Under the new horizontal planning process, senior management of the Plant Business Line will develop and communicate annual business line priorities and nominal budgets against which the Plant Business Line will develop its business line plan by January of each year, including:

• the development of National Standards
• the development of Branch operational plans, consistent with the Plant Business Line Plan
• the communication of standards and plans to the areas, regions and districts including area labs

Under the new horizontal planning process, senior management of the Plant Business Line will ensure that area roll ups of plans, including area labs, agree with the national requirements via:

• active negotiation prior to sign off of agreements
• regular conference calls until agreements are reached
• formal signing off of area plans prior to the start of each new fiscal year
• initiating early and effective adjustments to address variations between the national standard and area plans

Under the new horizontal planning process, senior management of the Plant Business Line will ensure development and implementation of standards and processes to ensure:

• roles and responsibilities for documenting, monitoring, communicating and making-decisions based on performance information are clearly defined
• the establishment of quarterly performance reports at the business line level
  • existing measures, tools and data sources for tracking and reporting performance will be assessed and options for improvements will be recommended for resource allocation and implementation
• the development of processes to analyze variances
• that variances for top priorities will be addressed via adjustments to program activities
• business line activities will align with new financial codes as well as ensure completion of financial and Management Resources and Results Structure (MRRS) system updates and training and education to ensure organizational readiness to code / track PBL activities and expenditures appropriately.

• As per recommendation 1, annual priorities will be established across the business line with senior management. Activities will then be aligned to established PBL priorities, assessed on the basis of priority and risk and allocated resources. In this way, the PBL and, consequently, Branches and Regional staff will have definition of priorities for planning and resource allocation.
• Guidance (including supporting tools) on resource re-allocation when priorities change will be developed and implemented in a collaborative fashion between HQ as well as the Area-level in Science and Operations. This may include:
  • The development of a program design and program delivery checklist that contains a step-wise process for ensuring that field activities (Operations and Science) are directly linked to program priorities.
  • An Activity Based Assessment tool will be utilized to ensure appropriate evaluation is undertaken and determine options for going forward.
  • Joint briefing notes through the Plant Business Line governance to all VPs to approve changes in priorities and related activities in a timely manner.
  • Linkages to quality management system to ensure the change process is being followed and managed appropriately.
• As per recommendation 2: Quarterly reporting processes will be developed and implemented to keep the business line committee apprised of progress and changes to annual priorities provided through the annual plan.
• Annual priorities and resource re-allocation procedures will be communicated to and implemented in HQ as well as the area levels in Science and Operations.

• The Plant Business line will continue to develop and implement its risk-based assessment and management tools to support consistent decision making;
• this includes supplementary tools and documented best practices to support Regional level activity.