USMC + Process Optimization
Project 2
Being an Analyst in the Marine Corps as a Sergeant is more than just doing your main job, it’s also being agile to maintain logistics of training elements for your Marines. In fact, being a Marine is hardly ever just doing your main job. I suppose that’s where the old adage “Adapt. Improvise. Overcome.” comes from.
Enter the Defense Travel System. The travels of an intelligence unit are extensive, especially for training to maintain deployment readiness. The unit system I inherited was clunky and flawed, so I used my knowledge of both the military system and the civilian travel system to design a solution to the massive workload and lack of manpower to implement it.
How do we proactively ensure combat readiness with one person as the lynchpin for a whole intelligence unit’s travel system?
The standing solution was to let each individual figure it out on their own, and be the help desk for any issues that arose. As the system was confusing and no one knew how to use it except for my predecessor, a Gunny Sergeant two ranks above me, this protocol was not ideal. I quickly learned the ins and outs and utilized this method for a few months. The wait times on my schedule were overfilled, much as my predecessor’s had been. Marines not being able to meet with me before their travel dates. Because of this, I had calls of travel cards and plane tickets falling through during all hours of the weekdays and weekends, always quickly working a solution to ensure travel, relying on my relationships with leadership and the civilian signatories in the system.
A map to navigate the system.
The process is confusing and there was no existing company handbook at the time for how to navigate 1. the software and 2. or appraise standards for how to set per diem rates and create military order dates and other specifics.
I started by researching any DoD materials online, and creating pamphlets that include step by step directions for the basic set up of the initial submission, complete with pictures and solutions for common caveats.
Second, I included an info sheet that contained the standards for our battalions common specifications and their dependents situations.
Identify and develop key leadership areas.
The way the travel system is set up requires digital signatures through a chain of military leadership and then out to civilian approvals. This process repeats itself several times as there’s always things to change based on the different people that approve on the civilian end. This was an issue that often made a headache for the leadership signatories that had already signed these orders twice over only to have them re-show up at deadline. The main solution to this I couldn’t change at the command level of my desk: the software technology and travel system for the whole of the DoD would have to be overhauled to change that.
But what I could do, was hold DTS training classes for those key leadership roles from Captain down to Corporal so they could become a knowledgable POC and use me for these larger issues that always arose. This allowed the officers to take a step back from the chaos, and allowed the enlisted leadership to disseminate out the training they learned from me to their cohorts, making basic DTS specialists across each company. Those last-minute emergencies plummeted, and suddenly I was able to meet with every applicant that had issues well before they left for their training mission.
Leaving behind a tangible one-size-fits-all, comprehensive process.
Having this process in place enable my position to be given steller results during an un-precedented two inspections of our entire battalion in 4 months. Given this turn of events got me thinking.
I was nearing my EAS, which is the date my military orders were up and I would transition from active duty to a veteran. With this in mind, I didn’t want the next person in my seat to be left without a navigation process, especially if they weren’t assigned their orders before I left and was able to train them in person.
The final piece of this solution was to ensure that my portion of the process was never lost in change-over. This led to a creation of a change management of sorts - a handbook solution for my future replacement detailing the ins and outs that I learned from my predecessor, during my time in the seat, and how to navigate the process I had set up.