Tag Archives: u s navy

Same Venue, Different Challenges

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Rob Wedertz – Director, Navy Programs

Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Tail Hook Association’s annual conference in Reno, Nevada.  It is the first time I attended the conference not as an active duty member of the Naval Aviation community, but as a vendor supporting the enterprise through our role as the software application provider of the Naval Synchronization Toolset.  Surprisingly, other than keeping much different hours and standing on the opposite side of the booth table, the conference felt much like it did every year I have attended in the past.  There were many “so what are you doing these days?” conversations with old friends and the ever-present aura of “Naval Aviation is special because…” throughout the exhibit hall.

In fact, had I not taken the opportunity to attend some of the panels and engage some of our key stakeholders in pointed conversations it would have been extremely difficult to differentiate this year’s conference from any other I had attended over the last 2 decades.  There was a new vernacular that weaved its way into this year’s conference.  Words like “sequestration”, “draw-down”, and “budget constraints” permeated the Rose A ballroom, and for the first time in many years, I sensed a palpable uncertainty among the leadership of Naval Aviation as they extolled the virtues of tail hook aviation’s role in the world theatre against the backdrop of future shoe string budgets and unknown war fighting requirements.  (Ironically, the Air Boss told a poignant story of a “nugget” strike fighter pilot from CVW-8 expertly delivering ordnance in the fight against ISIS the same day the morning news detailed the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan as “hostilities in the Middle East come to a close”.)

Given the environment we’re in and the abundance of questions marks hovering over the next several years, it should come as no surprise that many attendees, including most of the NAE leadership took a great deal of interest in the “little” ProModel booth nestled among missile mock-ups, Joint Strike Fighter simulators, and high-tech defense hardware displays.  In fact, as one of the very few (if not the only) predictive/prescriptive analytics software vendors in attendance at Hook ’14, we were an anomaly.

Tailhook '14

ProModel’s Keith Vadas and Carl Napoletano speak with VADM Dunaway, Commander, Naval Air Systems Command

 

A common theme emerged during our discussions with visitors and through comments made during the various panel discussions – decisions must be made via actionable data, courses of action must be modeled and validated, and technology-enabled decision support applications must be agile enough to get an answer in short order.  Thus the interest in ProModel.

While the Naval Synchronization Toolset is in its infancy from a relative viewpoint (we achieved initial operating capability just a year ago), ProModel has been delivering enterprise-wide decision support tool capabilities to its customers (both private and DoD) for over 25 years.  As industries have evolved (adopted Lean Six Sigma methodologies, harnessed data collection and aggregation, and leveraged emerging technologies) so has ProModel.  We have learned, alongside our customers, that there is significant “power” in diminishing uncertainties through “what-if” analysis and exploration of alternatives via technology-enabled decision support tools like the NST.  The questions the NAE gets asked have answers and it is discovering that getting there is a matter of adopting a philosophy that centers around modeling the behavior of the system, deciding on dials (variables), and exploring the alternatives.

The NST is that system.  Through our integration efforts with Veracity Forecasting and Analysis, we have delivered a software application that establishes the demand signal (the Master Aviation Plan module), models the behavior of the system (Carrier Strike Group Schedule, Air Wing Schedules, and Squadron Schedules), models the behavior of elements (the Airframe Inventory Management module) the utilization of the FA-18 A-F inventory over time, and provides a “sandbox” environment that facilitates optimal disposition of assets in order to meet the requirements of the NAE over time.

We heard, during our attendance at Hook ’14, that the optimal management of the FA-18 inventory was one of the focal points of the NAE leadership.  And although we’ve been involved in the development efforts of the NST for more than 2 years, it is the first time that the challenges of inventory management have taken center stage at a venue that has long been unchanged and timeless.  We felt privileged to be among the professionals in attendance at Hook ’14 and even more proud to be an integral part of the solution set to Naval Aviation’s challenges going forward.  We’ll be back next year and hope that the NAE is no longer talking about it.

Busy Season at ProModel

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Keith Vadas

Keith Vadas – ProModel President & CEO

I am pleased to report ProModel’s second quarter was very positive.  Like many businesses in the US we find ourselves on a serious upswing this Summer of 2014.  Our consultants are working on several projects in a variety of industries, including ship building, power management, retail, manufacturing, food processing, and government contracting.  In all of these projects our experienced team of consultants is working to improve efficiency, save money, and make better decisions for their clients.

