Centris Announces Cost Wise Readiness Methodology for Military: 20% to 30% Improvement Possible

NEW YORK, ATLANTA and HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Centris Consulting, a leading provider of productivity improvement services for supply chain and program management organizations has announced a Cost Wise Readiness Methodology specifically designed for the defense sector. Said Centris CEO David Nape, "With the military currently facing potential deep spending cuts to achieve budget reductions mandated by Congress, we believe that not only is Cost Wise Readiness something to talk about, it has become a necessity of the highest priority."

Nape continued, "Mission support and program management organizations are currently faced with difficult decisions on how to preserve mission capability at significantly lower funding levels. Since the Iraq War the focus has been on mission effectiveness, now it appears to be rapidly shifting toward mission efficiency. However, if the spending reductions are as deep as some suggest, the long term implications for assuring military readiness may be significant without the right tools to realize and sustain organizational efficiency."

"In the private sector we saw a lot of issues resulting from ill-informed overhead spending cuts," said Mr. Nape, "It occurred in big ways after the last three recessions. Typically more senior people were offered packages and left, resulting in 'brain drain'. In many cases the best personnel jumped to other organizations. Cost reduction decisions were often made with limited information and guided by very subjective agendas. The results weren't good. Costs were cut but it sometimes took years to recover and the cost savings were often wiped out not only by the re-training costs when things picked up but also by poor execution."

Although the military's issues are more complex, there are clear parallels to the cost-cutting struggles of the private sector. Nape asked his team at Centris to develop a methodology that enables the military to achieve a 20% to 30% reduction in mission support resources while preserving mission effectiveness. Centris Director of Business Solutions, David Wallace commented that, "While Mr. Nape gave us an ambitious challenge, I firmly believe that it is possible to achieve these reductions using the Centris methodology."

The methodology is called Organizational Value Analysis. It is an efficient but comprehensive approach that categorizes spend, workload demand on departments, core and non-core activities, skills and staffing. Included is a process to calibrate mission requirements and variations volume so that current and future requirements can be factored in. "The result," said Mr. Wallace, "is the ability to identify those areas offering the best opportunities to re-align while maintaining Mission Readiness."

Nape added, "Basically, we are able to provide leaders with a framework for making cuts that allows them to see the relationships between mission requirements and activity. It enables more informed decisions and presents the risks and trade-offs involved with each course of action. The process is efficient yet measured."

After making the cuts, if it is necessary, Centris provides a workload management solution called CView that enables the remaining staff to manage their work and resources more effectively. The United States Army currently uses CView with approximately 300 engineering users and there are plans to roll it out to an additional 1,000 users.

The CView solution significantly improves workload management and resource optimization capabilities. It enables the right people to work on the right things at the right time, and provides overall situational awareness along with ability to efficiently adjust to a change in priorities. "Although we spent a lot of time and money on CView, we're not really in the software business. This methodology is not software dependent. If our client has something they would prefer to use, we'll customize the methodology to their software. Our focus is on results, not selling software," added Mr. Nape.

"Cost wise readiness is an essential in today's military environment," continued Nape, "Achieving it is the 21st century challenge for all branches of the military. Centris' Organizational Value Analysis enables leaders to determine where and how to make reductions while preserving Mission Capability, to be Cost Wise and Mission Ready." For further information see: www.CentrisConsulting.com.  

SOURCE Centris Consulting