Amba604 Eosp Wk 10

Officer Training Command Newport EOSP

Scott Hazelrigg

AMBA604

Officer Training Command Newport

Professor Wallace December 7, 2008 Executive Summary Officer Training Command Newport (OTCN) recently went through a re-alignment, bringing up three programs that were based out of Pensacola Florida and integrated them into the two current programs being run at Newport. Infrastructure and command organization were not sufficiently planned prior to the move, and therefore has caused such inefficiencies in the current way business is ran. OTCN’s two major issues are command structure and the impact on customer service, and the Information Systems Technology and how it is employed here at the command. These two factors could have a significant impact on operations if they were reorganized and updated with modern technology. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the two major problems and offer possible solutions to aid in the updating and upgrading of current procedures and systems to provide the Navy with a better product; a competent, confident Naval Officer ready to join the U.S Naval Fleet and lead young men and women around the globe. Introduction Officer Training Command Newport is located scenic Rhode Island, and is home to a multitude of Naval Training entities. Specifically, it is responsible for the training of four different Naval Officer accession programs. These include Officer Candidate School, Officer Development School, Direct Commission Officer and Limited Duty Officer/Chief Warrant Officer schools. Up until late 2007, only Officer Development School was located at Newport Rhode Island, the remaining three schools were located in Pensacola Florida. The Base Re-alignment and Closure (BRAC) Committee closed the facility in Florida and consolidated the four programs in Rhode Island. This transition and consolidation has been very difficult since the infrastructure in Newport was not fully equipped to handle the program requirements to support these programs plus the existing programs located on the base. The purpose of this document is to outline some of the discrepancies facing this command, identify areas of improvement, and offer solutions to help minimize waste and streamline organizational performance. CUSTOMER SERVICE/COMMAND ORGANIZATION Officer Training Command Newport is a customer service entity. Where we vary is the product description that most businesses offer. Our product is human talent. We take customers (students) and in varying lengths of time educate them in Naval History and procedures prior to sending them on to their specific schools or out to the Naval Fleet. It is our responsibility to ensure they are ready to assume the responsibilities necessary to be Naval Officer. In our service line, there are currently five major areas that work within the entity as a whole to service our students. Below is a diagram to illustrate the structure of the command.

The structure was designed initially to accommodate every schoolhouse and the current personnel who were still assigned to the commands. It brought together the existing organization of Newport, with the organization brought up from Pensacola Florida. Were this a merger of two civilian corporations, certain job positions and redundancies in management would have been eliminated to minimize the upper echelon being overstaffed and personnel costs lowered. Within the Navy, no Naval Officer is ever technically fired. Officers are moved, or separated from the Navy, but this usually occurs because of poor performance, not organization realignments. Therefore, when the two organizations merged, you now had twice the amount of Senior Officers for a new

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Officer Training Command Newport

organization that needed less than what was available. This is the reason for the segmentation of the command. Now one year later we are seeing the following impact on the command and its mission: • Segmented departments with poor internal communication. • Little concept of a team approach to completing the overall mission. Individual departments focus on their specific mission and loose site of the big picture. • Overall poor communication between the five various departments. • Lack of clear direction between the 5 departments from the Chain of Command. This becomes very important when put into perspective, officer training command trains on average 4000 Naval Officer’s each year, which is 8% (DoD Personnel & Procurement Statistics, 2008) of the entire officer population in the U.S. Navy. After one year of performance, it is apparent that the organization has the potential to streamline the chain of command. Putting functional areas together under one Manager (Senior Officer) and decreasing the number of departments, you cut out the number of obstacles you need to go through to provide the most efficient service to our students. This also reduces the time spent requesting internal services, and provides more support and capabilities within one department. Below is a proposed organization structure for the command.

This structure brings similar departments and puts them under one umbrella. It provides a more consistent direction and will improve services based on time to service provided alone. This is a form of group technology (Jacob & Chase (2008)) in which like items are grouped for better functionality. This is especially true in the student services department. Staff Officers must be able to both teach and manage the day to day operations of the classes themselves. This includes personnel issues, uniform issues and general problems encountered when dealing with new accessions. They also must be familiar with the curriculum from all four school houses, and be able to teach to any class with a reasonable amount of lead time. Same with the administrative services, although more specialized there needs to be redundancy due to the nature of the business and that it is a year round endeavor that takes no breaks. One example of how this will streamline services is; currently is you want to reschedule a class around another event, you would have to submit a request to the Operations Department Head. He in turn would forward the request to Training and Readiness to coordinate the schedule change and room availability. Then once this was complete, they would route the request to the Academics Department to ensure that this didn’t conflict with that scheduled instructors other duties or commitments. This could take up to three days to reschedule a 1 hour class. Under the new structure, all the major players in this one request would work in the same department, so there would be no lines to cross to achieve the same end result. Students would benefit from a more streamlined academic process where their best interest is our priority not the red tape it takes to make adjustments happen. Implementation of this new structure would be in three phases over a one year period.