ProModel’s DOD projects continue to thrive.  It is hard to believe it has been eight years since we started working with FORSCOM (US Army Forces Command)   on AST (ARFORGEN SYNCHRONIZATION TOOL).  LMI-DST (Lead Materiel Integrator – Decision Support Tool) with the LOGSA Team (US Army Logistics Support Activity) is also going strong.  Our agile team of software developers keeps improving the development process within ProModel and it shows. Just recently the NST Airframe Inventory Management Module was Granted Full Accreditation by the Commander, Naval Air Systems Command.

The time is also ripe for opportunities in Healthcare.  Our patient flow optimization capabilities are perfect for helping hospitals and outpatient clinics improve efficiencies.  Now that the Affordable Care Act has been around for a couple of years, its impact is being felt by healthcare organizations around the country.  The expanded insured-base, and the need for improved processes and different care models is making it absolutely necessary to consider the value of modeling and simulation.  ProModel continues to work with several facilities including Presbyterian Homes and Services, and Array Architects who enhance the flow in Healthcare Facilities design by using MedModel simulation in their design processes.

To better support our base of existing customers, we just released ProModel/MedModel 2014 in July and PCS Pro 2014 at the end of Q1.  EPS 2014 (Enterprise Portfolio Simulator) was released in Q2  and includes a new easy to use, web-based rapid scenario planning tool – Portfolio Scheduler.  You can check this tool out online at – http://portfoliostud.io/#.

There continue to be lots of exciting things happening at ProModel.  We have an outstanding team of consultants and software developers-designers just looking for an opportunity to PARTNER with you to help you meet the next business challenge, or solve the next unexpected problem.

Finding Impartiality in S/W Applications

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Rob Wedertz - SME, NST

Rob Wedertz – Director, Navy Programs

As long as I can remember I’ve been a fan of and often used the expression, “I don’t want to build the microwave, I just want to press cook”.  (I’ve never been able to remember when or from whom I first heard it – my apologies for the lack of attribution).  While I’ve sometimes been fascinated by the inner workings and origin of things, in the end I’ve come to adopt the modern world and the pace at which it moves.  I simply don’t have the time of day to dig into the underbellies of things and investigate the underpinnings of how they work nor their interdependencies.  My aversion to such activities was upended when I joined ProModel and led (as a PM) our development team’s efforts to support Verification, Validation, and Accreditation at the behest of our sponsor’s modeling & simulation accreditation agent.  While I do not intend to “build the microwave” here, I would like to describe how I learned that the act of “pressing cook” must be accompanied by complete and total impartiality of the software application.

Software, in a variety of formats, is often used to tell a story.  When it comes to entertainment-based software, and for the sake of the longevity of it, the story should be a very good one.  Thus the reason many folks spend countless hours trying to “level up” (it’s all about the journey, not the destination).  During my college days, I was exposed to Pascal and learned that the methodology (computer language) for telling a story was via if, then, else, while, etc. statements.  Truth be told, I didn’t particularly enjoy trying to figure out how to make the computer say “hello” via that methodology.  Again, I am more of a “show me the story” kind of person, than a “how did you make the story” kind of person.  In that regard I’m quite fond of the software that exists today.  My iPad is a bevy of mindless apps that keep my 5 year old entertained while putting miles on the family wagon.  However, when it comes to decision-support software, the stuff under the hood REALLY does matter and is often as equally important as the story itself.  Through the VV&A journey we’ve traveled to date, I’ve become more and more focused on inner-workings of “the microwave”, both out of necessity and surprisingly out of curiosity.

Our software applications tell stories that often culminate in multi-million dollar and in some cases, billion dollar implications, not necessarily to the good.  Not only must the story be stringently accurate, it must also be 100% impartial (or agnostic) to those who might be directly impacted by the results.  We accomplish that impartiality by ensuring that we never begin our development processes with an end result in mind.  That is not to say that we do not begin with an end-state in mind (i.e. – what is that you want to know?)  The difference is nuanced in print, but significant when it comes to applying the right level of acumen and forethought into software development.  The true genius of leveraging software applications to solve complex problems is that once you’ve figured out “where and why it hurts”, you can use predictive analytics, modeling, and regression analysis to attack the root of the ailment.  In my simplistic mind, our software is being used to treat the condition rather than the symptom.

