U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command which has saved us more than $59 million, resources which in turn can be applied to many of the new systems that are being fielded. Q: What are the lessons learned from the Iraq drawdown and how are those applying to the planning and preparation for Afghanistan? A: Essentially, the same activities we’ve conducted in the Iraq drawdown will be repeated when it comes time to drawdown from Afghanistan. We’ve gotten smarter on how to re-allocate our personnel who are experts in our overseas operations. The LRC built a network for redistribution property assistance teams for drawdown in support of the 402nd Army Field Support Brigade in Operation New Dawn. With Iraq, most equipment moved south and departed through Kuwait, resulting in increased support there as the forward operating bases closed. Having a presence in Kuwait has been a force multiplier for our drawdown efforts in terms of moving equipment and having the right folks on the ground to capitalize on those lessons learned. In Afghanistan, the retrograde planning is different with much of our support in country, and we’re well-positioned to expand our support there. Essentially, the difference between the two missions is the operating environment. We have developed a different engagement strategy in terms of moving equipment. With land-locked Afghanistan, we’re planning to change retrograde methods. Exercising the airlift capability in Iraq paid dividends so we will employ more airlift when moving equipment out of Afghanistan. Another lesson we’ve learned is that a military drawdown in a contingency theater does not necessarily mean the end of support requirements. Even after the withdrawal of combat forces, the U.S. military continues to support activities in these countries. We are assisting CENTCOM as they transition tactical communications networks to commercial grade network enterprises. This work continues beyond the presence of combat troops in a contingency theater. We also continue to support our allies by strengthening relationships through foreign military sales. During FY11 alone, in coordination with the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command, CECOM’s Logistics and Readiness Center successfully provided more than $700 million in C4ISR equipment in support of Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. These military partnerships promote compatibility and interoperability in equipment and training so they are crucial to the national defense strategy. Q: How do you strategically manage workload fluctuations?? A: When I took command in February, we re-evaluated CECOM’s current mission and vision to analyze how we would fit into the Army Materiel Command and the total Army as we transform for 2020. We took a look at our manpower, workforce development and intern programs, downsizing through natural attrition and pursuing reassignments within the organization to avoid adverse affects on our workforce. We’ve adjusted our tables of distribution and allowances, TDAs, and are working to flatten our structure. To date, we’ve established commandwide hiring controls, directed management reassignments and just completed round two of three early retirements this past July. Our goal is to create a smaller, agile, multi-disciplined highly skilled workforce, who are cross-functionally trained and certified. Workload fluctuations play a significant role in the efficiency of our industrial base. TYAD supplements its federal civilian employee workforce with contractor personnel to provide flexibility in adjusting to workload fluctuations. The depot’s contract support provides the ability 6 | MLF 6.7 | U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command
to rapidly adjust to workload requirements and operate at maximum productivity. So, when TYAD’s workload doubled between 2003 and 2009 as it expanded in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, depot leadership added contractor personnel as needed to support this surge in workload. This fiscal year, however, workload assessments were lower than last year, so the depot had a requirement for fewer contractor personnel across all of the depot’s assigned commodities. Due to the dynamic nature of our industrial base requirements, Tobyhanna developed capabilities to quickly analyze supply/demand situations in key areas of operations. Rapid and detailed analytical tools have enabled the depot’s planning groups to share information with its mission shops, and other critical organizations such as the Army Contracting Command, to scale resources and material supply accordingly. In addition, Tobyhanna’s workforce has done a phenomenal job at strategically applying Lean Six Sigma across organizational operations to cut cost. Since FY02 Tobyhanna’s LSS efforts have generated $190 million in combined cost savings and cost avoidance with more than $25 million in FY11 alone. These savings are captured on the Depot Scorecard with each directorate having specific targets for labor dollar and belt project savings. Employee-driven continuous process improvement efforts captured through Depot’s Army Suggestion Program have supported overall cost cutting measures with a tangible savings generated since FY02 of more than $13.7 million. I expect all these efforts to better posture CECOM to endure a future environment of declining resources and fiscally-constrained reimbursable customers while staying aligned with Army core requirements. Q: What does your forward-deployed footprint look like and what type of work is handled in deployed locations? A: We have personnel around the globe … wherever units need C4ISR readiness support. CECOM’s forward-deployed footprint is a combination of about 1,200 logistics, maintenance and software support personnel in 97 different locations including posts, camps and stations in the U.S., Germany, Italy, Korea, Kuwait and Afghanistan. We use regionalized and unit support as well as a combination of government and contractor support. We partner with the Army Materiel Command’s Army Sustainment Command to populate the structure of their Army field support brigades. This structure allows CECOM to provide responsive C4ISR logistics, maintenance and software support down to the battalion level. Our logistics assistance representatives and field service representatives are CECOM’s premier experts on C4ISR systems. In garrison and deployed, LARs provide hands-on technical and logistical support to the warfighter through the complete ARFORGEN cycle. In theater, Tobyhanna’s field service representatives move from site to site providing equipment fielding and sustainment support to units within the region. We also provide computer repair and maintenance from key hub locations. Currently, software field support experts serve as an extension of our depot software organizations. They load software upgrades, ensure C4ISR systems are current with the latest information assurance software, check out software load procedures to ensure replicable processes when upgrades are distributed to the field, assist user units in articulating problems back to depot change organizations for implementation in future software versions. We’re researching ways to significantly reduce the on-site and regional presence needed to accomplish these tasks with tools that could be used to permit more remote support to reduce the placement of personnel in theater, and management and delivery of CECOM’s entire field support mission. www.MLF-kmi.com