Strategic Plan 2002 continues MTMC's move to the future: the first in a series of three TRANSLOG articles.

The near-term future scope of the Military Traffic Management Command is organized in structure, priority and measurement in Strategic Plan 2002.

The long-range planning and philosophical document, now in command-wide distribution, charts MTMC's future direction. The plan is designed as a seamless continuation of Strategic Plan 2000, developed in late 1999, which led to many successful MTMC organizational and process initiatives.

"Our original strategic plan allowed us to make large strides in just two short years," said Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Privratsky, Commander. "This revision will enable us to continue that journey -- building upon a clear vision and set of imperatives. The major focus of Strategic Plan 2002 is the linking of objectives with measures, targets and initiatives."

The true spirit and value of the plan, said Privratsky, is that it was developed by the command's managers and leaders. Those planning developers included Frank Galluzzo, Director, Distribution Analysis Center, who said the plan will prove to be a series of road maps for the Military Traffic Management Command for years to come.

"The final product, MTMC Strategic Plan 2002, consists of two sections," said Galluzzo. "Section I outlines MTMC's mission and vision, along with the imperatives and objectives the command will use to measure progress towards becoming a more efficient, effective 21st century organization. Section II contains the detailed working documents used to achieve our vision as expressed in the measures, initiatives--the road maps."

The latter section will be used by MTMC supervisors and employees alike to move their respective organizations into the future. One of those who will benefit from the plan is David Jones, Team Leader, Strategic Planning and Program Objectives Memorandum, of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Resource Management.

"During the planning process, we followed a structured, contractor-facilitated, process for linking performance with metrics," said Jones. "We developed strategic plans that contain a mission statement, goals, objectives, performance measures, target dates and resource requirements."

Formulation of Strategic Plan 2002 by developers was assisted by a focused approach, said Virginia King, Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and Logistics. The approach will allow MTMC to monitor its progress based on measurable results, she said. As an example, MTMC statistical progress can be compared against goals in the Government Performance Results Act. MTMC's use of the Strategic Management System was supported by the Logistics Management Institute, of McLean, Va.

"We followed a structured planning method called the Strategic Management System," said King. "It's based upon the Balanced Scorecard approach that MTMC adopted to spell out its strategic direction, communicate expectations and measure progress."

"The Strategic Management System makes it easy to develop strategy, said Larry Conner, Organizational Improvement Program Manager. "The organization can tailor the system to meet its needs."

The work of the development team began in June when Privratsky asked Col. Tom E. Thompson, Chief of Staff, to review the command's original strategic plan and create a successor.

There should be a number of key objectives, he said. They include:

* Dominance of information management.

* Leverage of commercial capabilities

* Redefinition of MTMC traffic management.

"This task that you are undertaking is critical to our future," said Privratsky, in his tasking for a new strategic plan.

Team members reviewed Strategic Plan 2000. To better understand metrics and performance measurement, several team members also attended a related workshop.

Once the planning group came together in early September, team members approved the concept and identified a four-month timeline for updating the command's strategic plan.

Additional copies of MTMC's Strategic Plan 2002 are available from the Command Affairs Office at [e-mail].

MTMC Strategic Plan 2002

Successes

* One headquarters at two locations

* Centralization of personnel, supply and finance

* Standardization of MTMC port structure

* Task organization and training of deployment support teams

* Port handling rate reductions for three consecutive years

* Assessment and adoption of commercial automation solutions

* Enhanced industry partnerships

Critical Challenges

* Establish MTMC as the global traffic manager of choice for origin-to-final-destination distribution of DoD passengers and cargoes in peace and war.

* Become a more efficient and effective organization by eliminating remaining pockets of redundancy.

* Leverage commercial capabilities by building on initiatives such as commercial software, direct booking, and performance-based contracting.

* Become the global surface traffic manager of choice for the warfighting Commanders-in-Chief and the Defense Transportation System.

* Provide end-to-end traffic management solutions. Eliminate redundant processes and artificial organizational walls, such as those that exist between domestic and international cargo movement, or rail and truck shipment modes.

* Become more reflective and analytic in the way we conduct our business.

* Make MTMC an organization of the 21st Century--focused on the Customer.