The rigor that has been applied to the VV&A of our specific DoD program of record is staggering when compared to similar applications.  And it should be.  While many software developers are not particularly fond of documenting source code and defining why a certain script was used, in the end it has made both our customers and us extremely confident about our methodologies, processes, and coding standards.  Frankly, (although I’d never admit it to the folks who raked us through the coals) we’ve become a better development team because of it.  Combine the penultimate requirements associated with VV&A with our use of the Agile/SCRUM development methodology, we’ve accomplished the delivery of an application that withstands painstaking scrutiny and is adaptive enough to answer evolving customer demands and utility.  In the end, the vetting our software application has endured at the hands of the accreditation agent is not the value added propositions our customer demanded, although it was a necessary evolution.  What really matters is that we’ve produced a traceable software application that is impartial.  It may not always give you the answer you want, but it will always give the answer that you need – the truth.

ProModel at the AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition

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Pat Sullivan – VP, Army Programs

With over 5,700 attendees, and over 200 exhibitors, the annual AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition kept the ProModel team very well occupied. According to Keith Vadas, ProModel’s CEO, the 2014 AUSA (Association of the United States Army) symposium (held during February 19-21, 2014 in Huntsville, AL) was by far the most productive that ProModel has attended. When asked by LTG(R) Roger Thompson, AUSA Vice President for Membership and Meetings, if ProModel would come back if AUSA decided on Huntsville for next year, Keith responded with an emphatic “Absolutely!”

Taking advantage of the efficiency of having the undivided attention of an AUSA audience, which was four times larger than that of last year’s winter conference, Team Redstone hosted an exceptional small-business seminar the day before the conference. The seminar was hosted by a team comprised of NASA, Army Materiel Command, Missile Defense Agency, and the Strategic Missile Defense Command, along with the Army’s Office of Small Business. This was a great networking opportunity, and it revealed some great information about opportunities for ProModel in DOD and NASA.

On Wednesday, February 18th, the ProModel team entered the exhibit hall with great excitement and a superb opportunity to demonstrate how our custom DOD solutions and Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products are evolving. Many of the attendees expressed that they were on a continual quest for accurate budgeting projections. The Enterprise Portfolio Simulator (EPS) cost module, which is being piloted as a module of the ARFORGEN Synchronization Toolset (AST) at Forces Command, demonstrated a clear visualization of such projections. This EPS capability assists the Army (and it can assist any organization) in applying cost data at the tactical level.  The EPS module then rolls that data up in a package that reflects enterprise budget estimates, which in turn reflect a variety of demand or demand-fulfillment scenarios.

Four Star General Dennis Via, Commander of the US Army Materiel Command (center right) and Major General (Ret) Freeman from Deloitte (center) visit the ProModel booth and discuss the positive impact that DST-SM is having on the Army Materiel Command.

Four Star General Dennis Via, Commander of the US Army Materiel Command (center right) and Major General (Ret) Freeman from Deloitte (center) visit the ProModel booth and discuss the positive impact that DST-SM is having on the Army Materiel Command.

Another highlight was the demonstration of, and interest in, our COTS products like Process Simulator and EPS. DOD elements and industry are seeking ways to gain greater efficiency and to stretch their limited resources. While force structure is being reduced, missions and the need for continual modernization are not. The expectation of those funding DOD is that the military will be increasingly efficient in the execution of prescribed tasks. Therefore, an understanding of how to generate efficiency through Lean practices and events, and of how to predict equipment life-cycle costs in a peacetime environment, is paramount. Additionally, leaders in DOD expressed how they must apply Lean principles to their processes, identify trade-offs, and understand the downstream impacts of change.

Process and portfolio management are significant across the government sector, and they will become even more necessary during this time of decreasing budgets. EPS and Process Simulator, coupled with ProModel’s customized solutions (AST, LMI DST, and NST), provide the foundation for rapid process improvement, budget estimation, and program management. Thanks to the exceptional hospitality of the Tennessee Valley and the great response by our AUSA hosts, ProModel found in Huntsville some fertile ground that will grow much more than cotton.

