SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Office rooms or cubes having a window(s) can switch off their lights in the daytime. Most of the work is done on the lighted computer monitor anyway!

Modern offices are minimalist, dynamic, and lively – it is time for the Government to keep pace, and let its employees enjoy the same benefits. Tall cubicle walls are costly and inefficient. Large cubicles with tall dividing walls discourage collaboration, encourage personal distractions, are unwelcoming, and are costly. Several cutting edge private firms, such as Google and Living Social, employ open floor plans in... more »

The government makes a lot of purchases from computers to cell phones. If the government were to hire a full time buyer, his sole function would be to look for the best products at the best prices. He would spend 8 hours a day everyday scouring the Internet and sales ads looking for the best deals. It may be true that frequently the government purchase in bulk quantities. However that full time buyer could buy in chunks... more »

Eliminate the need of multitude subject/case and file/folders codes, pertaining to the same project or contractor. Instead create one file for projects, contractors, etc, under one subject classification codes, consisting of all records related to project. This would cut spending cost on folders, shipping, and storage space at records centers.

Eleven seems like a lot, considering how many fixed wing nuclear carriers other countries have (zero to one). I've seen numbers in the BILLIONS to operate one of these groups annually. Couldn't we defend our interestes with fewer? Perhaps five?

As a fee for service organization in the Navy our jobs depend on a sponsor or customer who chooses us to provide products and services for their organizations. A recent reorganization displaced some employees by removing their position and displaced others who because no one wants to work with them due to various reasons. An overhead funded group called “Home Room” was created for them until they find work. It is an... more »

This idea is in regards to the Social Security Administration case workers in the field offices. As a case worker I believe that the benefits to getting a second monitor would be advantageous in our “Go Green” initiative by reducing our carbon footprint and increasing the efficiency of production. However, the following are preliminary numbers that I have come up with for our office here in Georgetown.

21 reps each... more »

The Social Security Administration and the Veterans Benefit Administration share many core processes and both are associated with determination regarding disability benefits. These processes are costly in terms of 1) staff levels, 2) personnel training, 3) administrative staff, and 4) oversight to insure compliance to congressional mandates. Both of these agencies make determinations regarding the level of disability... more »

Within the AF, eliminate the AFMC headquarters currently located at Wright Patterson AFB. It is a redundant link in the Acquistion Chain, and does not bring any additional value added to the process. Investment Acquistion workload are managed via SAF AQ. Non-investment funded acquistions acquistions can be handled by SAF/IL. This would eliminate a grossly over staffed HQ, and allow a smoother/quicker flow of info between... more »

Developments by companies utilizing cloud based computing (particularly Google) are resulting in an increasingly robust solution including enterprise class sercurity and online data storage. Firewall, IDS/IPS, Data Leakage Prevention, system wide applications, etc., can all be controlled "in the cloud" by connecting all remote users through dumb terminals. Dumb terminals allow users to connect to a central network without... more »

Publish, by company, the avg % of overhead/admin and profits charged on government contracts, to include admin costs for sub-contracted support. Include % of cost over-runs.

Publish a set of goals for desired % of overhead/admin, and profits - that is, based on best business practices and add to contracting toolbox to use for comparisons and assessing historical performance of company. Include a risk factor based on... more »

The current time required to hold onto contracts is six years three months from the date of final payment. Why do we need to hold on to contracts this long? Can this time be reduced? Can there be an approved electronic means to scan documents instead of hanging on to originals? Keep originals of the most important documents and electronically file everything else?

Currently the National Archives charges storage... more »

Many buildings are kept open during nights and weekends to occomodate a very small number of people. The cost to provide security, heating and air-conditioning, etc. likely far exceeds the productivity of the people working in the buildings. It would be more cost-efficient to close the buildings at nights/weekends, and allow employees to who must work to do so from home.