SUPPLY DUTY PETTY OFFICERS ASHORE.- Personnel on duty normally stand the watch in the main supply office or where stock records are accessible. Familiarize yourself with the instructions and procedures for standing the watch. When you are on watch, you maybe called upon to issue or locate many items with which you are not familiar.

The principles of recordkeeping and storage are the same, however, you must be familiar with the warehouses and their location system.

There are no sharp differences between standing a watch ashore and standing a comparable watch aboard ship. The essentials remain the same. Personnel are still supervised, security of spaces and materials are maintained, and logs are kept of occurring events. The details, which vary considerably from station to station, are always carefully stated in a specific supply department instruction.

MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

When the elements of management techniques are applied to the operating procedures, the result is an efficient and progressive organization. These elements include planning, organization, and control. The following information describes these in more detail.

PLANNING

The most important element of management techniques is planning. Plans are methods devised to achieve a goal. Plans are the road maps for the players to follow. In the Navy, all plans fall into one of the three groups; strategic plans, standing plans, and single-use plans.

Strategic plans are those that will take place in 2 or 5 years. Type commanders and commanding officers use strategic plans to set the mission and objectives.

Standing plans are those the Navy uses for recurring or long-range activities. Standing plans include the United States Navy Regulations (Navy Regs), Standard Organization and Regulations of the U.S. Navy, SECNAVINSTs, OPNAVINSTs, or technical manuals. Supervisors use the standing plans to determine routine work requirements within the division or section.

Single-use plans are those used for short-range nonrecurring activities. As the supervisor, you should excel in this area of planning and use it as part of your daily activity. To determine the short-range plans, use the strategic and standing plans as References.

The time devoted to planning any type of operation will result in dividends in terms of the time and effort saved later. To develop an effective plan, you must first have accurate information concerning past and present procedures. One of the mistakes often made by individuals when reporting to a new assignment is to neglect this essential element and begin making changes before they understand the existing system. Some tasks may appear strange when a person is new to an assignment and may even appear pointless. However,. it is wise not to act on the first impression. It is best to become acquainted with the reasons for performing tasks in a specific way before making rash decisions for change.

The ideal situation, although often not the case, is to report to a division or section before the detachment of your predecessor. This gives you an opportunity to observe performance and procedures before you actually take charge. When this is not the case, planning before acting becomes even more important.

The first step in planning is to determine the exact functions and mission of the office or division for which you are assuming responsibility. You must also determine how its functions fit into the overall mission of the activity. You should already be familiar with some procedures gained by experience from previous assignments or from general knowledge of the AK rating.

Personnel

To make job assignments efficiently, it is important that you become acquainted with the personnel who will be working for you. Find out about their training and experience. Become familiar with their individual skills and traits of personality. Review each individual's service record and look at the past work habits of each person (past evaluations will indicate some of these traits). When you are setting up a new office, you will have to make immediate decisions regarding assignments. In an office or unit already established, you probably will not make any changes in individual duty assignments until you have made an assessment of personnel traits.

Workload

The main sources of information concerning projected workload are the mission and functions described in the supply department organizational manual or from directives issued by the local command or from higher authority.

After determining what responsibilities your section is expected to perform, you should next consider how your work assignments relate to the overall mission of the activity. You must become familiar with organization charts, organizational manning structure, billets authorized, and the personnel available to perform those tasks assigned.

The next step is to consider personnel assignments, space assignment, and available equipment to perform the tasks.

Flexibility

Planning must be flexible because sometimes the best of plans have to be revised. When a system fails to work as efficient y as you had expected, then you should make a change. Supervisors should always be alert and observe how their plans are working and readjust where necessaary. You should also observe changes in function, personnel, or working conditions and modify those plans accordingly.

On the other hand, frequent reorganization of procedures usually indicates faulty original planning and may reflect unfavorably on your competence as a supervisor. Your subordinates may recognize this fault and resent having to move office furniture or perform other tasks of reorganization simply because you did not plan properly in the first place.

ORGANIZATION

The fact that your organization may be relatively simple in structure does not diminish in any way the importance of having a clear and well-balanced structure. Individuals should know what is expected of them and what authority they have. This does not mean that your personnel should not be expected to help each other from time to time or that you cannot reassign them as required. It merely furnishes an established and generally understood system of operation.

Duties and Responsibilities

You should make sure that everyone understands their assigned duties and what you expect him or her to accomplish, You are responsible to provide training to those persons new to the job. After providing the training, observe the operation until you are sure your directions are understood and are being carried out.

Remember the principle of matching authority with responsibility. When you put a petty officer in charge of a specific assignment, make sure you also inform the personnel who perform the tasks involved. Be explicit about the authority you give to someone and make sure that the individual does not overstep that authority. Everyone is briefed at basic training about the chain of command. This important element should continue throughout your career, and as a supervisor, you should make sure everyone in your charge is aware of the chain of command in your section.

When you assign duties, you should give similar or related tasks to the same person. The proper combination of duties not only speeds operations by eliminating wasted motion, but also improves accuracy.

Work Assignments

All AKs are expected to be able to perform the duties of their rating at the rate level they hold. This uniformity is a necessary condition to naval organization. However, this should not prevent you from considering that each individual may have special talents and pReferences. A good supervisor determines what each individual can do best and what each one enjoys well enough to put forth extra effort into performing the task. This pays dividends in quantity and quality of work and also increases morale.

The workload should be divided fairly. The uneven distribution of workloads tend to lower morale and create bottlenecks. Review each person's workload to make sure that everyone is performing his or her fair share. Sometimes an individual who seems to be overloaded may need some guidance on how to organize the work better or how to speed up routine operations.