Army Reinvention and Quality
Initiatives Report - 1998
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Leading Change | |
Army Reinvention and Quality |
Chapter 5 - Awards for Innovative Change
Though continuing as a whole to reinvent itself, several organizations and teams of individuals within the Army stand out due to their spectacular successes. Army organizations were recognized through a wide range of awards sponsored by the President and Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, and the Chief of Staff, Army, as well as several from universities and public foundations.
The President's Quality Award (PQA) Program
Each year the President's Quality Award is the highest recognition given by the Federal government to organizations that implement best business and performance practices, and quality management strategies. Annually, the program recognizes up to ten federal organizations that have improved their overall performance and demonstrated a sustained trend in providing high quality products and services to customers. The PQA Program relies on a Baldrige-based organizational assessment system to evaluate competing organizations.
Use of the Army Performance Improvement Criteria (APIC), the Army's own Baldrige-derived assessment tool, reinforces our organizational commitment both to our "customers," the American people, and to our "employees," the quality soldiers and civilians of the Total Army. The success of organizations that faithfully use the APIC is illustrated by the fact that three Army organizations have earned the Presidential Award for Quality. They are the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center in Warren, MI (1995), the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Center in Picatinny Arsenal, NJ (1996), and the U.S. Army Infantry Center and Fort Benning in Fort Benning, GA (1997).
Of the six Army organizations forwarded to DoD for consideration this past year, four received site visits and will continue in the competition for the 1999 Presidential Award for Quality. The four are XVIII Airborne Corps & Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Carson, CO; U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, AL, and Waterviliet Arsenal, NY.
The Army Community’s of Excellence (ACOE) Program
This program, managed by the Army’s Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, supports reinvention through a focus on quality based reengineering of installation management processes and services at US Army installations throughout the world.
The ACOE program is a commander's process that provides for a variety of approaches that can be tailored to assist any organization, command or installation in reinventing itself. Leaders and managers take advantage of the entrepreneurial talent of the people within the community to develop better ways of helping people and getting work done. It is a program that encourages ideas and initiatives to float upward.
ACOE uses the Army Performance Improvement Criteria for installation assessments. All posts, regardless of size, are assessed against the criteria, not against each other. This Baldrige-like criteria focuses on self assessment - to identify strengths and weaknesses in planning and execution with emphasis on customer satisfaction. This assessment focuses on the entire community, with emphasis on internal and external facility excellence and customer service. The Army Communities of Excellence program is designed to change the thinking from "minimal essential" to "maximum possible" philosophies in providing support to soldiers.
The 1998 overall winner for the Chief of Staff, Army Community’s of Excellence Award was Fort Carson, Colorado. All winners, by category, are listed in Annex F of this report.
Federal Achievement Award for Customer Service Initiatives
Fort Carson also received a Federal Achievement Award during the President’s Quality Award Program ceremony (June 1998) for customer service and saving tax dollars. Innovative programs, such as its Direct Support Plus maintenance program have saved $20 million and provide better maintenance for units, resulting in higher readiness. This program increases opportunities for soldiers after completion of active duty. The men and women who are trained in higher-level repair services on tanks leave the army with valuable mechanical skills that can be transferred to the private sector.
A Fort Carson team of mechanics invented a "transmission test box" that lets diagnostic tests be performed on tank transmissions while housed in their chassis. This cuts the downtime of tanks, reducing the number of hours needed for repairs, and lessens the number of "floats" required while the tanks are in the shop.
The installation’s award-winning and aggressive environmental program exploits efficiencies in the use, storage and re-order of hazardous materials to reduce waste. In addition, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout, an endangered fish species is thriving at Fort Carson because of cooperative efforts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Mountain Plover, a ground nesting bird and candidate for the endangered list, is being aggressively managed and also is thriving at Pinon Canyon, the post's desert environment training area in southeastern Colorado.
The Vice President’s Hammer Award for Reinvention
Of equal importance to the reinvention efforts made by large-scale organizations is the successes of teams who are improving the way they conduct business throughout the Army. Vice President Gore's Hammer Award recognizes these teams and their local public and private partners whose work has resulted in a government that works better and costs less.
