Original Date: 09/15/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Prior to FY1992, the Defense Nontactical Generator and Rail Equipment Center (DGRC) mission was assigned to the Aviation & Troop Support Command and was perceived to have a reputation of poor quality and service. All negative comments and rumors were forwarded to Headquarters without substantiated paperwork to support the allegations. Much of this undeserved ridicule was based on the nature of the work, poor structuring of the assigned duties, and to a degree, lack of ownership of the function. In the past, once maintenance operations were performed at an installation, no additional work was scheduled to be performed until the next audit. This left the workforce with nothing to fill unoccupied time other than idle away the hours. This was often interpreted as not having the ability to do quality work, thus the reputation of inferior work and work ethics. After the transfer of these duties to DGRC, steps were taken to not only declare ownership, but to rectify the reputation of the organization and provide greater service capabilities without jeopardizing quality workmanship.

DGRC's solution to alleviate the problem was to obtain a voluntary written evaluation of the current service upon completion of the maintenance audit by each installation. Secondly, DGRC focused on areas of service where the quality of the service may have been below standard. Finally, DGRC had to immediately correct problems where identified and reward employees who showed exceptional service and customer satisfaction.

By informing customers of additional services it could provide, DGRC also took steps to provide additional tasks to the workforce during periods of time when maintenance audits were not scheduled. DGRC updated its service to include advance notices to the installations concerning the team’s arrival, identified the type of support equipment needed to complete the assigned task, and developed a checklist of the maintenance to be performed. These steps eliminate downtime once the team arrives on the site.

All the customer surveys that have been returned are in the “above average” to “excellent” category; however, as with many surveys, some have not been returned or have not yet been received. This should not be misconstrued as poor quality workmanship.

The customer surveys are a critical analytical correction tool for eliminating a reputation of poor quality work. The surveys also identify areas of improvement, which enable the level of satisfaction with the services to improve.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.