I regularly receive an email called “Lean Stuff” from Mr. Kurt Doehnurt at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). For those of you who are running Continuous Process Improvement programs that utilize Lean / Six Sigma or use Lean methods in your knowledge management efforts, this is fantastic resource to follow and share. I’ve asked Mr. Doehnurt if I can republish his content to my blog for the benefit of those who may not have access but are interested in receiving the content.
This special edition of Lean Stuff focuses on Secretary Gates’ efficiency initiative. Thanks, Kurt, for allowing me to share!
“This agenda is not about cutting the department’s budget. It is about reforming and reshaping priorities to ensure that, in tough budgetary and economic times, we can focus defense resources where they belong: in America’s fighting forces, investment in future capabilities and, most important, on our men and women in uniform,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, at the Pentagon, Aug. 9, 2010.
“To be clear, the task before us is not to reduce the department’s top-line budget,” Gates said. “Rather, it is to significantly reduce its excess overhead costs and apply the savings to force structure and modernization.”
1. SECRETARY LAUNCHES EFFICIENCIES INITIATIVE <http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2010/0810_effinit/>
a) GATES ANNOUNCES REFORM PLANS
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates set out his plans to reform the way the Pentagon does business and to eliminate duplicative, unnecessary costs.
During a Pentagon news conference today, Gates said the steps he is taking will help the U.S. military fight the wars it faces now, and help ready the force for the wars it may face in the future. With these moves, the secretary said, he wants to instill a culture of saving in the department. Story | Transcript | Video
b) SECRETARY FOCUSSES ON PENTAGON CULTURE
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2010 – The initiative to reduce Defense Department overhead and to eliminate duplicative capabilities is part of a larger effort to change the culture of the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a press briefing. Story | Transcript | Video
c) EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE HAS BROAD SUPPORT
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2010 – The efficiency initiatives Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced yesterday are just part of a drive that has been moving since the secretary took office, said Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Story | Transcript | Video
d) Aug. 9, 2010 Statements
Obama Calls Gates’ Announcement ‘Step Forward’
Mullen: New Plans ‘More Efficient’
Joint Forces Command Responds to Announcement
e) Related Links
Gates Message Video
Transcript: DOD News Briefing with Secretary Gates from the Pentagon
Briefing Slides
Transcript: Briefing with Vice Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright
f) Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has launched his plan to reform the way the Pentagon does business and to eliminate duplicative, unnecessary overhead costs. His efficiencies initiative includes:
1. Reducing funding for service support contractors by 10 percent a year for each of the next three years, and no longer automatically replace departing contractors with full-time personnel.
2. Freezing the number of Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Agency and combatant command positions at the FY10 levels for the next three years. Other than changes planned for FY10, no more full-time positions in these organizations will be created after this fiscal year to replace contractors. Some exceptions can be made for critical areas such as the acquisition workforce.
3. Conducting a clean-sheet review to determine what our people should be doing, where, and at what level of rank, in keeping with the department’s most critical priorities with results due by Nov. 15.
4. Freezing at FY10 levels the number of senior civilians – of civilian senior executive, general and flag – officer, and PAS positions. A senior task force will assess the number and location of senior positions, as well as the overhead and accoutrements that go with them, with results due by Nov. 1. Gates expects the task force to recommend cutting at least 50 general and flag-officer positions and 150 senior civilian executive positions over the next two years.
5. Authorizing each of the military departments to consider consolidation or closure of excess bases and other facilities where appropriate.
6. Seeking ideas, suggestions and proposals from outside normal official channels, including soliciting input from experts such as think tanks, industry and the department’s external boards.
7. Launching an online contest within the Department to solicit and reward creative ideas to save money and use resources more effectively. All DoD employees are encouraged to visit www.defense.gov/INVEST on the Web to learn more.
8. Directing a series of assessments of how the Defense Department is organized and operated to inform the FY12 budget request. This includes launching an initiative to improve the efficiency and reduce costs in the contracting arena to get better buying power for the taxpayer and warfighter in defense goods and services.
9. Consolidating information technology assets to take advantage of the department’s significant economies of scale, thereby creating savings in acquisition, sustainment and manpower costs. This action will allow the increased use by the department of common functions and improve the department’s ability to defend Defense networks against growing cyber threats.
10. Freezing the overall number of DoD-required oversight reports. Immediately cutting the dollars allocated to advisory studies by 25 percent, and henceforth, publishing the actual cost of preparing each report and study prepared by DoD. 11. Conducting a comprehensive review of all oversight reports by Oct.1, and using the results to reduce the volume generated internally.
11. Reviewing all outside boards and commissions, to eliminate those that are no longer needed, focusing the efforts of those that continue to be relevant, and cutting the overall funding available for studies tasked by the remaining boards and commissions by 25 percent in FY11.
12. Directing an immediate 10 percent reduction in funding for intelligence advisory and assistance contracts and freezing the number of senior executive positions in defense intelligence organizations. Conducting a zero-based review of the department’s intelligence missions, organizations, relationships and contracts to be completed by Nov. 1.
