[This article was first published in Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin, which was then called Army Logistician, volume 3, number 1 (January–February 1971), pages 8–11. The text, including any biographical note, is reproduced as faithfully as possible to enable searchability. To view any images and charts in the article, refer to the issue itself, available on DVIDS and the bulletin’s archives at asu.army.mil/alog/.]
DEVELOPMENT of a management information system (MIS) for the Army Materiel Command (AMC) headquarters was initiated in early 1969. The system is being developed to highlight significant problem areas. It will provide the functional directors in AMC headquarters with an effective management tool and a means of comparing current performance of AMC’s subordinate commands, installations, and activities with previous performance and established objectives. The MIS should provide a data base whereby functional directors can depict trends and project performance. Long-range plans call for optimum automation in the collection and presentation of data to improve the timeliness and validity of a selected group of key management indicators.
Until recently, automation within the command has been limited to the performance of specific tasks. This, in management terms, is known as operational control. Present efforts in developing AMC’s management information systems are being concentrated on the two other levels of management — strategic planning and management control.
Kinds of Management
The Army Materiel Command has two types of management: functional management and project management. Project management is a concept for the technical, business, and administrative management of specified projects based on the use of designated, centralized management authority. The project manager, who is chartered by the Secretary of the Army, is responsible for initial procurement, production, distribution, and logistics support for the system or item specified by his Department of the Army charter. Functional management, also called conventional management, is the technique that is used to manage the preponderance of AMC’s items.
Management information systems are being developed for both project management and functional management. While these systems concentrate on management control, they also interface with strategic planning. The two major systems under development are the Project Management Information System (PROMIS) for Army project managers and the Planning, Programing, and Budgeting Management Information System (PPBMIS) for functional managers. These systems are complementary. PROMIS concentrates on the management life cycle phases from concept formulation to initial production, while PPBMIS concentrates on the life cycle phases after initial production. There are, of course, some overlaps.
Phase I of PROMIS was implemented as a completely manual system at the beginning of 1970. It was designed to meet the management information needs of top management. At the time it was implemented, the only two options available to AMC top management for obtaining the information needed were to get too much information to absorb or to get the required information too late to do anything about it. PROMIS changed the requirement for a weekly report to monthly and eliminated the requirement for a quarterly report. Furthermore, it required the project manager to make predictions regarding potential problems in all the major areas of his project.
The ideas of phase I of PROMIS are not new. They are simple, well-tested management principles. The basic concept is to spot potential problems in time to prevent them from becoming big problems and to flag the problems that are beyond the authority of the Army project manager to resolve and that require the urgent attention of top management.
A simple set of symbols (fig. 1) was devised to flag problem areas and to indicate who would take corrective action. The use of these symbols enables management to see problem areas immediately. The hexagon denotes a critical problem that the project manager does not have the authority to resolve. The square denotes a major problem, but resolution is within the scope of the project manager’s authority. The diamond denotes a minor problem, but one which bears watching. The problems can arise in any of four areas of performance: cost, scheduling, technical achievement, and deliveries.
The same set of symbols is used to identify any problems associated with the project milestones (fig. 2). Similar techniques are used for the areas of cost and technical achievement. A total of 12 different charts is available in the system. The charts submitted vary, depending on the scope of the project. This was the first phase of a continuing effort to develop management information systems to support project management.
Supports Project Manager
Phase II of PROMIS is now being developed (fig. 3). It is being specifically designed to increase support to the project manager and his staff in their role as decision makers. This marks a significant departure from the traditional management information systems of the sixties which attempted to capture all the information that a project manager might ever need without actually analyzing what specific information he might need. An in-depth analysis of the decision process in project management has just been completed. This is being used to identify the minimum essential management information required by the project manager. Because of the diversity of commodities represented by AMC projects, it is not intended to come up with a single, all-encompassing management information system to cover all project managers. Instead, a library concept is being adopted.
