Research for Management

CNA prepared this briefing for the Department of the Navy's Rightsourcing Process Action Team, under the auspices of the Total Ownership Cost Goal Management Board of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development, and Acquisition) (ASN(RD&A)). In this briefing, we review the background of the study and our approach, identify those companies and activities that participated in our study, summarize the factors that we found affect rightsourcing decisions, and describe our key findings.

During the 1990s the Department of Defense set out on a path to reengineer many of its functions in order to reduce cost and improve efficiency. In 1993, in the area of civilian personnel management, the Office of the Secretary of Defense took the lead in coordinating a Defense-wide effort to reduce the number of personnelists - the staff that provides and manages civilian personnel services - to a servicing ratio (personnelists per civilian employee) of 1:85 by the end of FY99, and of 1:100 by the end of FY01. At the beginning of FY95, the servicing ration stood at 1:67. Real reductions are forthcoming for the civilian personnel management world. By the end of FY01, personnel management resources will be reduced by over 40 percent. Consolidation of operations and technical modernization will accompany the resources reduction. Personnel services delivery will be split into small onsite units and offsite hubs. We consider the DoN s proposed regional consolidation of the system of civilian personnel management. We ask: By the end of FY99, will efficiency increase as expected?

In this paper, we compare the in-house cost of conducting Department of the Navy program management and oversight in accordance with Department of Defense regulations and requirements, to the cost of conducting those same functions in accordance with commercial practice.

This study, 'Program Documentation and Reporting Requirements: Reducing the Burden on Program Managers,' began in 1987 at the request of the acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Engineering and Systems (ASN-RE&S). He expressed concern that the proliferation of requirements for documentation and reporting interferes with program managers' ability to do their primary job, the efficient acquisition of quality weapon systems. During the early part of the study, two separate but related issues also became matters of concern: Defense Enterprise Programs (DEPs) and baselining. Those two topics are also addressed in this memorandum. This memorandum provides an overview of the study.