RAMP IT UP: Previously, the Army could stretch out programs. Now, we have to surge in response to urgent needs. (Photo by Dori Whipple, Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, May 2022)
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
—Anonymous
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF
ACQUISITON CAREER MANAGEMENT
RONALD R. RICHARDSON JR.
This centuries-old proverb teaches an important lesson: Each person plays a critical role in success and every minor detail counts.
That’s Lesson #1—every Army Acquisition Workforce professional plays a part in what the Soldier wears, carries or operates.
Many lessons have been learned since the proverb was first seen in the 13th century; since the establishment of the U.S. Army and the United States in 1775 and 1776, respectively; and most recently in the last few decades as we’ve experienced prolonged conflict, a pandemic and faced emerging threats. The lessons keep coming (some repeating), but it’s important to capture, reflect on and institutionalize those lessons.
LESSON #2: THE QUICK PIVOT
For the last 20-plus years, we’ve been focused on minimum sustaining rates to maintain critical industrial capability and ensure the viability of a fragile industrial base. We’ve watched major industry segments move significant manufacturing capacity offshore and more recently experienced major supply chain disruptions compounded by the lingering effects of COVID-19. We maintained minimum levels of production just to keep factories and suppliers operating. The discussion was rarely about how quickly you can ramp up production, but rather how few can we buy and still keep the factory, industry segment, etc., viable.
Then a quick pivot to the Russia-Ukraine war, where we are now at more than 40 presidential drawdowns—which allow for the speedy delivery of defense articles and services from DOD stocks to foreign countries in response to unforeseen emergencies—to meet immediate battlefield needs, while we also need to quickly replenish our equipment stocks. We’re doing this at a time that we’ve seen a reduction in budget and a larger emphasis on total cost. Where in the previous decades we were in an environment of stretching our programs and trying to keep things moving, we’re now having to surge in response to urgent needs and quickly ramp up production. We’ve had to be responsive and execute a variety of tasks simultaneously.
LESSON #3: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS
2020 brought the biggest curveball, the COVID-19 pandemic. The Army, along with the rest of the world, faced resulting supply chain challenges. While our relationship with our industry partners has always been critical to mission success, we realized even more so during the pandemic that that collaboration would be key. Critical thinking was kicked into high gear: Actions had to be taken to protect critical infrastructure, and considerations had to be made with regards to working with what was seen as vulnerable foreign suppliers.
The COVID-19 pandemic required our workforce to innovate, incentivize and utilize all the authorities at our disposal, including some new ones we had to figure out as we went. We had to trust that our workforce understood their craft and practices, and ultimately had the ability to be effective at warp speed.
LESSON #4: “DON’T FORGET NOTHING”
This first standing order for the Army Rangers is one I always keep in mind, especially in my role as the Director of Acquisition Career Management (DACM). And to me it’s the most important—important that we train, experience and remember.
I’ve experienced a lot throughout my Army career, and through every small part I’ve played, through every pivot and emergency, my team of acquisition professionals figured it out and were successful. That’s not to say there weren’t failures along the way, but those failures were learning experiences and ultimately a part of our path to success.
I hope you and our future Army Acquisition Workforce professionals experience success, too. I believe success can be accomplished through fundamentals, experience, confidence, and supportive and engaged management. My office—the DACM Office—is assisting in this effort by implementing on-demand training through credentials, reinforcing basic skills and empowering the supervisor and employee to determine the right training at the right time.
The U.S. Army is a learning organization. Just like we have a stockpile of materials, we need to have a stockpile of training. One way we are offering that is through Udemy, an online training platform. We have leveraged Udemy to offer our workforce a customized digital training pathway to help meet the vision of having a digitally transformed Army. Udemy also has a variety of other training courses available at any time for our workforce. We must always do our job today but also incorporate deliberate planning for the future.
CONCLUSION
It’s a testament to the quality and resilience of our exceptionally talented Army Acquisition Workforce that the old English proverb has really never impacted us. It’s clear our workforce is well trained, agile and has the acquisition acumen and tools to execute tasks and do the job at hand, whatever that may be. We’re working hard to capture all the lessons learned from current operations so that we can get off to a running start on the next emergency. It all comes down to doing the job with everything you’ve got. And we’re here to help with that.