13. Eliminating organizations that perform duplicative functions or have outlived their original purpose, including the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, also known as NII, and organization within the Joint Staff’s J6 Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems, the Business Transformation Agency and the Joint Forces Command.
2. INNOVATION FOR NEW VALUE, EFFICIENCY AND SAVINGS TOMORROW (INVEST) – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is asking all servicemembers and DoD employees to submit their ideas to save money, avoid cost, reduce cycle time and increase the agility of the Department. This contest, called the INVEST Awards, will reward with cash prizes those who submit the best ideas for improving efficiency. Ideas will be accepted via this website from Monday, Aug. 9th through Friday, Sept. 24. Twenty-five final winners will be announced in October.
<http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2010/0710_invest/>
3. THOUSANDS OF DEFENSE JOBS TO BE ELIMINATED; Contractors face cuts; Gates also targets Joint Forces Command – August 10, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Monday that the Pentagon will cut thousands of jobs, including a substantial chunk of its private contractors and a major military command based in Norfolk, as part of an ongoing effort to streamline its operations and to stave off political pressure to slash defense spending in the years ahead. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100810768747.html>
4. GATES: RETRENCH DEFENSE JOBS; ‘No sacred cows’ in trimming fat from top-heavy hierarchy – August 10, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans Monday to slash the Pentagon’s reliance on contractors and eliminate a major command in order to save money to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to modernize the military. Prime targets for saving, Gates said, are bureaucracies and headquarters that have “swelled to cumbersome and top-heavy proportions.” Their growth was fueled by doubling the defense budget since 2001 on top of additional spending on the two wars, Gates said. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100810768889.html>
5. GATES SAYS DEFENSE BUREAUCRACY SWOLLEN, DECLARES CUTS – August 10, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon needs to save money by further reducing a “cumbersome” U.S. military hierarchy, setting up potential battles with members of Congress who support targeted programs. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100810768904.html>
6. DOD TO ELIMINATE CIO, BTA OFFICES – August 10, 2010 – Gates says the DoD CIO’s functions will move to a “re-fashioned” Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and the acquisition functions will belong to the Office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. This leaves Takai’s new position in limbo. This was one of several management changes Gates announced Monday as part of his plan to move $100 billion in spending from back-office functions to warfighter needs. Along with closing the Joint Forces Command base in Norfolk, Va. and calling for a reduction of contractors by 10 percent a year for through 2012, Gates froze hiring for senior executives on his staff, at defense agencies and at combatant commands, cut the number of DoD advisory boards and oversight reports and eliminated the Business Transformation Agency. <http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=35&sid=2023549>
7. GATES CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE OVER BUDGET – August 11, 2010 – He is arguably the most respected member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet. But Robert Gates has nonetheless this week found himself at the centre of a political storm. The US defence secretary on Monday announced dramatic cuts to the Pentagon’s budget, an initial step towards his goal of finding $100bn (€76bn, £63bn) of savings over the next five years in a department that spends more than $700bn a year. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100811769025.html>
8. DEFENSE CONTRACTORS FEEL PINCH – Gates’s planned cuts spook investors and companies – Washington Post August 11, 2010 – The stock prices of several major government contractors fell Tuesday, a day after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he planned to cut spending at the Pentagon. Although it is still unclear exactly how Gates’s cuts would affect individual companies, his general plan to reduce reliance on private contractors strikes at a government-services line of business that had been lucrative in recent years. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100811769051.html>
9. WHAT’S REALLY BEHIND THE GATES CUTS – August 10, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s bombshell announcement that he will close Joint Forces Command as part of sweeping reforms of the defense bureaucracy is being seen around the defense community as a preemptive move against congressional efforts to cut the defense budget. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100811768975.html>
10. GATES CUTS PENTAGON FAT, BUT PLENTY OF FLAB REMAINS OUR VIEW: A STRONG BUREAUCRACY DOESN’T EQUAL STRONG NATIONAL DEFENSE. – USA Today August 11, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ ongoing campaign to swing a scythe through Pentagon bloat and excess is overdue and entirely welcome. The Pentagon budget has more than doubled in just the past decade, and core defense spending is now bigger in real terms than it was at the height of President Reagan’s enormous defense buildup in the 1980s. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100811769132.html>
a) CUTS ARE SHORTSIGHTED OPPOSING VIEW: THESE ARE CRITICAL FUNCTIONS; GATES MAY LACK POWER TO ELIMINATE THEM. – USA Today August 11, 2010 -The announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to make cuts at the Defense Department, specifically the decision to eliminate the Joint Forces Command, is shortsighted, devoid of strategic decision-making and could harm national security. <http://ebird.osd.mil/ebfiles/e20100811769134.html>
11. GATES OUTLINES MAJOR CUTS TO CONTRACTING – Aug 10, 2010 – Traditional weapons programs like shipbuilding and emerging capabilities like cyberwarfare may be beneficiaries of the one-third, three-year cut in services support contracting that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined Aug. 9. The steps announced were at once sweeping and seemingly nibbling, but all will be up for what promises to be a contentious congressional review in the Fiscal 2012 budget process. <http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/asd/2010/08/10/01.xml&headline=Gates%20Outlines%20Major%20Cuts%20To%20>
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