Depot expands project management initiative, reaps benefits

Story by Danielle Weinschenk on 08/15/2019

Tobyhanna recently expanded its implementation of Project Management, allowing another 29 employees to gain industry-standard training and streamlining operational processes across the organization.

Project Management principles and the associated Project Management Professional (PMP) certification were established by the Project Management Institute in 1969. The approach sorts system processes into five phases — initiation, planning, execution, monitor and control, and closure — and can be applied to a project of any size. It is used in government organizations and the private sector to drive efficiency.

“Project Management helped us become a better, more agile organization. The standardized framework allows us all to speak the same language,” said Keith Hoffman, deputy director of the Production Management Directorate. He noted he was particularly proud of the new workload brought to Tobyhanna specifically because the depot had personnel certified in Project Management.

Rob Fried, a logistics management specialist in the Production Management Directorate, gained his PMP certification in 2017. Since then, he has used Project Management tools as project manager for the Armament Repair Shop Set (ARSS). He says having these tools in place made life a lot easier when he recently brought on a new project.

“Having used Project Management on ARSS, I was able to identify risks on this similar workload. This enabled me to be proactive and preemptively develop a plan B. We are prepared for whatever comes our way,” he said.

Project Management principles are also being used in other areas of the depot. John Dabbieri, an electronics engineer in the Production Engineering Directorate, says Project Management has changed the way he does business.

“By setting up my work efforts using Project Management, I am in better control of my work. This methodology helps me align my efforts with those of other stakeholders.”

Project Management training and implementation is a TOBY2020 Invest in our People initiative. To date, Tobyhanna has trained over 400 employees in Project Management principles. Future plans for Project Management expansion include another round of PMP training, a PMP overview course geared towards shop floor personnel and the application of Project Management principles to the growing forward support mission.