How Winners Win: Lessons Learned from Contract Competition in Base Operations Support
Abstract
Competition in Base Operations Support (BOS) produces savings for DoD. In the face of competition, costs drop by an average of 27% whether a contractor or the in-house work force wins. If we knew how winners realized those savings, they might be duplicated by in-house Government activities even when competition isn't possible. Winners of competed BOS functions follow many common approaches to increase their productivity. These approaches include: organizational changes, simplifying organizations to reduce the number of supervisors; consolidation of working locations to eliminate the expense of supervising dispersed activities; use of working supervisors who not only direct and schedule workers but also perform direct labor themselves; use of multiskilled workers to reduce periodic backlogs with a smaller work force; use of lower-skilled workers; reserving higher skilled employees for jobs that suit their talents; provision of equipment, vehicles, and communications to maximize worker productivity; establishment of worker goals and accountability to motivate employees; provision of computer support to complete work more quickly and accurately; and elimination of unnecessary work, abolishing or modifying nonessential tasks.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA148652
Entities
People
- Dennis J. O'connor
- John B . Handy
Organizations
- LMI