ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- U.S. Army employees attended an orientation to introduce them to the mission of the Research, Development and Engineering Command's communications-electronics center's Product Realization Engineering & Quality Directorate, or CERDEC PRD, May 16.
More than 40 new CERDEC PRD employees from Fort Belvoir, Va. and here who were hired from academia, other government organizations and industry gathered at the first CERDEC PRD New Employee Orientation.
Many CERDEC PRD employees are assigned to other Army organizations to support research, development, acquisition and sustainment across the lifecycle of technology in the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or C4ISR, community since CERDEC PRD has more than 40 customers and supports more than 100 systems worldwide, said Ron Michel, CERDEC PRD director.
Leadership provided an overview of the work done throughout the directorate that ensures Soldiers receive properly functioning C4ISR equipment while making sure the costs of doing so are as reduced as possible.
"We want to influence technologies early in the process to help develop a high-quality product at a lower cost," said Michel.
A portion of CERDEC PRD focuses on specialty engineering functions such as technical project leadership and acquisition; production/manufacturing engineering; maintenance concept engineering; and quality assurance, continuous improvement, and test and evaluation, which can all contribute to quality increases and cost reductions.
Additionally, CERDEC PRD has focused on growing and increasing its specialty engineering functions since these occupations have declined in the U.S. and have moved overseas.
"We see ourselves as the industrial base community advocate at APG working to ensure the U.S. industrial base doesn't go away," said Michel.
As the new CERDEC PRD employees continue in their respective career paths, they should take the concepts from across the directorate and leverage the abilities of their CERDEC PRD co-workers to do what is best for both the Soldier and the tax payer, said Michel.
It's important for CERDEC PRD employees to balance the needs of the Soldier with the duality of also being a tax payer, said Michel.
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