Continuous Management Attention Needed for Army To Improve Combat Unit Personnel Requirements

FPCD-78-61: Published: Sep 5, 1978. Publicly Released: Sep 5, 1978.

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GAO reports and Army studies during the past 14 years have shown widespread, serious weaknesses in the Army's system for determining personnel requirements for combat units. The Army's Manpower Authorization Criteria provides criteria for determining the staff needed for combat functions which have measurable workloads. Errors in estimating either workload or soldiers' available worktime can have a major impact of the number of soldiers available.

In the 15 years since the inception of Manpower Authorization Criteria, the Army has not solved its problem of determining and justifying manpower requirements. Shortcomings in methods for estimating both workload and available worktime used in the formula make the results unreliable. A March 1978 proposal suggested new methods to model personnel requirements under varying wartime and peacetime conditions. This proposal provides an organized approach for improving the determination of maintenance personnel requirements and recognizes the need for an orderly, concerted, and long-range improvement effort. When complete, it should provide a basis to account for the differences between wartime and peacetime requirements and should result in more efficient resource allocation, large scale economies, and improved readiness.

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