The Department of the Army’s commitment to reinvention is strong, growing, and enthusiastic. This is represented by the broad range of recent accomplishments that are supportive of the goals of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR).

The Army continues to find innovative ways to reduce its administrative overhead and reengineer its support functions. By unleashing the power of military and civilian personnel and focusing on the basics, the changes accomplished are gaining efficiencies while maintaining the Army’s effectiveness.

The report is organized around the following themes:

• NPR/Quality Initiatives
• High Impact Agencies
• NPR Principles
  • Putting Customers First
  • Empowering Employees To Get Results
  • Cutting Red Tape
  • Getting Back To Basics
• Partnering
• Awards

The success stories and initiatives highlighted in this document represent the Army’s commitment to achieving the President’s vision of better government. With its scores of accomplishments, it demonstrates how Army personnel and their organizations are achieving major changes in functional areas and organizational units. We expect this report to be a catalyst for greater change and process improvement throughout the Army as units and organizations benchmark these best practices.

The Army's reinvention activities are a key part of the organizations NPR initiative. These Reinvention Laboratories and Centers are at the forefront of change in the Army and their contributions are notable as demonstrated throughout this report.

A major effort was undertaken to promote Total Army Quality and reinvention tools with the development and initial distribution of an interactive CD-ROM "Leading Change", and the establishment of TAQ training in all the Army’s leadership schools.

Army organizations continue to seek quality and continuous improvement using tools like the Army Performance Improvement Criteria (APIC) resulting in three of the last four Presidential Quality Awards being presented to Army Commands. Greater than 50% of Army installations actively use the APIC to gain efficiency without loss of effectiveness.

To achieve Vice President Gore's goal to restore American's trust in government, the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) established thirty-two High Impact Agencies (HIA). The Department of Defense is one such agency and its focus is Acquisition Reform. The leaders of HIA were challenged to commit to a number of significant, concrete and measurable goals in three major categories that could be achieved by:

• Delivering Great Service
• Fostering Partnership
• Internal reinvention

In addition to various reinvention and reengineering initiatives by specific Army agencies, Army plays a significant role in several Department of Defense (DoD)-wide reform initiatives with one being acquisition reform. Army organizations have made significant strides in Electronic Commerce (EC) which is key to achieving the Army goal of creating a total paperless contracting process.

The Army, in partnership with other Services and Defense agencies, will be instrumental in achieving the HIA goals.

There are numerous "Best Practices" and Success Stories categorized into the four main principles of the NPR:

Initiatives like the Patient-Center Delivery Care System being tested at select dental clinics have caused patient satisfaction to rise from 77.6% to 90.6%, with a stretch goal of 95% still to be reached. The Base Operations Opportunity Leveraging and Development (BOLD) Grant Program in the Training and Doctrine Command empowers commanders and employees by funding innovative ideas with potential for significant returns on the investment. In fiscal year 1996 the Grants cost $3.9M yielding $12.5M annual return on the investment. Organizations like Fort Bragg, empowered employees resulting in reengineered warehousing functions, reducing inventory by $1.9 million and order-to-ship cycle times from 35 to 3 days. Many additional examples are outlined in the report.

Army Organizations are forming partnerships and alliances with organizations as diverse as Cadets at West Point or the Captains of Industry. Whether partnering with another Army unit, the local community or with industry, the bottom line is improved performance. While some arrangements lead to monetary savings like Huntsville Engineering and Support Center’s Energy Saving Performance Contracts, saving the Army and other government agancies $150 million, others increase the Quality of Life (QOL) for soldiers, their families, and members of surrounding communities. For example, Fort McPherson, U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), established a formal partnership with East Point, Georgia, by which the two communities work together to improve the quality of life. The partnership includes youth services, recreation, alcohol and drug prevention, mentoring, and sports programs. Although only a few of the Army’s partnering arrangements are depicted in the report, all result in a Win-Win philosophy for the Army, and local communities or business and industry.

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 Hammer Award is presented by the Vice President to federal agencies and activities nation-wide recognized as "Heroes of Reinvention." During fiscal year 1998, 23 Army teams of individuals earned the coveted Hammer Award for their extraordinary accomplishments and success in smashing bureaucracy and cutting red tape. The estimated savings from those teams alone totaled over $465M dollars.

Process improvement using a Baldrige-based criteria makes a winner out of every organization who undertakes the self assessment. In addition to the three Army organizations receiving the Presidential Award for Quality in recent years, Fort Carson was recognized in 1998 as the winner of the Federal Achievement Award for Customer Service Initiatives. Their innovative Direct Support Maintenance Plus program resulted in a $20M dollar savings and higher readiness.

Army Organizations have received numerous other awards for quality, innovation, and reengineering with only a few highlighted in this report.

As the Army continues its journey toward the future, it must find new and innovative ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its people and organizations. The Army's ability to generate, test, and implement new ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness will be a key factor in how it acquires, focuses, and conserves resources for America's 21^st Century Army.

As stated by Vice President Gore –"Reinvention is based on this fundamental truth: We can only achieve our highest democratic ideals by using practical approaches that empower and unleash the energy of ordinary citizens."

NOTE:  A full web based version of this report will be posted soon.

[Table of Contents] [Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Annexes]

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Last revision: 18 Aug 2008