IMA-Making Installations A Better Place to Live, Work, Train and Play

Army installations are cities unto themselves, communities providing facilities, services and programs that cater to people's everyday needs. At the same time, installations play a vital role in preparing soldiers to defend the nation's interests. Dedicated to taking care of people and projecting the force, the U.S. Army Installation Management Agency (IMA) provides effective and efficient management of Army installations worldwide. Established in October 2002, IMA is making a difference-supporting mission readiness and execution, enabling the well-being of soldiers, civilians and family members, improving the Army's infrastructure and preserving the environment.

Soldiers, civilian employees and family members live, work and play on Army installations. Servicemembers tirelessly train on installations, honing their skills, always ready to protect and defend our great nation. Civilian workers and families provide support to soldiers, ensuring Army installations are first-class places for our first-class soldiers. During times of war and peace, IMA remains committed to taking care of these communities.

IMA is responsible for the operations of 181 Army installations worldwide. Organized with seven region offices, IMA manages $8 billion and oversees approximately 78,000 military and civilian personnel around the globe. Under IMA's single agency concept, the headquarters staff and region offices share ideologies and resources in championing the issues that emerge during day-to-day operations. IMA headquarters implements policies and standards for installations worldwide, and region offices execute and enforce the standards across the board.

IMA is working to eliminate substandard facilities and services to ensure that all Army installations are desirable places to live, work, train and play. Its leadership is committed to finding common ways of doing business. Approved by the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army in 2003, Army installation design standards (IDS) provide common facility and infrastructure standards for all Army installations. They are designed to serve as a model from which Army installations, using the Army standards and guidelines, can build their own installation-specific installation design guide (IDG) as a tool for implementing the Army installation design standards. The IDG, in conjunction with mission requirements and technical designs and specifications, defines the requirements for an installation's maintenance and repair and for construction projects. When executed, these projects will improve the functional and visual aspects of all Army installations.

With IMA, people can expect quality, consistency and predictability in service delivery across all Army installations. IMA is implementing common levels of support (CLS), a method for guaranteeing the delivery of high quality base operations support services within the funds available to the Army. When CLS is fully implemented, soldiers, civilians and their families will be able to move from one installation to another and receive the same high quality predictable services they received at their previous installation. IMA is currently in the data development stage of CLS. IMA is moving the focus to development through implementation from October 2006 to September 2008.

Committed to standards, IMA developed a standard garrison organization (SGO) template. The SGO provides a standard garrison structure with consistent functions and processes to manage installations consistently to common standards. Upon movement to a new station, a soldier and his family will already be familiar with the garrison organization, will know what office to go to for specific required services and will know the level of service support to expect. The SGO will enable the Army to direct resources equitably across the garrisons, while realizing efficiencies from best business practices, which can be uniformly implemented as standard operation procedures. SGO is targeted for implementation across the Army by the end of fiscal year (FY) 2006.

IMA is integrating sustainability principles into the installation strategic planning process in response to modern-day pressures on their mission readiness. Those pressures include encroachment from burgeoning local communities, degradation of training lands, aging infrastructure, declining resources, well-being concerns and increasingly stringent environmental laws and regulations.

Sustainable installations fully enable military operational readiness and training though realistic training environments. They contribute to long-term viability and mission integrity; ensure the well-being of soldiers and their families; explore and build mutually beneficial relationships with local communities; operate efficiently and cost effectively; minimize resource requirements and reduce adverse environmental impacts; and design and construct a robust and sustainable infrastructure.

IMA uses its single-agency oversight of the Army's installations to implement efficiencies worldwide. Efficiencies show up either through locally driven initiatives from the activity-based costing and management (ABC/M) and productivity improvement review (PIR) processes, or through corporate-driven efficiencies executed agency-wide that were validated at IMA headquarters or by headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA).