Major General Collyar, CG at AMCOM, stops by our booth at the AUSA Winter Symposium to talk with ProModel CEO Keith Vadas (right) and ProModels Director of Navy Programs Robert Wedertz (left)

Major General Collyar, CG at AMCOM, stops by our booth at the AUSA Winter Symposium to talk with ProModel CEO Keith Vadas (right) and ProModels Director of Navy Programs Robert Wedertz (left)

Team ProModel Ragnar Relay: The Experience

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Pat Sullivan – VP, Army Programs

“12 friends, 2 vans, 2 days, 1 night, 200 mile relay…unforgettable stories.”  Ragnar

ProModel continues to demonstrate a commitment to building teams.  Over the past several days (25-27 Oct), Team ProModel grew as friends and athletes in one of America’s most grueling endurance races. The Chattanooga to Nashville Ragnar Relay undoubtedly demanded an often extraordinary level of dedication and sacrifice.  That dedication was played out during the race, but initiated and nurtured during the miles of running our team did in the months leading to the race…well, I must stop here to introduce the entire team, as some members considered their training was                                         an unnecessary crutch.

Team ProModel preparing to leave Huntsville

Team ProModel preparing to leave Huntsville

Ragnar-lockup-blue-backgroundThe twelve person team consisted of team captain Tim Shelton, (ProModel Sr Army Program Manager), Pat Sullivan (ProModel VP for Army Programs),  Brian Brown, Susan Whitehead, Jennifer Harbaugh, Ryan Harbaugh, Robert Brown, Sheri Shamwell, Barry Crocker, Cori Wilkerson, Wes Wilkerson, and Eric DeBolt (the ringer).  And the team could not have run one step had it not been for the commitment of Keith Vadas and Carl Napoletano…and the incredible effort of Christine Bunker (ProModel marketing) and our awesome drivers and support crew (Jim Craft and Kelly Parker).

So, back to the memories… our race day started when we met at our link up point in Huntsville and received our great running gear before loading up our well apportioned vans…the ones we called home for the next several days.  Thanks to our sponsors we had everything one would need…except maybe for a personal masseuse and about three more weeks of training.

Eric “The Lightning” Debolt takes off from the first major exchange point

Eric “The Lightning” Debolt takes off from the first major exchange point

Once on the starting line, in great ProModel fashion, our #1 runner (Robert Brown- a late arrival to the team) voiced the first of what would be many quotable moments. After the race director, announced that “this start represented the culmination of all the months of hard work and training in preparation for Ragnar,” Robert, turned to the team and said “hey, you didn’t say anything about months of training!”

And then the gun went off…at a beautiful waterfront setting on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, the team was off on our journey.  The plan was set and optimized.  Each runner was scheduled for three legs during the estimated 34 hours to complete the race.  We planned for each of our 12 runners to complete 16-19 miles each. And we delivered…the team completed the Ragnar in under 31 hours!

Jennifer Harbaugh pushes through her last leg through the beautiful horse farms just out side Nashville

Jennifer Harbaugh pushes through her last leg through the beautiful horse farms just out side Nashville

As the sun dropped, the miles faded and the temperature plunged.  Now, some of you may think that running in 25 degrees in the middle of the night is not that cold.  But for a bunch from the south, it was painful.  Couple that with little to no sleep over two days…and the mettle testing of endurance racing was on!

Rob Brown runs in the early morning light as the sun rises and the frost covers the ground. Temperatures dropped 30 degrees overnight

Maybe 25*?

After a cold night, with most pushing through on less than 2 hours sleep, each leg became more punishing… and as the sun rose, Team ProModel made it through the mountains, and into the rolling hills of Tennessee.  With the frost on the ground, the beautiful country side made for a memorable sight as the team passed the 100 mile mark.

Here are a few quotes and observations from the team:

Tim Shelton & Ryan Harbaugh exchange early morning

Tim Shelton & Ryan Harbaugh exchange early morning

“We are two legs up…”  Tim Shelton called in after conferring with the Race Director on our current progress.

