Achieving Operational Flexibility Through Task Organization

On the eve of World War II, the U.S. Army was a small cadre force without deployable combat divisions. Because of years of preparation and planning during the interwar years, the Army completed the transformation into a huge organization with multiple army groups spread across the world in less than four years. This new army displayed remarkable battlefield flexibility. Doctrine and training guided senior leaders in the European Theater of Operations to ensure overwhelming combat power at the point of attack. They constantly shifted their divisions, a limited asset on the continent for the majority of 1944, between corps headquarters immediately prior to major battles. Many divisions changed corps assignments four times in a three-month period and corps moved between armies on a regular basis with no apparent difficulty. Changing task organization in the face of the enemy is a complex undertaking, affecting command relationships, logistics, and every other staff function. Despite the potential for introducing unwanted friction, the shifting of units from one headquarters to another was a common practice in the European theater in 1944. How were these newly formed units able to display the flexibility to integrate effectively while engaged in combat? This monograph proposes operational flexibility resulted from a unique American way of war developed during the interwar period by veterans of the First World War. Three factors -- common doctrine, carefully selected leaders, and an effective organizational structure -- provided senior commanders the organizational flexibility they required in combat. Without this flexibility, the Army would have had difficulty executing its breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, pursuing the retreating German forces across France, and quickly thwarting the Nazi offensive in the Ardennes at the end of 1944.

This study proposes operational flexibility resulted from a unique American way of war developed during the interwar period by veterans of the First World War. Three factors – common doctrine, carefully selected leaders, and an effective organizational structure – provided senior commanders the organizational flexibility they required in combat. Without this flexibility, the Army would have had difficulty executing its breakout from the Normandy bridgehead, pursuing the retreating German forces across France, and quickly thwarting the Nazi offensive in the Ardennes at the end of 1944. The interwar school system and stable doctrine enabled a common understanding on how to solve tactical and operational military problems. The high quality and close-knit officer corps, particularly the Regular Army officers who served in senior leadership positions, facilitated the process of unit integration. The design of large unit organizations, and the staff structure which supported them, greatly simplified the process of moving divisions between units to accommodate the changing situation in the face of an aggressive and adaptable enemy. There is a clear parallel between the roles of U. S. Army World War II era corps and modern divisions, and this study highlights several recommendations to ensure flexibility in future conflicts.

This is the Fourth Edition, written by the Deployable Training Division (DTD) of the Joint Staff J7 and published under the auspices of the Joint Staff J7. This edition incorporates Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recent guidance and publications together with emergent insights and best practices observed by the DTD. Previous editions were written and distributedby the former United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) which was disestablished on 31 August 2011. General Gary E. Luck, USA (Ret) led development of the first two editions of this publication as an employee of Northrop Grumman Corporation supporting the former United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM). General Luck subsequently supported development of the third and fourth editions as a Senior Fellow for the National Defense University in support of the Pinnacle, Capstone, and Keystone programs.

Globalization has created a superheated competitive business environment that demands innovation to stay ahead. But it's also created a hidden source of innovation right in your midst: the people in your organization who have deep experience in more than one culture—multiculturals. Having to integrate different cultural frameworks has enabled them to develop abilities that can contribute powerfully to building innovative organizations. David Thomas makes a compelling business case for recognizing and cultivating a new dimension of diversity—the diversity within individuals! He looks at how to establish the organizational conditions under which multiculturals can flourish and shows how even the most monocultural among us can gain the advantages of a multicultural mind.

This book presents cutting-edge research and thinking on agile information systems. The concept of agile information systems has gained strength over the last 3 years, coming into the MIS world from manufacturing, where agile manufacturing systems has been an important concept for several years now. The idea of agility is powerful: with competition so fierce today and the speed of business so fast, a company’s ability to move with their customers and support constant changing business needs is more important than ever. Agile information systems: • have the ability to add, remove, modify, or extend functionalities with minimal penalties in terms of time, cost, and effort • have the ability to process information in a flexible manner • have the ability to accommodate and adjust to the changing needs of the end-users. This is the first book to bring together academic experts, researchers, and practitioners to discuss how companies can create and deploy agile information systems. Contributors are well-regarded academics known to be on the cutting-edge of their fields. The Editor, Kevin Desouza, has organized the chapters under three categories: • discussion of the concept of agile information systems (i.e. defining agile information management, its attributes, antecedents, consequences, etc.) • discussion of information systems within the context of agility (i.e., descriptions of agile information systems and their attributes, how to build agile information systems, etc.) • discussion of organizational management issues in the context of agile information systems (i.e., how to prepare the organization for agile information systems, management of agile information systems for improved organizational performance, etc.)

The book is the follow-up to its predecessor “Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2009/2010” and includes a representative selection of all scientific publications published between 07/2011 and 06/2012 in various books, journals and conference proceedings by the researchers of the following institute cluster: IMA - Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering ZLW - Center for Learning and Knowledge Management IfU - Associated Institute for Management Cybernetics Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University Innovative fields of application, such as cognitive systems, autonomous truck convoys, telemedicine, ontology engineering, knowledge and information management, learning models and technologies, organizational development and management cybernetics are presented.

Manufacturing Cells: Control, Programming and Integration presents the issues surrounding the integration of manufacturing cells and small manufacturing systems. This book provides a variety of topics, including generally applicable cell controllers, cell management, and cell control. Organized into eight chapters, this book begins with an overview of the methods that allow the effective and fast integration of manufacturing devices into automated manufacturing cells. This text then describes the cell controller as being one element of a computer-integrated management system. Other chapters consider the innovative approach to the design, implementation, and integration of cell controllers in a manufacturing system. This book discusses as well the cell management language, which is a powerful computing environment for building complex manufacturing systems. The final chapter deals with the methods for describing the real-time, decision-making logic that is needed to control manufacturing cells. This book is a valuable resource for manufacturing engineers, managers, and supervisors.