Through two quarters of FY 2004, more than 1,000 initiatives were generated through the PIR process. During the June 2004 HQ PIR, 32 initiatives were selected for worldwide implementation. The efficiencies gained to date are estimated at $23 million, a good start toward the $100 million objective for FY 2005. Some examples of corporate initiatives include: property book consolidation, LED traffic light installation, consolidated refuse collection, a red rag recycling program, metal door bulk purchases, web-based training for a rear detachment commanders' course, consolidated soft drink procurement and centralized environmental sampling.

Examples of efficiencies executed by IMA that were HQDA validated include: utilities privatization, competitive sourcing and implementing technology to convert solid waste into renewable energy and reusable construction materials. IMA continues to implement a cost management culture using ABC/M and PIRs, and tracking corporate efficiencies using the performance management review process. IMA is improving its ability to implement efficiencies by automating initiative collection and tracking and consolidating the management of various Army initiative development programs.

In August 2004, IMA awarded two blanket purchase agreements as the first step in implementing a program for the redesign of business processes for delivering services on installations. The IMA business process redesign program will be executed over an eight-year period to redesign the business processes for delivering and managing services in order to realize efficiencies, provide better customer satisfaction and save money. The goal is to transform the way that we deliver services on installations rather than simply upgrading current ways of doing business.

IMA has made great progress toward freeing warfighters from day-to-day installation management tasks so they can fully focus on training for combat. As an example, IMA found a way to manage the new manpower requirements for installation security that emerged following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Force protection requirements increased significantly and the Army initially had to rely on soldiers to carry the load. In response, IMA developed a contract security guard program to centrally manage the execution of security guard contracts to increase security and release soldiers from the gates of Army installations. The program has been in place for a year and 52 continental U.S. installations have benefited from implementation. In 2004 the Army was able to release more than 4,000 reserve component soldiers from access control duties.

In a less visible yet vital function, the Installation Management Agency has been directly involved in projecting the force in support of the global war on terrorism. In 2004, IMA mobilized and demobilized some 350,000 soldiers through Army installations. In the process of preparing soldiers to go downrange, IMA was able to leverage its position as the overseer of installation support to solve problems that would have challenged individual installations or units. IMA was able to work with the garrison commanders and the senior mission commanders to anticipate facilities' needs and provide housing, training and dining facilities for mobilizing and deploying soldiers.

Through its ability to see all available resources, IMA was able to make up shortages in individual equipment by cross-leveling supplies across installation and major command (MACOM) boundaries, independent of parochial ownership concerns. Through 23 equipment demobilization sites, IMA installations repaired or rehabilitated more than 64,000 pieces of equipment belonging to active and reserve units returning from deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq to their home station.

With IMA's oversight of installations, organizations work together, creating partnerships to maximize efficiencies. IMA has placed permanent liaisons with the MACOMs and the Army staff to manage their expectations and to ensure IMA is an early player in anticipating and solving problems. IMA also has developed partnerships with the Wholesale Defense supply system, the Army Contracting Agency, Network Enterprise Technology Command, Human Resources Command, the Army Environmental Center, the Army Community and Family Support Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to enable immediate and effective response to complex problems. For example, when the number of sick or injured soldiers in medical hold or holdover began to overwhelm available billeting and facilities, IMA was positioned to bring resources to bear on building, renovating or contracting for facilities and services to meet those soldiers' needs.

Deployed soldiers can rest assured, knowing their families are safe and sound back home. IMA is the "stay home" team that cares for Army communities and families and allows war fighting commanders to focus on the mission. In the past two years, IMA provided support to 250,000 families and to 470,000 children around the world.

Soldiers deserve the same quality of life as those they have pledged to defend. IMA knows creating standards and finding more efficient ways of doing business creates better ways of living for our soldiers, civilians and families. IMA is here to support the great men and women in Army communities.

By Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson

MAJ. GEN. RONALD L. JOHNSON is director of the U.S. Army Installation Management Agency. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and holds a master's degree in operations research from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Copyright Association of the United States Army Mar 2005
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