“I’m JUST a stay at home Mom…”  An attractive young lady shared with Wes just before their leg.  Once the hand off occurred, she dropped him like a bad habit on her way to averaging 7:15 minute miles.

Eric “the lighting” DeBolt…delivered as promised by turning continual 6:00 minute miles…and then got up early on Sunday to run an “easy” 15 miles at 7:00 minute mile pace.

Jim Craft van driver/team manager/time keeper/ sleepless companion…was often heard mumbling through the night, “this is like herding cats.” 

Pat Sullivan runs through downtown Nashville towards finish line

Pat Sullivan runs through downtown Nashville towards finish line

Pat Sullivan often lost focus…”squirrel!”  What was I saying?

“Just one mile of suck left…”  a common quote Wes shared at each “one-mile to go” marker. 

“Where’s the van…Where’s that “one-mile-to-go-marker.”  Almost everyone racing… J

“Time to get up” says Jim to Barry…”but I never went to sleep.” Replies Barry.

“You are not my favorite person…” Rob says to one of his teammates while seven people tried to get some sleep in a van.

I wrote this somewhat generically…it’s hard to fit in all the stories and express the depth of our appreciation for having the opportunity to represent ProModel.  Thanks again for the great support and allowing us to represent ProModel…know you would have been proud.

Cori Wilkerson runs through the Tennessee hill country

Cori Wilkerson runs through the Tennessee hill country

Brian Brown running towards his first exchange point

Robert Brown “hey, you didn’t say anything about months of training?!”

Susan Whitehead pushes up hill as Team ProModel makes its way through the Tennessee mountains!

Susan Whitehead pushes up hill as Team ProModel makes its way through the Tennessee mountains!

ProModel Welcomes Col (Ret) Pat Sullivan

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Pat Sullivan – VP of Army Programs

Over the past 28 years, I have served our Nation as a member of the Armed Forces with great pride.  I enjoyed being a Soldier, and continually sought ways to grow as a Soldier and leader.  And now, I am honored to join the great team at ProModel!  I can think of no better professional fit for my background. I am convinced ProModel understands the challenges Army planners and logisticians face…and have an exceptional product and capable team at the ready to solve the toughest problem sets.

As a career logistician, I always sensed we could do just a little bit better with regard to how we supported customers and cared for the entrusted resources available.  The issue was often what we referred to as “brute-force” logistics.  We continually employed additive techniques to support a system that often prevented us from fully visualizing our process and anticipating the impacts of certain change.

Whether establishing logistics hubs during major exercises in Thailand or building based camps in Iraq during Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, I intuitively knew we could apply a more scientific approach.  We understood the tenants of supply chain management and even specified “anticipation” as a logistics imperative.  However, when I served as a National Guard Battle Command Training Program logistics trainer, I always struggled with how to answer the inevitable question of how do we know our log process works and how can we test the impacts of the anticipated change.  You see, we had developed a process for what to anticipate, but we had next to nothing to do figure out what the resulting change would mean to readiness.

I can provide countless examples of planning efforts that involved spreadsheets, Post-It notes, and Power Point charts that proved insufficient in supporting the execution.  The fog of war was only cleared through the extreme efforts of Soldier logisticians who facilitated our processes and closed the gaps of the unknown. It became second nature to augment our supply chain with additional resources to enhance efficiency. The Army is good at it…

However, as we move forward the technique may out run available resources. In other words, we won’t likely have Soldiers to support such facilitation.  Therefore, we have gone back to the drawing board to get smarter.  Over the past several years, we learned that if we have a model to track the flow of our supply chain, we can simulate the process and enhance effectiveness and efficiency.  The Responsible Retrograde from Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and the on-going efforts in retrograding supplies and equipment from Afghanistan are examples.  While the Army supply chain isn’t fully optimized…the visibility, tracking and understanding of the “why” behind condition changes is much more refined.

