Achieving Army Business Transformation through organization analysis: organizational analysis and design examines organizational structure, workload, manpower utilization, and relationships to external organizations.

The Army aggressively is transforming its enterprise operations in order to realign resources to its core competency--fighting and winning the nation's wars. A cornerstone element of the transformation is the continuous analysis of our organizations to ensure that they are adaptive and responsive to the changing needs of our Army. Army Business Transformation is focused on an enterprise framework that defines business rules and aligns productivity and output with Army strategic goals. The overall goal of Army Business Transformation is to eliminate redundancies and nonvalue-added processes, thereby allowing for a redirection of resources (dollars and personnel) to where they are needed most.

Army Business Transformation has three primary focus areas:

* Organizational Analysis and Design (OA&D): Create a world-class organizational structure focusing on the customer and concentrating on the core business.

* Continuous Process Improvement: Use a structured analytical approach to identify process improvement opportunities. The Army has selected Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as the primary technique to identify and implement improvement initiatives.

* Situational Awareness: Generate actionable knowledge through the use of timely and accurate information about the Army enterprise, its processes, and external factors.

Organizational Analysis and Design

For the most part, these business transformation concepts have been around for years in one form or another. Most notably, OA&D has been a long-time core component of Army manpower and management capabilities and staffs. Army organizational analysis and design work has included "Schedule X" manpower surveys, organizational studies, models and templates, and studies conducted in accordance with Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76. The use of OA&D helps assure leaders that resource requirements are linked properly to missions and priorities. Additionally, OA&D insights assist leaders in maintaining flexible, adaptive, and efficient organizations.

Organizational Analysis and Design examines organizational structure, workload, staffing, manpower utilization, and relationships to external organizations. The first order of business in OA&D is to validate the organization's mission and functions and to ensure that resulting manpower requirements link directly to Department of the Army priorities, strategies, policies, and regulations. Any resource requirements not linked to Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA)-directed or -approved missions may not be validated. The overarching goal is to design the most efficient and effective organization, focusing on the following:

* Validating missions and workload

* Streamlining organizations

* Eliminating redundancies

* Flattening structure based on an appropriate span of control

* Centralizing functions where practical

* Determining the minimum essential categories of manpower requirements

Over the past year, organizational and manpower analysis techniques and tools have been used to inform Army decision makers about many important issues, including overseas-directed global repositioning; the manpower and organizational requirements in support of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC); the Reserve Component Full-Time Support requirements; and installation management requirements. The increased reliance on OA&D underscores the importance and expectation of senior leaders that decisions are predicated on rigorous analysis. Just as TRADOC has used OA&D to transform the operational Army into a modular force, the same methods can be used to develop more efficient and effective organizations in the institutional Army. In addition, OA&D may be used to identify feasible solutions to organizational and resource requirements, such as base realignment and closure (BRAC) and the HQDA-directed workforce management efficiencies.

U.S. Army Manpower Analysis Agency in the Lead

One organization leading this effort for the Army is the U.S. Army Manpower Analysis Agency (USAMAA), a field operating agency (FOA) assigned to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs). The agency oversees and executes the Army manpower requirements determination process, conducts leadership-directed studies, develops and approves manpower models, and evaluates the application of Army manpower and organizational policies (see Figure 1). The USAMAA applies the latest business practices, study techniques, and tools when studying Army missions, processes, and organizations.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

These techniques include LSS and operations research and systems analysis. Agency analysts prepare study plans that include a mix of traditional on-site data collection and analysis, modeling techniques, and LSS principles. This approach enables USAMAA analysts to provide senior leaders with recommendations that are timely and analytically based.

The following are brief descriptions for some of USAMAA's organizational analysis and design efforts over the past year:

* Conducted an assessment of BRAC (at the request of the Secretary of the Army), validating 6,600 military and civilian authorizations and identifying BRAC actions that overstated savings and put Army resources at risk

* Modified the BRAC model that projected continental United States installation support requirements based on changes in troop and family member populations for application in an overseas environment; also identified a savings of 5,500 personnel as a result of the global repositioning of forces over the Program Objective Memorandum 2008-2013 period

* Conducted a comprehensive manpower and organizational analysis of TRADOC schools and centers of excellence and developed a flatter organizational design, improved the span of control, and consolidated functional and support staffs without eliminating instructors and drill sergeants

* Guided the development of eight workload-based requirements models with applicability to over 140,000 manpower requirements

Lean Six Sigma

As part of continuous process improvement, the Army is deploying LSS to fundamentally change how the Army does business and to foster a sustained commitment to continuous improvement. LSS is one of several approaches that the Army is using to optimize process alignment with Army strategic objectives and to demonstrate responsible stewardship of valuable resources. Lean focuses on process flow and velocity, while Six Sigma focuses on standardization (reducing variation) and the elimination of defects. LSS has been incorporated into the Army's organizational analysis process. In an iterative manner, USAMAA will combine optimum organizational structure with process improvements until we identify the most effective and efficient approach.

A Final Thought

As the operational Army continues to transform, we must continue to assess the institutional Army in parallel, adapting to meet the changing needs of the operational Army. Application of Organizational Analysis and Design to the institutional Army will enable transformation by providing rational and feasible solutions to Army problems and changing requirements.