Army Suggestion Program saves money and time

By Adriana Salas, WSMR, N.M.April 14, 2010

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., April 1, 2020 - Ideas submitted through the Army Suggestion Program at White Sands Missile Range have saved the range thousands of dollars and many labor hours.

The Army Suggestion Program is a new age suggestion box for improvements in daily job tasks available to all of WSMR personnel online. Employees whose ideas are implemented in their field can receive monetary compensation as well as an award presented during the Garrison Staff meeting for helping to save time, money and in some occasion's lives.

"The Army Suggestion Program was created to give everybody a chance to encourage and to recognize better ways to improve the Army," said Susan Dillard, Program Coordinator.

Dillard said the system is available to anyone who has an Army Knowledge Online account. In order to submit an idea you must submit a description of the current protocol being followed, the problems you see with that protocol, and your suggestions. Once a suggestion is submitted Dillard then forwards it to the director of the department the suggestion applies to. The director of that department then finds a proper evaluator to test the suggestion and see if the idea is feasible and has the potential to save money. If the evaluator finds that there is potential for savings he can then approve the idea and forward it to a fourth party or approve it himself based on the amount of funding needed to implement the idea.

According to Dillard at that point the suggestion can be approved, denied or marked as already under consideration prior to the suggestion.

Dillard said four suggestions have been approved singe August. The suggestions include a suggestion to use different parts on an object being built, to changing training procedures.

One suggestion in particular posed the idea of moving a power line from a sand dune to a more convenient location, in order to save thousands of dollars in sand cleanup and to conduct proper maintenance to the power line. The idea was submitted by David Hernandez and Larry Metz, civilians with the Directorate of Public Works. Through their observation and calculations, Metz and Hernandez found that it would be more cost effective to move the power line to a permanent location instead of paying for many man hours, equipment and fuel for cleanup on a yearly basis. The suggestion went through the proper channels and it was found to save White Sands Missile Range $133,973.22 for each year. Metz and Hernandez each received a monetary award of $1,250 and a certificate of appreciation.

"If you are a part of a process and can make things better and are recognized for doing it, it really brings up morale," Dillard said.

Raymond Talamantes, Engineering Construction supervisor, said the plan has not been implemented. However, when it is implemented it will save time. Talamantes went on to explain how it takes about 3 months and 3 different machines to get the sand out of the power lines.

"It will save a lot of labor hours and equipment usage," Talamantes said.

The monetary awards are based on the amount of money the suggestion is able to save. Eligible parties are military civilian and contracted employees, members of active reserve, ROTCY and the National Guard. Ineligible parties are private citizens, spouses and Non-appropriated funds employees. Dillard said the program itself has been out for several years; however they are taking steps towards improving it by getting the website on the main WSMR page and posting signs through the range.

"This is a very good program for anybody," Dillard said. "Faster, safer and more timely (ways of conducting business) are key areas we are looking for."

To submit a suggestion please visit http://asp.hqda.pentagon.mil/public/default.htm.