With the government’s fiscal year end just around the corner, organizations across the Aeronautical Center are taking steps toward saving money and moving away from the "use it or lose it" spending mentality. Instead organizations are deliberately working towards being good stewards of taxpayer dollars by spending thoughtfully.
Nine months ago, the Aeronautical Center’s Leadership team led the charge of intentionally reducing costs. The Center’s integrated delivery model focuses on reducing costs across the agency, saving taxpayer dollars while providing added value to all customers and stakeholders. As an innovative, forward-thinking organization, the Aeronautical Center empowers FAA personnel to focus on the mission.
Currently, over $10,624,249 has been reported as cost savings and/or cost avoidance. Throughout this year, AMC organizations (FAA Academy, Enterprise Services Center and Facilities Management) have been reporting their cost savings and avoidance amounts every month in a designated template. The AMC Resource Management Office (ABP-550) is responsible for tracking the progress of each organization and sharing the results at the weekly Direct Report Team Meetings (DRT). Organizations are finding innovative ways to make their business operations more efficient. They are streamlining their processes, creatively applying new technologies, renegotiating contracts, and buckling down on expenses.
"Our goal of $20M in cost savings and cost avoidance by the end of FY2020 seemed bold at first, but nine months in and we are already well on our way. And this goal is about much more than numbers, it is about creating a sustainable cost-conscience culture across all of our Aeronautical Center operations. If you have ideas on how to make your operations more cost-effective, tell your supervisor, tell your leadership, we want to hear about them!" shares Kevin O’Connor, Deputy Director of the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. Remember there are some vital methods you can use to share your input, such as We’re Listening and/or IdeaHub. Remember, everyone is empowered to advocate strategy changes. If you need help coming up with ideas to get you thinking in a cost-efficient manner, think about non-mission critical incidentals or review activities to see if certain events could be combined. What about any activities that are overdue that you could potentially do away with? Have you reviewed your organization’s ’miscellaneous’ spending? It may be time to review previously disapproved cost-saving ideas. Maybe some past rejected ideas are worth reviewing again, as constraints and initiatives may have changed as well as priorities. Some ideas may be worth re-proposing. Strive to eliminate any work in which the cost exceeds the value. It’s easy to think that we’ve picked all the low hanging fruit, but it may be worth taking the time to give your processes a second look. Reviewing doesn’t cost anything and doing so could produce significant results.
