DMADV for Travel Claims

The Navy's annual budget for Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves is roughly $800 million. That sounds like a lot of money until you consider the scope and size of the effort. Between 110,000 and 160,000 PCS travel claims are processed each year. These claims include various allowances for time in training, family relocation, temporary lodging, and house hunting.

Because the Navy relies on rotational duty assignments by design and Sailors are entitled to PCS-related compensation by law, the expenses associated with PCS moves are a predictable cost of doing business.

However, the speed and accuracy of travel claim settlements has a significant impact on the operational availability of funds during the execution year. Adequate funds to safely cover all PSC-related expenses are obligated in advance of travel, and these funds must be held in abeyance until the travel claim is settled once travel is completed. Any excess obligations can then be de-obligated and used to fund additional PCS-moves. The goal is to settle travel claims within 30 days of travel completion. The process baseline in fiscal year 2015 was a median settlement time of 38 days. In addition, a small number of claims are never settled which ties up funds and creates the possibility of Sailor indebtedness to the Navy for advances paid on travel expenses.

We convened a meeting of the travel claim processing stakeholders in December of 2015 to discuss ways to (1) improve customer service, (2) improve the timeliness of travel claim settlements, and (3) improve the traceability of funds for the purposes of audit readiness. The group quickely settled on a DMADV methodology as an organizing framework for the effort. DMADV stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Validate; it is a modified version of the familiar DMAIC model for lean six sigma process improvement. The DMADV framework is used when designing a new process, and DMAIC is more appropriate for refining an existing process.

After constructing a high-level conceptual diagram (see figure), the stakeholders designed a pilot test of the new process and constructed a Plan of Actions and Milestones (POAM) for execution of the pilot. The pilot test will run for a period of six months, includes a control group (i.e., all claims not in the pilot), and a thorough plan to evaluate the pilot against the measurable goals of the effort. If successful, the pilot will result in a Navy-wide implementation of the improved travel claim settlement process.

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