According to Operating, Materials and Supplies (OM&S) lead Paul Bannister, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSW PCD) has been experiencing a commandwide requirement to update their skills and abilities for processing purchase requests.

"The procurement of materials or components for the Navy has always been done," said Bannister. "OM&S is a material or component and the Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) is the method we use to track its lifecycle from cradle to grave."

Bannister said the OM&S processes can be defined as any materials that are procured for the Navy to conduct a project, to perform operations, to manufacture assets or to perform repairs to existing assets.

"OM&S materials can be understood as: operating materials and supplies, the computers we use to conduct analyses, the software that is loaded on a landing craft air cushion (LCAC), the metal or material used to create towed body mine countermeasures platforms, the resin that is used to create a shell for a sonar, or the tools we give Sailors to operate and/or maintain their equipment," said Bannister. "OM&S can be anything that can be issued or consumed."

Bannister said all NSWC PCD employees should keep themselves familiarized with OM&S processes and the Navy's ERP system because the Navy will continue to improve how its materials are tracked through ERP.

"From the NAVSEA perspective, OM&S and ERP have certainly evolved and that is just within the four months that I've been in this job," said Bannister. "Tracking OM&S via ERP requires detailed documentation and financial accountability, and we track the materials through ERP until they are consumed are issued to the fleet," said Bannister.

Bannister said that NSW PCD is currently experiencing an organizational paradigm shift.

"For a long time our command had a very stable workforce with very few newcomers and so there was a traditional way of doing business that became the norm for most employees," said Bannister. "For example, take acquiring travel orders and getting them processed. Years ago, employees would go to administrative (admin) assistants, tell them they needed travel orders, provide itinerary details, include a job order number and then the admin. assistant would complete processing the necessary steps and inform the people when their travel documents were ready."

Bannister used the Defense Travel System (DTS) as an analogy to illustrate how ERP is changing the Navy's business culture into a self-sufficient and economical model of handling organizational processes.

"Now the DTS helps you to do all that yourself," said Bannister. "And with ERP, it's the same thing. We've just left those days of having our travel orders done by admin. assistants and we're figuring out how to do them ourselves."

According to Bannister, NSWC PCD employees learning to track OM&S via ERP isn't just a priority set by NSWC PCD senior leadership.

"This is accountability mandated by Congress, that we become financially auditable and compliant by 2017," Bannister said. "So, whether or not you're ordering reams of paper or specialized cables for research and development projects, learning how to properly submit a purchase request is important. This is particularly so because everything we're doing to become compliant with OM&S processes is leading up to our 2017 Audit."

Bannister said all NSWC PCD employees need to learn the basics of the U.S. Navy's Supply system, whether a basic requester, a purchase request (PR) creator, or a technical (tech) screener.

"The Navy supply world has its own culture," he said. "There are nuances associated with it where if you don't work with it often enough, you won't be able to retain a working knowledge base. So, the people who are going to become successful with OM&S and ERP are those employees who will devote time to trial and error, and if necessary, ask an advanced user for help."

To bring the workforce up to par with OM&S, Bannister has a few viable options he is lining up for training NSWC PCD employees. According to Bannister, educating NSWC PCD's workforce on fundamental OM&S processes will require training across the command's entire spectrum of career profiles.

"Firstly, I've proposed strategically placing OM&S department leads within each technical code, who will be educated subject-matter experts within departments as helpdesk point of contacts," he said. "These OM&S department leads will stay updated on that latest of everything to do with OM&S policies being used in conjunction with ERP. In addition, I plan to further educate by using social media display, composing more newsletter articles, workshops, brown-bag lunches, instructional videos, and weekly-working groups led by selected department leads."

Bannister believes employees will appreciate the return-on-investments from having familiarized themselves with OM&S processes in conjunction with ERP.

"My intent is to help OM&S end-users understand that using the ERP system correctly can and will make their lives easier," said Bannister.

For more news from Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, visit www.navy.mil/.