The next natural step was to leverage modeling and simulation, coupled with some big data analytic techniques, to vertically integrate the most complex tasks we perform.   In my role as Commander, US Army Materiel Command Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA), it was optimizing equipment supply against validated requirements.  This was no small feat…

The Army did have a jumpstart on the demand as US Forces Command, in conjunction with ProModel, developed the ARFORGEN Synchronization tool to tell us what units were deploying and when.  The next step was to extract a 1 to N demand signal by unique type of equipment.  That’s when the work really started.   When we applied available supply to prioritized demands and visualized over time the transactional volume was seemingly overwhelming…that is when you look at it in aggregate. When we looked at it in terms of execution, we found the efficiency gained would provide immediate value as it related to Army readiness…And that we could reduce the # of planners by nearly 100.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say the Army has been totally deficient in using modeling and simulation in support of our supply chain.  Rather, the beauty of this effort was to move from traditional methodology and look at the problem through a new lens.  We expanded the aperture…created a new playing field and entered the world of 21st Century supply chain management best business practices.

So, at the corporate level, the Army has developed capability that has value as it relates to facilitating unit readiness.  Some value exists at the tactical level, but at the lowest levels, executors don’t have the tools to exploit the real power of modeling and simulation.

That’s why I like ProModel.  Sorry for the cliché, but if we consider the possibilities…if we put usable tools…advanced, tailor-able, flexible modeling and simulation capabilities in the hands of those who must make decisions rapidly, then we are clearing their schedule for other more critical tasks.  Whether a forward support battalion planner, Lean Six Sigma Black belt or Department of the Army resource analyst, immediately accessible and easily usable modeling and simulation capacity will ensure we make better decisions.  Collectively, we need to spend more time analyzing answers and visualizing the opportunities, and less time compiling data into Power Point charts that rarely answer “what happened” much less “why it happened.”  I’m convinced ProModel can help Defense customers understand the possibilities in enhancing readiness and inject greater efficiency into our decision cycle.

More with Less and the Value of “Simulation”

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Robert Wedertz – NST Program Manager, SME

A close friend of mine recently sent to me our Chief of Naval Operations’ “Navigation Plan – 2014-2018”.  It is a vehicle for our Navy to provide “a vision, tenets, and principles to guide our Navy as we chart a course to remain ready to meet current challenges, build a relevant and capable future force, and enable and support our Sailors, Civilians, and their families”.

Not surprisingly, the key constraints in implementing the navigation plan are challenges associated with a Continuing Resolution and the onset of Sequestration.  Warfighting, forward presence, and readiness cost money.  Our military is the better part of 11 years “boots on the deck” in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are redirecting our focus to the Asia-Pacific region, and other parts of the Middle East (Egypt and Syria) are embroiled in pseudo civil wars which may or may not bring about our involvement.  Confronting our nation’s challenges on a shoestring budget, coupled with future uncertainty with respect to out-year budget allocations, has confronted our Department of Defense leadership with a conundrum likely unprecedented.

In order to confront the realities of that uncertainty, the DoD has more and more turned to simulation, but not the traditional kind – like battlefield mock-ups, operational flight trainers, etc.  I am referring to what I call “Course of Action” simulation.  Leveraging software-enabled predictive analytics, advanced modeling algorithms, and customizable simulation programming, the DoD is taking advantage of “sandbox” decision support tools which provide users the ability to run multiple COAs in a zero-risk environment.  For example:

“What if the Operations and Maintenance budget is cut by 5%, 6%, 10%?  How does that affect our warfighting ability?  How does it affect readiness?”

In the simulated environment, users have the ability to “turn the dials” and measure and present the outcomes to those that have the ultimate obligation to make decisions.  In an environment where the only certainty is uncertainty, decision makers are afforded opportunities to investigate distinct outcomes based upon methodical manipulation of inputs, constraints, and scenarios.

This is precisely the type of environment ProModel has created with the Naval Synchronization Toolset.  Our software development team has designed and implemented a customized web-enabled tool which allows its users to build, test, and present courses of action which source Navy Squadrons to Air Wings, and Air Wings to Aircraft Carriers.  The result is a Master Aviation Plan (MAP) which bridges 30 years of sourcing decisions and is “THE” plan for Naval Aviation to support the CNO’s Navigation Plan.  Additionally, we have provided an integrated decision support tool to the FA-18 Class Desk for effectively managing the aircraft inventory well into the future.