The library will contain a basic set of procedures and computer programs to support management information systems for AMC project managers; however, the specific MIS for any one project will be tailored to that project. A continuing activity will be to provide a library to each new project manager, allow him to choose what is needed from the library for his project, and assist him with modifications required for such tailoring. The basic set of computer programs and models will include such things as an information storage and retrieval module, computer programs to support cost and schedule analysis, and simulation models to support decision making. Recognizing that the needs of a large project may be very different from those of a small project, there will be several different versions of these programs to allow flexibility.
The current development effort is expected to continue throughout calendar year 1971. By that time, PROMIS II will be implemented on all AMC projects; however, that does not mean that development of the project management information system will be complete by the end of 1971. In a very real sense, a management information system can never be complete. It must continue to grow and change to meet new situations.
PPBMIS Concept
The Planning, Programing, and Budgeting Management Information System (PPBMIS) is being developed in the functional management area. PPBMIS is basically a modification of the management by objectives concept to fit the large, dispersed organization that comprises the Army Materiel Command.
Again, the PPBMIS concept is simple. Based on a statement of command goals, detailed program objectives are developed by the functional directors in AMC headquarters. A dictionary of standard performance indicators has been developed and is being used in reporting progress against the detailed program objectives (fig. 4). However, this requires more than a report of performance because performance is something that has already happened, and to be useful, management control must affect actions in the future. Therefore, a projection of progress for the next 60 to 90 days on each of the standard indicators is required. Any time that the projection shows a deviation of more than 10 percent from the program objectives, which are usually time-phased, a simple narrative report is required to explain the reason for the deviation. A central control point has been established to insure that this report is acted on by the appropriate functional areas in headquarters, AMC. Normally, two actions are possible. Either the problem can be resolved by action in the appropriate functional area or the reporting activity may be given relief from the program objective. It is important to note that an informed decision to take no action is a positive management action. The system provides for responses to the field problems by the functional directors to surface delayed-response actions or absence of actions by the headquarters staff.
The PPBMIS does not provide any method for tying together different functional areas. Since program objectives are set by areas, this form of management information system tends to separate into many different management information systems, one for each functional area. The basic management tool used by our senior managers, with several functional areas under them, is money. Dollars serve as the integrating mechanism that ties together the performance indicators for all functional areas. Work is in progress to identify the performance indicators that have high-dollar impact, either direct or indirect. This then becomes the basis for evaluating trade-offs within and among various organizational areas. Simulation models are just now beginning to be used internally to improve the trade-off analysis process. They are expected to play a much more important role in the future.
The Army Materiel Command’s management information systems development is aimed at the real-time or the higher level manager and decision maker, namely the future. Therefore, projections are provided that are relevant to current plans and programs. This is equally true for both functional management and project management.
Feedback Essential
Provision is made for feedback to insure management attention to problems flagged by the systems, for without this service, the best management information system in the world is useless. It must be acted on to be useful. Dollars provide the integrating mechanism for tying together disparate functional areas and laying the groundwork for answering the most important management control question, “What is likely to be the effect of a proposed resource allocation scheme for the various functional areas under AMC’s control?”
Both PROMIS and PPBMIS will benefit from the AMC program to standardize the day-to-day operational systems of the command. It goes without saying that the better the data base, the better the opportunity for meaningful analysis and management decision. In the meantime, our efforts to identify the critical points and indicators will result in feedback that will provide additional guidance for improvement in our operational systems, improvements that can be added in the never-ending cycle of system refinement.
Mr. John C. Gilbert was the director of Management Information Systems for the U.S. Army Materiel Command, Washington, D.C. He formerly directed the U.S. Army Management Systems Support Agency, Office of the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff. Mr. Gilbert was a recipient of the Pare Award for exceptional service and was the 1966 ODCSLOG nominee for the Arthur S. Fleming Award.
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2025 08:45 |
| Story ID: | 501549 |
| Location: | US |
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