| SUMMARY The
U.S. Navy Fleet and Family Support Program (FFSP) is tasked with
supporting the dependents and families of active duty and reserve Navy
personnel. The program operates through 55 Fleet and Family Support
Centers (FFSC) located throughout the United States and abroad and
provides services ranging from clinical counseling for mild mental
disorders to counseling for victims of sexual assault. The goal of the
program is to improve the overall Quality of Life for sailors and their
dependents, which leads to increased rates of retention of Navy
personnel.
THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
RGS was challenged with supporting the conduct of a Functionality
Assessment (FA) for the FFSP. The purpose of the FA is to reengineer
the FFSP into a Most Efficient Organization (MEO) that achieves
dramatic improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.
HOW RGS HELPED
In August 2001, RGS teamed with the U.S. Navy to provide support for
this program. As part of this effort, RGS consultants aided the
development of a web-based data collection tool that collected
background information (grade levels, organization, hours worked, title
etc.) activities performed, workload and process improvements
suggestions from every FFSP employee. Simultaneously, RGS held site
visits at 11 FFSCs and held focus groups and workshop sessions to map
key processes and collect detailed information on performance
measurements, indicators, barriers to efficiency and/or effectiveness,
and potential solutions. In conjunction with financial data, such as
labor costs and non-labor costs (to include utilities, rent, support
contracts, etc.), also collected by the web-based tool, RGS
consultants generated a comprehensive Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
model covering all the functional areas and activities performed by the
FFSP worldwide. RGS consultants were able to identify:
- Costs of each function and its related activities
- Unit costs for outputs produced and services provided by each function
- Costs " by functional area " for each client (sailor) served
- The cost of each inefficiency, problem or issue confronting the FFSP
- The level of effort devoted by FFSP staff to each functional area and activity
- The
tasks and steps involved in the key functional processes, and the time
spent, products generated, and inefficiencies associated with each
process
- Costs for every element of overhead, to include
management, administrative support, computer support, etc., and those
costs per FFSP employee supported
- RGS consolidated this
information into an "As-Is" report. Based on the data collected, the
report also listed and rank ordered potential solutions to the
challenges posed by each issue.
BENEFITS DELIVERED
The information that was collected and consolidated in this report enabled RGS and the Navy FA team to:
- Using the unit cost data, benchmark to assess the FFSP's relative cost effectiveness
- Analyze
the issues identified and using the process improvement suggestions,
develop effective solutions to include new processes and process
measurements, organization, and staffing arrangements
- Using
the costs derived for each problem or issue, generate a business case
for the recommended process improvements and identify "To-Be" costs
- Mold
the improved processes, related costs, organization, staffing,
performance measures, and concept of operations into a MEO that will be
the "To-Be" FFSP that provides improved service at minimum cost.
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