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An edited presentation of the Manpower Management Process described in a Marine Corps study titled Interrelationships of Automated Manpower Systems Supporting the USMC Manpower Management Process.
Manpower is, and shall remain, the single most important asset of the United States Marine Corps. For this reason, approximately 1,000 officers, enlisted Marines and civilians at Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps (HQMC) work daily at planning and managing Marine Corps manpower to ensure an effective fighting force. In addition, the HQMC staff manages individually the careers of Marines from accession into the Corps to termination of service. This extensive and complex process is supported in large measure by information from more than two dozen separate automated data systems and subsystems. Some of these systems collect massive amounts of data and provide management reports, while other systems produce sophisticated manpower plans using complex computer modeling techniques. The extensive Headquarters resources dedicated to manpower planning and management and the process by which they function and interact is known as the Manpower Management Process (MMP).
The Manpower Management Process starts with force structure planning, a function in which the Marine Corps' missions are translated into manpower objectives and plans. With this as a basis, the process proceeds to the functions entailed in implementing these plans for maintaining the force structure. In addition to manpower objectives and plans, the functional categories include: accession, assignment and classification, training and education, retention, promotion and termination of service.
Through the interrelationships of the functional categories of the MMP and their associated systems runs a thread of automated manpower information. The pace of today's society dictates that volumes of manpower data be rapidly processed into useful information. The foundation of this capability lies in the Joint Uniform Military Pay System/Manpower Management System (JUMPS/MMS). This joint system is central to all manpower models, systems, and automated reports which support the MMP. JUMPS/MMS provides the repository of personnel data on all Marines. From this data information is extracted upon which policies are evaluated and developed. This unique system has been the cornerstone of the Corps' automated manpower information and is constantly visible throughout the process of manpower management.
Objectives and plans
The determination of manpower objectives and plans is a continuous process of specifying the manpower requirements...