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Officer Training Command Newport

Revision of the Organizational Manual Facility Set-up Roll out – Command Training Phase one would consist of writing a new, comprehensive organizational manual outline the roles and responsibilities of every department. This would include an overview of the department as well as specific position description of all employees under its charge. This would give a clear and concise outline of expectations from all involved. Phase two would consist of assessing all facility assets and developing a plan to maximize space and provide the best set-up to ensure the most efficient operation. Phase three would be an all hands training evolution to brief the new structure and ensure all parties are educated on any new processes. Also, providing a quick reference guide to all employees would be beneficial to help with the transition. This approach spread out over one year would also allow time for excess staff to transfer without backfill. This ensures no single person has any adverse actions annotated on any evaluations that might affect further promotions in the Navy. INFORMATION SYSTEMS Currently the information systems department is staffed by one Information Technologist (IT). This fact alone is concerning, but to explain the system as it is set up at the command is even more alarming. Currently, our command works off of two different systems. One is set up for the staff, and is run by the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI). This company is contracted by the Department of Defense to maintain, service, and protect our vital information. They provide service to every shore based installation in the Navy and Marine Corps. All requests on this system must go through our IT individual then to NMCI. For instance, if you wanted to have Microsoft Publisher installed on your workstation, you would need to submit a request through our IT then he would forward it to NMCI. They would request justification as to why the program is needed. Once approved, NMCI would procure the required license and then they would remotely install the program on your computer. NMCI is the only approved source to be able to modify computer workstations. Our second system is an internal server that is maintained by our IT. It is set up solely for our student population, and is only capable of pulling information from that one source. Students do have internet capability, but it is limited and internally monitored at all times. Below is a diagram of our current systems.

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Officer Training Command Newport

Student Resources Command Share Drive

Internet

Student Email Accounts

Student Share Drive

Staff Email Accounts

Internet

Instructor References and Class Material

External Information Systems

Internal Information Systems

These two systems are not linked, so there are different workstations for each system. The internal workstations are only in the classrooms and student resource centers. They are not located in the instructor or staff officers or workspaces. As you can see from the diagram above, all of the instructor reference materials for all classes are maintained on the internal server. This makes it difficult for instructors to review material and update as necessary. For an instructor to update material, he must first transfer it from the internal server to their own workstation on the NMCI network. This is usually done via external media such as a thumb drive. Then they must update, and then transfer it back to the internal server and ensure the previous copy is deleted. This is difficult to monitor to ensure that files are not being duplicated or deleted from the server. O'Brien & Marakas (2008) discuss the use of Intranets and Enterprise Information Portals and how they can increase the efficiency of the company and it use of information. Implementing a Command Intranet capable of bridging the gap between the two systems would reduce the time spent locating, transferring and updating files and provides faster access to needed information. Using a off the shelf system such as Microsoft Sharepoint could greatly enhance not only information access, but could potentially be a platform for command policy, information, scheduling and media information that could be accessible to the entire command. Having the ability for every department to take advantage of the uses of this type of software could greatly enhance communication. Microsoft Sharepoint has many features, such as each department having the ability to create there own department webpage. Information could be posted, and meetings could be minimized with the distribution of information electronically. Also, access could be limited based on the needs of staff and students. Below is a diagram of the system with an enterprise information portal in place.

Combined Information System Student Email Accounts/Workstations

Sharepoint Instructor References and Class Material

Staff Email Accounts/Workstations

Student Resources Command / Student Share Drive

It would be necessary to hire at least one more individual to maintain this system. This would allow for redundancy of staff and ensure proper maintenance is coverage is present. BUDGET

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Officer Training Command Newport

The military is fortunate to be in a position where staffing is handled and decided at a level above the operational commands. Our manning is decided based on our mission and quantity of work. Each command goes through an efficiency review every 5 years to see if manning levels need increased or decreased. Once this is done, the Department of the Navy will finance an increase in staffing or recoup the funding for billets that are found to be unnecessary per the review. Therefore, when we discuss budget, it is usually done in man hours as it relates to the individual assignments that are being impacted by removing or tasking a certain individual. Discussing the two issues, structure and IT, we will break the budget down into the major financial factors. Command Structure 5 Personnel to review and update Standard Org Manual Facility Set up Construction Furniture and Equipment Purchase Training

2000 man hours $100,000

100 man hours

Information Systems Technology Sharepoint Contract IT Employee Hardware upgrade Training Outside Training Professionals Staff Training

Total Cost Total Man Hours

100,000 2100

60,000 75,000/yr 45,000 20,000 200 man Hours 200,000 200

This is a basic overview of cost, but provides a quick estimate on the amount of funding that will need to be requested from higher authority. Combining these two systems will provide greater capabilities for all the employees and students. Although these two items seem minor in nature, both have a great impact the way business is conducted. Man hours are lost on countless meetings to try and revise processes and discuss communication issues between departments. Information is not effectively disseminated which impacts daily operations. With the command already going through major changes based on the command realignment, now is the optimal time to make these changes before the current processes are more defined and harder to change.

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References Jones, G. (2007). Organizational theory, design, and change. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. O'Brien, J.A., & Marakas, G.M. (2008). Management information systems (8th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin. Chapters 11-14 Jacob, F. R, & Chase, R.B. (2008). Operations and Supply Management, The Core. New York: McGraw Hill DoD Personnel & Procurement Statistics (Oct 2008). Active Duty Military Strength Report retrieved December 1st, 2008 from http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/MILITARY/ms1.pdf.

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