Arlington National Cemetary Grave Mix Up

At least 211 United States veterans are in unmarked or unrecorded graves in Arlington National Cemetery  Army officials report that remains were found in graves listed as “empty” and several urns were discovered on a “pile of dirt”. Like most quality problems, this is most likely just the tip of the iceberg.

There are about 300,000 veterans buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Assuming no other quality defects are found. This means that 0.07% of the veterans buried in the Arlington National Cemetery are defective in some way.

This means that at least 0.07% of the veterans buried in the Arlington National Cemetery – their burial is defective in some way.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman, Ike Skelton, said:

Arlington National Cemetery is a sacred shrine and it breaks my heart to learn about mismarked grave sites, mishandling of remains, missing documentation, and failures to notify next-of-kin. This conduct is disgraceful and cannot be tolerated.

Like most quality problems, they can be prevented and are, in fact, avoidable.

It’s Your Turn

Would single piece flow work for the “death industry”? Indeed, “take one, put one” might prevent the grave “switcheroo” problem. How would you approach this problem?