United States Army Garrison-Daegu held Continuous Process Improvement Training, also known as Baldrige Training, from 25-29 April at Camp Henry. This training was attended by members of garrisons from Korea and Japan and Installation Management Command Headquarters.
"The most important part of the Baldrige training is the self-examination through the question and discussion sessions," said Dr. Robert Daniel Wallace, lead management analyst, Plans, Analysis and Integration Office, USAG-Daegu. "We focus on identifying problems and coming up with solutions. All of the organizations looked at themselves, what they were doing good, what they need to improve on and that is the whole idea."
USAG-Daegu was the host of Continuous Process Improvement Training for a second time by Dr. Mickey Mayland, a Baldrige expert from the G-5 Business Transformation Office, Army National Guard Bureau. He taught an initial session here in Daegu last year and this follow-on course progressed into more depth on Garrison functions at the Directorate-level.
This training was also an opportunity to improve and learn from other's as attendees included representatives from United States Army Material Support Command-Korea, Camp Red Cloud, Okinawa and Camp Zama, Japan. Challenges faced by those garrisons were similar to those here in Daegu, especially the requirement to maintain services with declining resources. Additionally, this was an excellent opportunity for the PAIO to learn more about peer garrisons and the Daegu Directorates.
Each day had a different focus. On the first day, there was an overview of the Baldrige process and reviews of organizational profiles. Each garrison briefed their organizational profile and received feedback from all of their peers in attendance.
The organization profile exercise provided a snapshot of how each of the garrisons are organized, services offered, vision, mission, workforce profile and customers serviced.
"Every year each directorate completes this information about USAG Daegu," said Wallace. "It tells us whether you have done good or not. If you cannot answer that is kind of below standard."
The second day was focused on organizational performance. These discussions were held in a round table format and led by the garrisons and moderated by Dr. Mayland. They covered the Baldrige categories of leadership, strategy, customers, measurement, analysis, workforce, operations, and results.
The rest of the week included sessions that gave the USAG-Daegu Directorates the time to share their organizational profiles and talk about how they address performance improvement efforts in their lanes.
The outputs from these types of discussions help us write the Army Communities of Excellence submission for this year. Although ACOE is a yearly competition, the structure is based on the Baldrige tools, Wallace added.
The most important aspect of ACOE is the overall self-assessment and identification for areas for improvement for garrison operations. The Baldrige training is aligned with this overall effort to improve how USAG delivers services to its customers.
The training culminated in an executive session focused on wrapping up the overall lessons learned and discussing the way ahead for the garrison. This allowed the Garrison Commander Col. Ted Stephens to review the overall training events and provide input to the way ahead. These overall efforts directly influence the garrison's work to ensure service delivery excellence within Area IV.
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