Faster Staffing Process

With a total personnel count of more than 10,000 deployed at several locations within Europe, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel within the U.S. Army's 21st Theater Support Command had a non-stop job of bringing personnel from the U.S. to replace others who were being reassigned. The personnel requisition process within the Command was out of date, was not user-friendly and did not provide status information on incoming personel. The Command used Lean Six Sigma to improve the process. New software was obtained, standardized forms were introduced and the ability to provide real-time status information was developed. These improvements reduced rework, increased process efficiency by 30% and provided a $200,000 cost savings over the budget cycle.

Problem
The 21st Theater Support Command (TSC) provides theater sustainment services for U.S. Army forces assigned to Europe. Further, the 21st TSC supports U.S. Army Africa and U.S. Africa Command by providing theater opening, distribution, sustainment and reception, staging, onward movement and force integration functions. The 21st TSC deploys on order; supports joint and coalition forces and civil authorities; and supports U.S. Army Europe's Theater Security Cooperation efforts within U.S. European Command's Strategy for Active Security.

21st Theater Support Command consists of over 10,000 Soldiers, family members, and civilians in Germany and Italy. The 21st TSC Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (commonly known as the G1) provides human resources support to the Command. Since the 21st TSC operates at overseas locations, it is required to bring U.S. based personnel to these locations in order to perform its mission. To do this, 21st TSC G1 analyzes current and future personnel authorizations and gains approval of requisitions to obtain the required personnel. The 21st TSC G1 did not have the ability to review personnel requisitions from subordinate organizations within the command in a standard user-friendly format. In many cases, required information in the requisitions forms was incomplete. This caused the G1 to request the missing information from the requesting organization a second time, or attempt to obtain it on its own. In addition to these forms of waste, requesting organizations did not have visibility on the status of their requests that had been submitted to the G1. These issues resulted in delays in providing personnel resources to 21st TSC organizations, and consumed G1 resources to resolve information issues.

Approach
The 21st TSC assembled a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Green Belt team from G1 personnel to complete a project to:

• Improve the personnel requisition process
• Improve the quality of personnel requests and authorizations
• Automate the process where possible to reduce manual generation of reports and documents
• Provide better visibility to requesting organizations

The team measured the current process which included identification of tools and templates used to capture, analyze, and approve personnel requests. The team found the process was fairly simple, but that the tools and forms used were not clear and required manual entry of information and approval. Analysis of customer requirements, process resources, and inputs enabled the team to compare process requirements to current process capabilities and identify mismatches.

The team identified the SAS software application as a replacement for the manual Excel-based forms that were currently being used. 21st TSC already had licenses to use this application and would not incur additional costs. The team developed and implemented a new process around the SAS software. The new application provided standard forms, up-to-date reports and current information. The SAS-based process reduced level of effort to review personnel authorizations within the G1 and provided real-time status to requesting organizations. This solution eliminated rework and manual generation of information. It also reduced cycle time to complete requests. The team defined new roles and responsibilities in the G1 and updated standard operating procedures. A detailed control plan was added to the procedures to identify potential process issues, controls, and actions to maintain quality and timeliness.

Results
The new process resulted in a $200,000 cost savings within the 21st TSC G1 across the four-year budget cycle through elimination of waste. The new process also improved data accuracy. 21st TSC organizations benefited from the project by obtaining personnel to meet mission requirements much faster due to a 30% improvement in process efficiency. A survey within the G1 and of 21st TSC organizations provided positive feedback from staff and leadership on the project's results.