Now I know this isn’t as sexy as the F35, Type 26 or FRES but GEMS has, and is, proving its worth many times over.
With the rush to outsource and contractorise many of the support functions in armed forces are we in danger of losing this kind of direct innovation?
Funny this should come up, I was dealing with this scheme today! Every unit should have a commitee that looks at these suggestions and has no sign of being wound down. So hopefully this ‘are we in danger of losing this kind of direct innovation?’ won’t happen and will continue for a long time. This over the years must have saved a hell of a lot, the best suggestion I know of saved £1.7m !
Awesome idea – there must be more ways to get the ideas and knowledge from the trenches to the top brass/civil servents?
millar a WO1? god help us!! mind you a GEMS would help him with taxi fares. we were in cambridge on a platoon function not ipswich as normal and him being slightly squiffy demanded a taxi driver to take him home, a rather (100 mile-ish) expensive mistake!!
UORs are a good example of good ideas. I used to work on the process, and made the point time and again that people in whitehall can only get new stuff ordered if we knew what was going on on the ground.
So many UORs in the ‘little and unglamorous but oh so vital’ category came about due to troops feeding in good ideas through the CoC and seeing them implemented – often in days.
GEMS is fantastic, long may it continue.