Sixty-one US Army teams submitted nomination packets for this award in 1998. The National Partnership for Reinventing Government awarded Army teams 23 Hammer Awards this year. Together, these winning teams saved the taxpayer in excess of $496 million. A brief description of each winning team and it’s accomplishment is listed in Annex E of this report.
The Secretary of Defense Award for Reengineering Excellence
As a Department of Defense (DoD) Pilot site, The U. S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) received the Secretary of Defense Award for Reengineering Excellence. This award was for reengineering and testing the DoD travel system in a manner that meets operational mission needs, improves service to the customers and reduces cost to the Government.
The Department of Defense selected the Longbow Missile Joint Venture Cost Reduction Program as their industry recipient of the 1998 Life Cycle Cost Award. This logistics award, is issued to the individual, team or organization from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Agency and Industry that has achieved outstanding results in reducing the life cycle cost of a fielded system. The Longbow Missile Joint Venture Cost Reduction Program is an outstanding example of Industry and Government partnering to achieve dramatic savings without compromising product quality.
The Secretary of Defense Productivity Excellence Award
The Department of Defense established the Secretary of Defense Productivity Excellence Award to recognize individuals and small groups who made substantial improvements in the quality and productivity of Defense operations through suggestions, special acts, or other management improvement initiatives. The contributions of the recipients must be adopted and employed, with a verified savings of $1 million dollars over a 12 month period. Four Army accomplishments, resulting in savings of $12.8 million, were recognized during Fiscal Year 1998. Details of these accomplishments are listed in Annex G of this report.
The Value Engineering (VE) program, which provides incentives to both government and contractor workforces to submit ideas for improving products, processes and production methods, continues to pay dividends. In Fiscal Year 1998, VE saved the Army $466 million. The Army nearly attained the aggressive DoD VE Strategic Plan savings goal of one percent of total obligation authority, which equates to $610 million for the Army. Army organizations were recognized by DoD this past year for their contribution to this saving. Examples of Army VE accomplishments that resulted in DoD recognizing these Army organizations are listed in Annex H of this report. Using VE Change Proposals (VECPs), which are cost saving recommendations submitted by a contractor in accordance with the VE provisions of their contract, the Army saved $35M. Government ideas, termed VE Proposals (VEPs), accounted for savings of over $431M.
Suggestors of the Year Award, Army Ideas for Excellence Program
The Army Ideas for Excellence Program (AIEP) is an incentive program that encourages soldiers and civilians within the Department of the Army to submit ideas that, if adopted, will result in increased efficiencies and reduced costs. Annually, the best ideas are recognized by the Secretary of the Army. The 1998
Suggesters of the Year are Mr. Steven Horne, Mr. Richard LaScala, and Ms. Gail Vidsens, from the Directorate for Safety Engineer, Communications Electronics Command (CECOM), Army Material Command (AMC), Fort Monmouth New Jersey. This team proposed changing the frequency for calibration of ACTIVE RADIACS (a device used by tactical units to test for radioactive contamination) from several times a year, to annually. The new proposal reduced the long turn-around time for calibration at Test Measurements & Diagnostic Equipment (TMDE) facilities and allowed users to eliminate excess ACTIVE RADIACS on hand (used to maintain readiness). The reduction in the total number of calibrations produced $202,083 of savings during the first year of implementation with an estimated savings of over $2.8 Million in the next ten years.
The David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award
The David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award was presented to the SARTA’s Purchase Card Program in May 1998. This award was established to recognize DoD civilian and/or military organizations, groups, or teams, who have made highly significant contributions which demonstrated exemplary innovation and best acquisition practices. The purchase card system greatly reduces the "red-tape" and paper work required to make small purchases and track accounting and audit data.
Though many organizations have been highlighted in this chapter for their efforts, the improvements in quality, efficiency and service provided here is only a small fraction of the successes made across the Army as a whole. The ever accelerating shift toward adopting good business practices, critical self assessment, and planning for long range goals supported by TAQ indicates that reinvention for improved service and cost savings has become a core goal across the Army.
[Table of Contents] [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Annexes]
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Last revision: 18 Aug 2008
