Since its beginning in 1952, the U.S. Army Management Engineering College (AMEC) had as its mission, the infusion of "best business practices," productivity enhancements, and quality improvement into the federal government. Originally chartered to provide management expertise to the Army Ordnance Corps via training, applied research, and consulting, AMEC had been involved in the improvement and transformation of Government organizations for over forty-four years.

AMEC played a vital role not only in the training of Department of Defense (DoD) and other Federal agency civilians and military, but in the role of leading by example. As a role model, AMEC had pioneered a number of management innovations internally. The College had been recognized by many in both the Federal government, as well as the private sector, as a forerunner of modern thought. In fact, during FY 93, AMEC became one of the first National Reinvention Labs designated under the National Performance Review, the Federal government’s efforts to reinvent the way agencies operate.

Beginning in FY 1989, in response to a request from the Director of Information Systems (Command, Control, Communication, and Computers), U.S. Army Secretariat, two of AMEC’s faculty, Dr. Ralph Harris and Mr. Derril Watts created the Army’s first training program focused solely on providing Information Resource Management training. The curriculum focused on bringing industry best practices, including information engineering, process management and reengineering, and quality management, to the emerging area of information management. Between 1989 and 1995, the program saw over 10,000 individuals from across the Army’s Information Management community trained in the concepts of managing informationresources, systems integration, information engineering, business systems modeling, process management, knowledge management, and performance improvement.

But, even with all of the significant advances in providing “best business practices” training, consulting, and research made by AMEC during the 1990’s, the College was eventually overtaken by the DoD downsizing efforts. So, on 30 Sep 1997, in response to a decision by the Secretary of the Army to close the College, AMEC ceased operations as a DoD school.

Mountain Home Training & Consulting, Inc. is created...

However, as a result of the closure of AMEC, Messrs. Derril Watts and Ken Westlund, in response to a request from the DoD sponsor of the Reengineering Certification Program, formed a small training and consulting firm focused on continuing the work they had started five years earlier. Mountain Home Training & Consulting, Inc. was created to continue the tradition of providing leading-edge training and consulting in the areas of strategic planning, business process reengineering, and performance management/improvement. And, by the end of FY 2001, Mountain Home had added another 950 DoD BPR Certification Program graduates with over 1,450 more graduates through FY 2005, bringing the total certified today in reengineering to over 3,000.

In late 2001, Mountain Home was selected by the Navy’s Strategic Sourcing Support Office (3SO) to provide Functionality Assessment (FA) training to Navy organizations who were undergoing FAs as well as those involved in OMB Circular A-76 studies. Over the next two years, Mountain Home provided BPR/FA training to over 1,000 Navy personnel with 450 completing the stringent requirements for certification in the MHi BPR/FA Certification Training Program.

As a result, Mountain Home introduced its new Enterprise Knowledge Management: Educating the Workforce Training Program during 2002. This new training curriculum takes the best from its years of providing the Army’s IMA Training Program and Department of Defense (DoD) Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Certification Program training series, and combines it with new, cutting edge principles of Knowledge Management (KM) first introduced by The George Washington University. By providing education and training focused on a holistic approach to knowledge management, the student learned how knowledge is leveraged throughout every aspect of the enterprise, enabling it to create perpetual customer value.

During 2003, Mountain Home introduced its most ambitious program to date. After discussions with several Mountain Home graduates and managers from several Federal agencies about the current Transformation efforts being undertaken across the Federal government, Mountain Home launched its new “Business Transformation: Educating the Workforce” training program. Many of those we talked to expressed their frustration with much of what has been presented on Transformation. As former Federal managers, we could identify with the challenges that Federal organizations now face. The “Business Transformation: Educating the Workforce” training program was created to address those frustrations. Mountain Home now offers both training and consulting services based on an integrated methodology we call the Innovative Management Framework^TM. The Framework incorporates the industry standard Lean Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, and includes the development of an enterprise Performance Management System (cascaded throughout the organization) and the infusion of knowledge management principles which enable the organization to become a true Learning Enterprise.

By the end of 2005, Mountain Home had developed another innovative way to bring our training services to our clients in less time and at less cost. In December 2005, the Online Learning Center (OLC) was created to offer our clients many of the training courses for which Mountain Home is known, including its MHi BPR Certification Program training series, in an online environment. The OLC will offer training classes ranging from just 1 Hour in length to upwards of 60 hours (BPR Practitioner Certification) in length in both on-demand (self-paced) and live online (live, real time instruction with a Mountain Home faculty member) formats. Check out our newest tool in the training toolbag that will help your organization take advantage of the training you need in the least amount of time possible and at the cost you deserve!

Today Mountain Home’s certification training has evolved significantly from our original Reengineering focus. We now offer a wide range of training and certification that includes all of the concepts, techniques, and tools that an organization can use to solve any performance problem. Our new Lean Six Sigma Certification Training Program take us back to our roots of industrial engineering, quality management, lean manufacturing, statistical analysis and simulation. We have combined our vast knowledge of business process management, performance management, and knowledge management with the discipline of industrial engineering and customer focus of quality management to create a Lean Six Sigma Certification program that is innovative and comprehensive.

As you can see, it has been an incredible journey, but one that has given us some of the most rewarding times of our lives! The experiences we’ve shared with both our government and business colleagues have shaped our approach to not only our jobs, but our lives as well. So, whether its Lean Six Sigma, business process reengineering, or enterprise performance management, you can count on Mountain Home to bring you the very best training, certification, and consulting services that will energize your organization, enabling it to maximize its potential of becoming a high-performing Learning Enterprise that is self-adaptive, innovative, effective, efficient, and competitive in any environment!