Page 19 - RAPTC Number 102 2018/19

To add to this, we have also been responsible for procuring new and additional items of PTE to support PES. By this stage we were familiar with the process for procuring large volumes of equipment. So going through this process again, but with PES equipment, wasn’t too much of a problem. However, our greatest challenge was managing the expectation of some of our key stakeholders who didn’t understand the new procurement process. The challenge was convincing our stakeholders that, despite our best efforts, we were constrained by a fixed process and couldn’t guarantee the delivery of equipment within imposed timelines. As you can appreciate this could be quite frustrating and tested our patience on numerous occasions. Furthermore, competing priorities between Team Leidos and the equipment suppliers meant that what was urgent for us wasn’t necessarily a priority for either Leidos or the equipment suppliers. Therefore, it further reinforced the importance of maintaining a strong relationship with those within the procurement chain, whilst ensuring our stakeholders requirements were being met. This was a balancing act and required tact and diplomacy on behalf of all of us.
So what was the outcome? As I write these notes £2M worth of APTS PTE is being delivered to over 90 Field Army units. This includes a significant uplift of equipment for large garrisons such as Colchester, Catterick and Tidworth. I am proud to say SMI Slade-Jones, in collaboration with HQ RAPTC and Indigo fitness, has been instrumental in the design of a bespoke ‘drag bag’ to support the RFT (S). This will be put in to service along with other new items of PES PTE in April 19. To compliment this SMI Cowley has restructured the service and maintenance process making it much more user-friendly, which will likely result in cost
savings efficiencies in the future. The final part of this has been the work that Tony, our administrator, has done to develop our Asset Management System. This has been essential in capturing unit PTE holdings, so that unit equipment procurement can be prioritised, ensuring the PTE budget is spent appropriately.
To conclude where I began, the moral of all of this is that no matter how good a plan is, at some stage it will fail. On reflection, I believe the key to our successes have not been in planning, but how we have approached each hurdle. This has mainly been through being open-minded and applying a balance of behaviours in order to positively influence each situation. This means establishing strong relationships with stakeholders, whilst also being able to have difficult conversations; being persistent but not overbearing or obsessive; by being flexible but not compromising on values; having patience but not procrastinating or waiting for something to happen; seeing the bigger picture, but also having an appreciation of what’s happening on the shop floor. I wish I could say we constantly got the balance right, but we didn’t. What we did do is learn a lot about the dynamics of how big organisations interact and, more importantly, ourselves.
Finally, I have the pleasure of finishing this article by mentioning a number of achievements within the branch. To start SMI Cowley was selected for an LE Commission within the RAPTC and will be posted to JSMTC Castlemartin in Jun 19. SMI Slade-Jones was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his exemplary service and endeavours to charity and Army rugby. Lastly for his dedication, initiative and going above and beyond the call of duty, Tony Tang was awarded an Endeavour Award from Aspire.
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