U.S. Coast Guard:
Dining facilities undergo automation sea change

The Challenge

Readiness is a hallmark of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Supporting this readiness requires food service operations that can work at Peak Performance for any mission. The USCG operates 352 dining facilities ashore and afloat throughout the U.S. Until recently, paperwork and inventories at these facilities were all manual – including schedules, operating budgets and financial reporting. This was incredibly time-consuming. There was little operational forecasting. Reporting inaccuracies were common. And almost no time was available for mentoring junior personnel.

USCG leadership knew that an automated system would reduce duplication of effort, inaccuracies and inefficiency, but they needed to ensure that the new course was right for them. They would also need buy-in from stakeholders within and external to the USCG. Keeping stakeholders informed, engaged and in agreement would require collaborative communication tools and methods.

Charting A Course to Peak Performance

The USCG called in SiloSmashers to manage and implement the project. We organized a kick-off meeting that brought together USCG Dining Facility Automation Management (DFAM) project team members and other stakeholders from around the country. The meeting was held at our state-of-the-art Center for Leadership and Collaboration. Here, we leveraged electronic consensus-building tools – including one that allowed participants to give anonymous, uninhibited feedback. This enabled us to reach agreement on program scope and to prioritize objectives in just three days. USCG officials told us that this would normally have taken six months!

Next, we traveled to 90 USCG dining facilities, ashore and afloat, where we observed processes, conducted interviews and assessed operations in order to evaluate and measure current performance. To set a benchmark for best-of-class performance, we visited some of the country’s best-run casual and formal dining facilities, including commercial kitchens and military food operations.

It was clear that automated processes would benefit the USCG’s dining facility management. SiloSmashers recommended implementing an automated food service “management” system to boost efficiency, reduce waste, improve financial accuracy and decrease the risk of fraud. At the start, there were 412 processes.We consolidated them into 14 automated mega-processes.We also supported the USCG in three additional areas.

Workforce Planning. Our interviews with dining facility personnel revealed that many regarded theirpositions as dead-ends without potential for career growth.We recommended instituting a career path program to provide advanced culinary training to committed food service specialists. This would give the USCG an effective tool for recruiting and retaining high caliber food services staff.

Marketing and Communications. The USCG Technology Innovation Expo provided a venue for Food Service to share its progress with USCG managers and to demonstrate the new technology. SiloSmashers managed the presentation.We developed an expandable, reusable trade show booth, plus brochures and other marketing materials for the Expo.

Business Case Development. SiloSmashers helped the USCG build the business case for process change in its DFAM program. Required by OMB for major IT investments, the document detailed the DFAM program’s costs and justified them in terms of expected return on investment. It also described the program’s alignment with the President’s Management Agenda.

The Results of Peak Performance

By streamlining processes and reducing tedious manual documentation, the USCG anticipates a time-savings of 11.6 percent – plus increased financial accuracy that will improve management and decision-making. DFAM will also bolster morale as personnel respond to the combined effects of reduced paperwork, automated processes, increased time for mentoring and a clear career path that rewards tenure. Job turnover will drop, and the USCG’s ability to attract top food service candidates will increase.

The project also demonstrated the power of communication and collaboration to enhance outcomes. DFAM team members were of all ranks and disciplines. Leveraging tools that put all participants on equal footing, SiloSmashers quickly built consensus among stakeholders, shortened the approval process by months and facilitated the decisions needed to assure success.

Finally, the project benefited from expert project management and coordination by the SiloSmashers team. Our support ensured that it would be completed on time, on budget and with the highest degree of professionalism.