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Employees of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade completed a weeklong cost benefit analysis course July 15 that was taught by professors from St. Ambrose University at the Kaiserslautern Community and Activity Center.
The course, which is designed to teach employees how to financially compare the cost of a mission versus the benefit, was funded by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command. More than 30 Soldiers, civilians and host nation employees from the brigade headquarters, the Directorate of Logistics, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, the 409th Contracting Support Command, the Joint Multinational Training Command and the Theater Logistics Support Center-Europe attended the training.
“In order to host this training, we had to collaborate with multiple Army units, including ASC, the 21st TSC and TLSC-E,” said Carroll Randall, who works in the brigade S-3 and was the lead coordinator for the course. “There was a lot of detailed planning involved, but the benefits far outweighed the challenges because so many personnel throughout the European theater were able to take advantage of this training.”
The training, which included a real-time execution of the CBA process, covered a variety of brigade operations, such as determining the best mix of support to future deployments of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team and determining the best source of repair for the Joint Military Training Center. The training included slide building, criteria evaluation and courses of action development. Each team also briefed their final product, including an executive summary and decision matrix, to either Maj. Gen. Patricia McQuistion, the commander of the 21st TSC, Scott Welker, the ASC deputy commander, Col. Ronald Green, the commander of the 405th AFSB, or Helmut Haufe, the TLSC-E director.
“The training was incredibly successful because we were able to focus on current brigade operations and determining the best course of action for missions we currently support,” Randall said. “This made the training directly relevant to our daily tasks.”
Green said he believes this training is particularly important due to the recent changes in the brigade’s mission.
“This training was especially important as we move forward to fully integrate the DOLs into our operations,” Green said. “In addition to the training that the personnel received, we were also able to learn more about the DOL mission, and DOL personnel were able to learn more about the Army Materiel Command mission.”
The 405th AFSB accepted operational control of the DOLs in the European theater from the U.S. Army Installation Management Command-Europe earlier this year. The brigade will accept full control of the DOLs in 2012.
