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Imagine 24 separate sources of information from 57 different organizations trying to funnel into one single data point to enable manpower decisions.
Difficult to imagine?
That is how the Department of Defense was making decisions about manpower resources until the mandated implementation of the Fourth Estate Manpower Tracking System or FMTS. The DoD uses the system for all manpower data management for the 4th Estate including, force structure, billets and associated manning information, and reporting. "Moving to FMTS enables us to move to one system and brings us in line with the majority of the 4th Estate," according to Mark VanMeter, DFAS Manpower Management Office director.
A team from the DFAS Manpower Management Office was challenged to transition to FMTS as the sole authoritative manpower system for the Agency and recently completed their efforts. To complete the final implementation, the team:
◦Trained 91 customers from six locations during three scheduled VTC sessions;
◦Tracked and resolved 25 customer issues; and
◦Collaborated with eleven business offices to ensure all data requirements were addressed to identify potential gaps before implementation.
"For the past four years the system has run simultaneously with the eBiz-Manpower Module," VanMeter said. "While the process is transparent to most employees, it is critical in managing the overall DFAS manpower structure."
The Manpower team collaborated with Defense Contract Management Agency and Defense Commissary Agency for lessons learned from their successful transition into FMTS to develop an approach that would work best for the Agency. With the information gained from the agencies, the team communicated extensively with the impacted stakeholders to ensure they had a complete picture of what the changes would entail.
During the process, the team:
◦Distributed a survey to all users with access to the eBiz manpower reports for feedback on the most important manpower data elements to their organization;
◦Conducted conference calls with all sites to walk through the new report layout and data elements;
◦Received customer feedback and held site-specific discussions to address concerns;
◦Identified data elements and primary data sources still required by the customer but not contained in FMTS;
◦Executed collaboration sessions with Human Resources; and
◦Held multiple sessions with the eBiz Program Management Office.
"With the completion of this project and transitioning to only one manpower system, we streamlined our business processes resulting in less cycle time, improved data integrity, and enhanced customer support," VanMeter said. "We estimate hard cost savings of nearly $50,000 each year."
The information in the system provides needed visibility of the 4th Estate structure and billet information to DoD leaders, and will be used to inform the existing planning, programming and budgeting processes.
Members of the project team included: Julie Steffen, team lead; Brenda Fisher, Manpower Analyst; Sharon J. Williams, Manpower Analyst; and Donna DeBusk, Project Manager. The executive sponsors of the team are Rebecca Beck and Cathy Van Hoesen.
| Date Taken: | 07.17.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.31.2019 11:31 |
| Story ID: | 357798 |
| Location: | INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 851 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Team implements DoD manpower system, by Steven Lawson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
