There is an urgent need to improve the processes by which the Navy programs, allocates, and executes its annual PCS budget. We do unnecessary damage to our officers and sailors when we run out of money and require their detailers to construct multiple contingency plans all hinging on the availability of funds.
There are many communities and careers in the Navy that are manageable. For these communities, future funding decisions should be based on statistical data and analysis and documented past community management. This is a pillar of Dr. Deming’s philosophy: base decisions as much as possible on accurate and timely data.2
The following example illustrates the level of detail needed to justify a community’s PCS requirements. The Meteorology and Oceanography (MetOc) community consists of 416 restricted line officers and 42 limited-duty officers. The following must-fill billets are vital to maintaining a strong fleet presence and challenging jobs all the way up the community pyramid:
- 22 advanced academic and professional education billets—18 Postgraduate School students and 4 Naval War College students annually (44 moves: 22 students graduate and commence studies each year)
- 106 two-year sea duty and unaccompanied overseas billets (53 moves every year)
- 60 regular three-year DoD overseas tours (20 moves each year)
- 16 two-year-maximum combined commander and captain commanding officer billets (7 prospective commanding officers and 7 commanding officers moving each year)
Table 1 summarizes these categories and the average cost per PCS move. There are no “fluff’ moves listed, just basic education, sea duty, overseas duty, and command requirements. Note that, aside from school and command tours, there are no U.S.-to-U.S. moves listed. The bottom line for proper community management must start with $1.25 million for 131 moves. Of course, this is an oversimplification, because as any good detailer will remind you, they deal in daisy chains involving up to four or five officers, and the chances are good that one “nonessential” move will become very essential to making the other moves work.
Table 1: Annual PCS Moves | |||
Move Type | # Moves | Avg Cost | Total $ Amount |
School | 44 | $8,000 | $352,000 |
Sea Duty | 53 | $9,000 | $477,000 |
3 yr Overseas | 20 | $11,000 | $220,000 |
CO/PCO | 14 | $14,000 | $196,000 |
Total | 131 | $10,500 | $1,245,000 |
Currently, the MetOc community averages 30 no-cost, same geographic area PCS moves per year. Because of billet structure (location and grade) and community size, the maximum number attainable under the homebasing concept most likely will be no more 50 moves per year. The small cost savings involved with those 20 extra moves will not justify the resulting negative impact on the entire community.
The inability—because of lack of funds—to tell an officer when he will be able to expect PCS orders is made worse by the stated desire to issue orders as far in advance as possible, normally six months prior to the projected rotation date. The resulting mixed signal undermines the detailing process, hurts the detailer’s credibility, and does the most emotional damage to our people.
Because our officers and sailors are can-do professionals, it is too easy to ignore the damage associated with short-notice orders. Even worse, our detailing process creates needless family separations. Current fiscal year orders are written with next year’s money, to allow families to move during the summer months and be in place when the school year begins. This results in a one-to-three month family separation because the service members must wait until 1 October before they can report to their new duty stations.
Applying Dr. Deming’s Philosophy and management methods to detailing reveals some instant and obvious applications:
Point 1: Create Constancy of Purpose for the Improvement of Product and Service. One hundred Percent funding of well-documented, required PCS budgets at the beginning of the fiscal year is the single most effective way to accomplish this goal.
Point 4: End the Practice of Awarding Business on Price Tag Alone. Many detailing decisions today are based solely on the cost of the PCS move, which overrides Placing the best person in the job.
Point 5: Improve Constantly and Forever the System of Production and Service. Our officers' and sailors' quality-of-life concerns should be the driving factors in improving the system. The people with the knowledge and the experience to improve the system are the detailers, placement officers, and community managers; they are the ones to listen to.
Point 8: Drive Out Fear. Every year the detailers are placed in an impossible position in January and February. They know they're going to run out of PCS money—if they haven't already—but they can't tell anyone.
Point 9: Break Down Barriers between Staff Areas. Once justified, full funding should be allocated up front to the detailers. Hold detailers and community managers accountable for over-executing their PCS accounts. If a community cannot justify its PCS budget using basic career path and community requirements with statistical data, then keep funding it at 80% of the previous year’s funding until it can statistically articulate its PCS needs.
Point 14: Take Action to Accomplish the Transformation. The PCS funding problem is a Navy problem, and it is within our ability to fix it. The Air Force has required only one augment to its PCS budget in the past four fiscal years, and then only $2.6 million to an allocated PCS budget of $911 million.3 If the Air Force can do it, why can’t we?
Deadly Disease Number 5: Running a Company on Visible Figures Alone. There is a direct link between quality of life and morale issues and combat readiness. Even if an improved PCS funding process resulted in the average move expense rising to $12,000, the money would pay long-term dividends in customer satisfaction and higher retention.
The following recommendations are ways to improve the system:
- We should understand the detailing/PCS funding relationship as a system before we try to improve it. When we contemplate changing policy, such as making all U.S. shore tours four years long, we are tampering with the system.
- Do not pit community against community for the same pot of gold. Do not extend all restricted line executive officer tours to three years to fund 15-month unrestricted line executive officer tours. The end number for the PCS account must be calculated from the bottom up, not forced from the top down. If the justified PCS budget adds up to more money than we had planned for, then management must make the tough decisions in the budget arena and find the extra funding to improve the quality of life of almost 200,000 service members (and every detailer and community manager).
- Submit longer-range (three to four years out) PCS budgets, then update them as execution years approach. This minimizes last-minute surprises and allows the budgeteers longer lead time to fight for upcoming PCS dollars. This longer-range planning has helped the Air Force better manage its PCS costs and reduce its augment amount drastically.
Had Deming been a detailer, he undoubtedly would have focused his attention on the detailing “system,” because he believed that 85% of what goes wrong is the result of systemic problems and only 15% lies with the individual.4 Our people are not the problem. We can improve the system.
1 Henry R. Neave, The Deming Dimension. p. 257.
2 Mary Walton, The Deming Management Method (New York: Mead, Dodd, 1986). p. 96.
3 Phone conversation with Ralph Tati, 17 May 1996.
4 Walton. The Deming Management Method, p. 20.
Captain Donaldson was the senior detailer and community manager for the Meteorology and Oceanography community from 1994 to 1996. He now is attending the National War College.