The Missile Defense Agency is a complex organization with military leadership and thousands of employees. One of the Director's priorities is to brief, educate and promote ballistic missile defense to our friends and allies. At the home office in Washington D.C., the Missile Defense Agency has a department called International Support (IS). International Support is designed to develop strategic plans for each country MDA is working with or considering working with. They also work closely with the Office of the Secretary of Defense or OSD Policy. MDA and OSD Policy determine how to approach, discuss and a possible partnership with different nations.
After these discussions start it is only a matter of time before they contact the Joint National Integration Center, JNIC for additional support. We provide experience in the ballistic missile defense area by conducting briefs, workshops and interactive wargames to educate our friends and allies. There has been a problem with the way this process works because we are a part of MDA, but we are not at the home office in Washington D.C.,
The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. A RIM-...
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The motto in latin: Custos Custodum Ipsorum means ...and this makes communication challenging. In last weeks, paper I illustrated in detail this quality problem, and this week I will discuss possible improvements to the process to better service our customers.
Improvement Process
This improvement process needs to focus on our customers and our processes. Communications is the major contributor to the lack of understanding and confusion in this process. We have conducted several education visits for MDA/IS personnel at the JNIC to orientate themselves with our capabilities and processes. These visits seemed to get their attention and their concurrence with the way JNIC conducts business and the time tables associated with these processes. However, these visits are normally for only two to four MDA/IS personnel at a time. Several lessons learned...