Assessment of the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-13
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As shown in Figure ES-l, these components include five "pillars": Resources and Capabilities, Strategic Vision, Quality Focus, Customer Focus, and Value Creation. These pillars are the supporting elements of an organization's competitive advantages and require a foundation of demonstrated commitment on the part of the management and staff.
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The ten key issues and their connection to the "benchmark" for the assessment the metrics, characteristics, and pillars from phase one are discussed below. The ten key issues, which were derived from the statement of work between the NRC and the Natick RDEC (see Appendix A)
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visits, lengthy questionnaires were sent to and answered by the RDEC management. The questions were designed to illuminate the work of the five directorates in terms of the pillars, characteristics, and metrics of worIdciass performance and the ten key issues.
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The expertise of committee members, combined with the considerable knowledge gained during the criteria-development and data-gathering portions of the study, gave the committee a comprehensive understanding of the Natick RDEC and its performance. In the end, the soundness of the assessment is based on the application of pillars, characteristics, and metrics, as well as on informed judgments on the ten key issues.
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The committee assessed the effect of the establishment of the Soldier Systems Command on the Natick RDEC and found that the positive impact outweighed the increased burdens imposed by the command and the drain on RDEC resources. The new command embodies the soldier system, which is a unifying concept that focuses attention on how the products and services of the entire RDEC could influence the higher-level effectiveness of the soldier system.
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Strategic vision, especially strategic planning, requires a strong foundation of demonstrated, steadfast commitment characterized by openness to the exchange of information at all levels of the organization, the involvement of all personnel in goal identification and analysis, and the efficient implementation of plans and programs. The demonstrated commitment of the leadership must be communicated to all levels of the organization in a way that all personnel both understand and accept.
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The RDEC should have a framework and methodology for measuring quality, measurable objectives for improvements in work processes, measurements for optimizing RD&E processes to deliver value, teams on one project teaching teams assigned to other projects, an organizational climate conducive to organizational learning, and methodologies to measure and evaluate organizational learning. Support Directorates Conclusion 4.
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The RDEC director should take immediate action to consolidate the RDEC's science and technology activities and focus them sharply on the needs of the commodity directorates. If a refocused, centralized Science and Technology Directorate cannot provide the necessary support, the director should consider distributing the entire research function among the other directorates.
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full cooperation of the other directorates with ASCD. It is hard to overestimate the benefits to the Natick RDEC of a greatly improved capability to model relevant technologies and simulate the soldier system.
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The committee considered the RDEC's core technologies and unique capabilities (e.g., in food processing, multicapability protective clothing, and airdrop technologies) in relation to its mission to support the soldier system.
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Although the characteristics and metrics might be modified to suit specific circumstances, the major components of worId-class performance are useful parameters for assessing RD&E organizations. Examples of impressive past performance at the Natick RDEC should suggest ways to correct deficiencies revealed in this assessment.
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The Natick RDEC should begin an educational program in leadership development and modern principles of technology management. In the committee's opinion, many of the problems associated with strategic vision, resources and capabilities, quality focus, and the two support directorates of the Natick RDEC stem from management limitations at the senior level.
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In Chapter 3, the committee discusses its assessment of the two support directorates. Chapter 4 contains the committee's judgments concerning the ten key issues discussed above, which apply to the entire RDEC.
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