MSC is successful now but risks future budget cuts – only investment ensures longevity
Buzby 11 Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy Commander, Military Sealift Command (Mark H., “Military Sealift Command: Who we are. Where we're going. How we're getting there.”, Defense Transportation Journal. Washington: Sep 2011., http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/pqdweb?did=2466799541&Fmt=3&clientId=17822&RQT=309&VName=PQD) RaPa
After almost two years at the helm of Military SeaJift Command (MSC), IVe gained a unique perspective on who we are as a command and what we do for the Navy, the Department of Defense, and the nation. We are a worldwide organization of professional civilian mariners and Navy sailors afloat and equally qualified maritime transportation and other support specialists and sailors ashore. There are about 10,000 of us, and more than 80 percent serve afloat daily on MSC's average of 1 1 0 active ships. If you're in the surface Navy, you see the black, gray, blue, and gold stack stripes of our Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force ships every time a fast combat support ship, fleet replenishment oiler, or dry cargo/ammunition ship pulls alongside to deliver your fuel, spare parts, mail, and food, especially ice cream! But combat logistics support for the Navy fleets isn't the only part of our mission. Most folks don't see our white-hulled Special Mission ships because they're always in far-off corners of the world, charting ocean bottoms, gathering undersea intelligence, and supporting submarine and special warfare requirements and a host of other tasks for organizations and agencies throughout the federal government. Meanwhile, our prepositloning ships stage the combat equipment, ammunition, fuel, and basic supplies for all the US armed forces at sea, near the world's "hot spots," ready for delivery to combat forces when the balloon goes up. MSC also delivers the day-to-day combat equipment, supplies, and fuel to US warfighters around the world in response to tasking from USTRANSCOM. Another area that always involves MSC ships is providing sea-going platforms for civic assistance and humanitarian relief. When you see the hospital ships USNS Comfort or USNS Mercy traveling to our neighbors and friends along the Pacific Rim or in Central and South America and the Caribbean Sea, that's part of our worldwide mission. We're also a growing operation, adding new ships and missions as we demonstrate our capabilities and expertise to a growing customer base. We recently added the NaVy1S two submarine tenders to MSC operations using hybrid crews of civil service mariners for basic ship operations and Navy sailors for the mission crews tasked with submarine maintenance. At the same time, five more Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo/ammunition ships have joined the MSC fleet for improved combat force logistics at sea, and we've placed two newly built, double-hulled tankers under long-term charter to meet the fuel transport needs of die Department of Defense. The new ships and missions coming to MSC are indicative of the high level of trust in which we are held by the Navy and all of DOD. We've developed a reputation For getting the job done efficiendy and effectively. STRATEGIC PRIORITIES As many of you no doubt are also aware, the Secretary of Defense has issued very strong marching orders concerning the future budget. My concern is that if we don't take a good look at our own operations and how we spend tax payers' money, then someone else will do it for us, and we'll just have to abide by the results instead of having any control over them. To that end, I've developed a set of four strategic initiatives for MSC that will help us focus our organization, gain even more efficiencies, and help shape our own future. PROVIDE SHIPS READY FOR TASKING We're looking at our operations and maintenance processes to make sure we're able to meet the Navy's operational requirement of availability 270 days of the year with ships that are crewed with the right number of highly trained personnel. We're also constantly looking at maintenance contracts to get the best repair value for our ships. This means our ships spend less time in maintenance facilities and more time at sea, meeting our customers' needs. Military SealiftFleet Support Command, our subordinate command in Norfolk, VA1 conducted a complete review and scrub of our standard shipyard contracts. For the past year, MSFSC has been using innovative dual-ship contracts to reduce costs and reduce source selection workload while still achieving excellent performance. MSFSC has also developed principal port engineer training programs and created electronic tracking tools for the port engineers' change requests and standard work items. We're fine tuning our ship maintenance plans with an eye toward ensuring we get every bit of service life from our ships. DEVELOP. ENHANCE, AND ENABLE OUR WORKFORCE Tell a steam engineer to fix a high-voltage control panel problem armed only with a maul and a slugging wrench, and he'll probably figure out a way to do it - but you're not likely to get a very elegant solution to the problem. A much smarter and more efficient approach is to give the right person - with the right training, experience, and tools - the right amount of time and maximum encouragement. They'll not only solve the problem, but also complete the mission better, faster, and more economically than it's ever been done before. MSC people are the well-spring of our past accomplishments and our fumre triumphs. Competition for bright, young talent is fierce in today's job market, and leveraging the knowledge and capabilities of our current employees is critical, too. That's especially true when you consider that a large percentage of MSC s workforce will be eligible for optional retirement within 10 years. Their knowledge and skills must be passed on; we can't afford to lose them. One recent initiative instituted formal leadership training for more than 1500 mid- and senior-level afloat leaders. The emphasis in this training is skills such as conflict resolution and employee empowerment. It's been extremely well received - our mariners want more! We're also looking at significant overhaul to our personnel management system of detailing, training, granting time off, and making promotions. We absolutely must do this to attract and retain a talented workforce. FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER While we're doing these internal checks and developments, we will remain totally aware of our need to focus die results of our efforts on the customer. Since I wear multiple hats, we've got a lot of customers. The Navy combatant fleet needs our combat logistics capabilities at sea. TRANSCOM requires our cargocarrying expertise for DOD cargo delivered to customers worldwide. All armed services rely on us to preposition combat gear, fuel, and ordnance at sea. Then there are our Special Mission platforms that provide undersea intelligence, océanographie survey, submarine, and special warfare support and a host of other services in the far-Hung corners of the world. No, we do not lack for customers; so we rightly need to focus all our improvement efforts with our customers' mission requirements in mind. MANAGE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND GROWTH By most measures, we are executing our mission well today, but that doesn't automatically mean we'll be doing a great job tomorrow. In the near-term years ahead, there is no doubt that MSC is going to have more responsibility, but with smaller budgets. I believe that MSC has two options: react to whatever comes and be changed by someone else, or be proactive and pursue effective change that we can help control. Option two gives us more time to make reasonable accommodations to the changes that are coming and allows us to make MSC an even more effective and efficient organization. Much of "big Navy" has adopted an organizational structure called Competency Alignment. The commands (and outside organizations) that have done this have proven to be very agile and flexible and now have superior capabilities. They are able to execute their missions strongly, yet maintain highly motivated people who have broad depth and background in multiple areas of expertise. At MSC, we are in the process of realigning ourselves in chis way. Competency alignment should be transparent for MSC's mariners and sailors afloat. The basic premise is to structure our shoreside functions, roles, and responsibilities into "communities" that can provide the best services to meet mission needs. Our communities are our N-codes (Nl Personnel, N7 Engineering, etc.) where our people have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to deliver the services needed by our program managers to support our ships at sea, delivering products and services to our customers in the Navy and throughout DOD. Our N-code leaders will have full responsibility to provide the best-trained workforce and missionready equipment co our program leaders. Today, MSC has small groups of people from many of the N-codes placed throughout the command. That's because the right people should be in the right place at the right time to make everything happen. But tying all these professionals to communities so each group of professionals has standards, practices, and processes that are common across MSC will inevitably lead to greater efficiency. It's not a major reorganization; it's just lining up everyone to perform the mission better. Make no mistake - MSC delivers today. We are one of the most cost-effective and capable elements of today's Navy. But, if we look closely, we can find new ways to make ourselves even more effective and mission capable. This will help us offset the fiscal realities that are coming our way.
