REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- Through increased cost accountability and accelerated project delivery, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers system modernization ultimately benefits the taxpayer by ensuring projects are completed on time and under budget.
In April, Headquarters USACE tasked its workforce with implementing Engineering Management System (EMS) as the primary system for USACE Engineering technical workload and workforce management through a phased, rolling enterprise implementation.
EMS is a proprietary web application developed by USACE to solve workforce planning and workload management challenges across its enterprise. It is specifically built to assign, track, and analyze labor resources down to the individual staff level, ensuring massive civil and military projects remain adequately staffed.
James Manzione, Portland District Engineering Management System program manager and Andrew Anderson, Huntsville Center senior data scientist, provided training to Huntsville Center personnel supporting EMS implementation and use during a three-day training-long training session July 27–30.
“As a workload and workforce management tool, EMS enables engineering divisions across the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assign, track, and manage tasks associated with engineering products,” Anderson said.
“Implementing EMS enhances the ability to measure workforce capacity and workload distribution, including how much work must be completed, which employees are over- or under-tasked, what disciplines are needed, and the status of products assigned to employees.”
The transition to EMS aims to shift the Engineering enterprise from fragmented legacy tools to a unified common operating picture. However, the training is solely for engineers.
Project managers from the Center’s installation support and ordnance and explosives directorates also participated in sessions to gather insights on how the Huntsville Center enterprise will integrate EMS into broader business processes and minimize duplication.
Executing this mandatory training required significant coordination and Rhonda Fetner, EMS Implementation Lead, worked directly with the EMS Enterprise Implementation Team to secure the training dates well ahead of schedule.
The recent training sessions ensure that CEHNC is well-prepared ahead of the enterprise Phase 2 training deadline of Nov. 1.
Fetner, Huntsville Center Mechanical and Manufacturing Technology branch chief, said the impact of the training extends beyond the Center’s Engineering Directorate.
“With this crucial training complete, Huntsville Center is strongly positioned to meet the final Phase 3 Enterprise Adoption milestone, requiring all new and active engineering design products to be fully resourced within EMS by February,” she said.
Col Robert Hilliard, Huntsville Center commander, addressed attendees on the final day of training. Hilliard said several USACE Districts have used EMS and helped them become more efficient.
“I think doing this training this week, and understanding what the system can do, and understanding the pathway there really helps us,” Hilliard said.
“The supervisors that implement this and the tech leads that must take this on have a pathway ahead. I think it's going to be a boon to the enterprise.”