The Aircraft Inventory Management (AIM) tool provides the users with the forward-leaning ability to move individual aircraft between squadrons in order to extend the life of legacy FA-18 aircraft (A-D) and proactively manage the current and future compliment of FA-18 E/F aircraft 30 years into the future.

NST is a “sandbox” which allows users to continually refine COA’s in order to support the strategic needs of the Navy while considering constraints imposed by budget uncertainty, unplanned contingency operation demands, and the “rudder” of our Navy’s key stakeholders.  Through harnessing the power of simulation we have provided a decision support tool that is proactive, not reactive, is risk-free, and ultimately provides decision makers a tool to
“navigate by”.

Myself and Mitch Todd (Sr. Software Architect for NST) touring aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in Norfolk VA.

Myself and Mitch Todd (Sr. Software Architect for NST) touring aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in Norfolk VA.

How Did I End Up Here?

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Rob Wedertz –  SME Naval Synchronization Toolset   

During the several months leading up to my exodus from the U.S. Navy, I did my fair share of soul-searching, “what should I be when I grow up?  What business segment should I pursue?  What talents do I offer potential employers?”  After 26 years of wearing a uniform proudly and considerable amount of time tearing up the skies in a fighter jet, I had somehow come to the realization that I wanted to land somewhere outside the Department of Defense establishment, including its industrial base.  To explain why would occupy more space than blogosphere ROE allows.  Long road to a short house – the day ProModel HR contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in working on a custom program (Naval Synchronization Toolset – NST) supporting the Naval Aviation Enterprise, I reeled.  A voice inside my head said, “I thought you weren’t going to consider this as a potential vocation.”  Fortunately for me, (and I hope for the company), a much louder voice convinced me to do my due diligence and find out more about both the company and the position.  I did.  We met. We agreed.  Here I am.  (Now is the part where I do have to explain why.)

In 1986, when I joined the ranks of squids, swabbies, sailors, etc. the U.S. Navy was in the middle of what we referred to as the “salad days”.  Secretary Lehman was aggressively pursuing a 600 ship Navy (by comparison we have less than 300 today), toilet seats would cost the military in excess of $500, and there was no shortage of coffers to fix things that were broken, and in many cases things that were not.  At the time, my colleagues and I very rarely questioned the deluge of dollars in our operating budgets.  We were fighting the Cold War after all – we have to be in it to win it.  Fast forward nearly a decade and I had the unpleasant experience of witnessing the polar opposite.  No one told us that when we win the Cold War, we would have to eat sand (a poor reference to the movie Raising Arizona).  The late ‘90s were a dark time for those of us in Naval Aviation as we were forced to do more with less, with no tolerable degradation in mission capability or readiness.  Fortunately, some senior ranking military officers, who were also self-anointed visionaries, turned to the business world for guidance.  It was out of necessity that we in the DoD began to discuss things like Lean Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, Cost-wise Readiness, and we haven’t looked back.My first exposure to the methodologies associated with LSS, TOC, etc. was in 2004 as a mid-grade Department Head in a Strike Fighter Squadron preparing to deploy to the Western Pacific.  When directed (rarely optional) to enroll in and complete a “Fleet Business” course, I did as I was told and learned a new lexicon – Continuous Process Improvement, Value Stream Mapping, etc.  Far more important than learning ABOUT these initiatives was that I learned we were using them, and to measurable success.  We were actively and aggressively pursuing a business model that was somewhere right in between “salad” and “sand”.  And as a warfighter, our success struck a chord because I knew that my aircraft wouldn’t have to be made airworthy with duct tape and baling wire.

Fast forward again to the “due diligence” exercise when I spent a great deal of time “peeling the onion” about ProModel and the role I would play in working with Naval Aviation.  As it turns out, we have coupled the “wizard behind the curtain” type of development work our software engineers do so well with the tenets of LSS, CPI, and data collection / processing and offered warfighters a tool to make their lives easier.  The key stakeholders within Naval Aviation use the Naval Synchronization Tool Set to make cost-wise decisions, resource squadrons with the right aircraft, and ultimately allow warfighters to be warfighters.  And I get to be the “face” of the company as we support them.  When most of your closest friends are the direct benefactors of an endeavor as important as NST – it’s hard to say no.  I’m glad I didn’t.