
  • HCA Hospitals
  • Caterpillar
  • Borg-Warner
  • Texas Instruments
  • NTN Bower
  • SW Bell
  • Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
  • Chubb Insurance
  • Snap-on Tools
  • Helmerich & Payne IDC
  • Sturm Ruger
  • Exxon-Mobil
  • . . .etc.

Your Path Forward:

i3DAY Innovation provides you a structured path forward, with the tools, procedures and coaching, to realize rapid, consistent innovative product  improvement and profitability.  Return to the homepage and request our 40 minute webinar/case report detailing how you can start developing 15X more hits than misses (redesigns, cancelled projects or market failures). And, often do it in 1/3rd the time.