The Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community
Mission Supplier Mae E. DeVincentis Vice Director Defense Logistics Agency
BCS3 O Deployed Maintenance O Managing Life Cycles Supply Chain Efficiencies O The LOG World in 2012
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November/December 2011 Volume 5, Issue 10
mission ready
Honeywell ‌ defining world class logistics Frequent missions and remote operating environments tax aging equipment and over-extended supply chains. Honeywell supports the Air Force by effectively addressing equipment repair challenges in-theater and depot. Ever-changing conditions demand end-to-end visibility of war-fighting assets, Lean Six Sigma repairs, modifications, upgrades and materiel management worldwide. Honeywell helps meet the challenge with agile, responsive and comprehensive logistics solutions.
Visit us online at www.honeywell.com/logistics or call 1-800-601-3099
Military Logistics Forum
November/December 2011 Volume 5 • Issue 10
Features
Cover / Q&A Around the Corner
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What will 2012 mean for the military LOG WORLD? Military Logistics Forum asked logistics service providers for their crystal ball gaze into 2012. We wanted to know what their views were on how not to do business as usual in the coming years, how to adapt to the budget limitations, and what the future DoD/ commercial partner picture will look like—the same as today or different?
The Increase and Decrease
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Life cycle management is a methodology that seeks to efficiently deliver and maintain military systems and platforms over a period that can stretch over years and decades and—especially in these times—within the constraints of tight budgets. By Peter Buxbaum
Building an Efficient Supply Chain Supplying a military is always challenging, even more so when the forces are deployed in very austere and difficult to access locations. The services and industry have stayed agile to deliver on time. By Les Shaver
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Mae E. DeVincentis Vice Director Defense Logistics Agency
Departments BCS3 Systems—Jointly Managing Logistics The combination of high-tech capability and joint forces usage makes BCS3 a smart logistics management choice for deployed forces and in the garrison. By Kathryn Bailey
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2 Editor’s Perspective 4 Log Ops 6 People 7 LOG Leadership Lessons
Stretching Forward and Reaching Back
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In Iraq and Afghanistan, as much maintenance as possible has been done in deployed field facilities. Field units have kept assets operating by reaching back to manufacturers and depots for parts and expertise. By Henry Canaday
16 Supply Chain 35 Calendar, Directory
Industry Interview
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Mike McGovern Vice President for Business Development DLA Account Manager Science Applications International Corp.
Military Logistics Forum Volume 5, Issue 10 November/December 2011 Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community Editorial Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Managing Editor Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com Online Editorial Manager Laura Davis laurad@kmimediagroup.com Copy Editor Kathleen McDermott kathleenm@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents Peter Buxbaum • Henry Canaday • Cheryl Gerber Steve Goodman • William Murray • Kenya McCullum Art & Design Art Director Jennifer Owers jennifero@kmimediagroup.com Senior Designer Jittima Saiwongnuan jittimas@kmimediagroup.com Graphic Designers Amanda Kirsch amandak@kmimediagroup.com Scott Morris scottm@kmimediagroup.com Kailey Waring kaileyw@kmimediagroup.com
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KMI Media Group Publisher Kirk Brown kirkb@kmimediagroup.com Chief Executive Officer Jack Kerrigan jack@kmimediagroup.com Chief Financial Officer Constance Kerrigan connik@kmimediagroup.com Executive Vice President David Leaf davidl@kmimediagroup.com Editor-In-Chief Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Controller Gigi Castro gcastro@kmimediagroup.com Trade Show Coordinator Holly Foster hollyf@kmimediagroup.com
While reading Mae DeVincentis’s interview in this edition of Military Logistics Forum, you will see that one of the challenges she notes is that of counterfeit parts. A broad and diverse supply chain is partly responsible for the efficiency by which the U.S. military can operate virtually anywhere in the world. At the same time, that broadness and diversity represent the cracks in the seams that allow bad actors—DeVincentis’s words—to infiltrate that supply chain with bogus reparables. Counterfeit parts potentially can disrupt the supply chain, impact mission capability, damage larger components and systems, and put lives at risk. Bogus parts also dramatically impact budgets—for every bogus part in the Jeffrey D. McKaughan Editor-IN-CHIEF system, at some point an authorized part will have to be bought, meaning that one part has been paid for twice. Budgets are tight enough without having to double the spare parts budget! Some bad parts are simply badly engineered or manufactured bits of steel, while others can be sophisticated electronics that may function well early and for a period of time, but are unpredictable in their failure rate. Plus if a bad part is not quickly identified, the supply chain could continue buying bad parts at high prices and the spin cycle continues. Among other acquisition agencies, DLA takes the job of tracking down the frauds, eliminating the parts from the systems and taking the necessary response against the suppliers. The Government Accountability Office recently set up a fictitious company—complete with website, fictitious owner and staff, and even a Central Contractor Number. Working totally through the Internet, the GAO sting-like operation was able to purchase 13 parts, seven of which were, after an authenticated test process, found to be bogus (and from vendors in China!). The other parts were, for various reasons, not sent out for the authentication process to confirm whether they were legitimate or not. Even taking China out of the equation, the danger is obvious for the military, but think about the commercial world, where a rigorous authentication process may not exist. Has anyone among us had a part of something fail recently? Was the part or device all it was supposed to be? While perhaps not an epidemic, the problem of counterfeit parts is large and growing. The physical and economic dangers are real and need to be addressed. The GAO has announced that its full report of its investigation will be issued shortly—and will probably simply confirm the fears.
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Elbit Systems’ subsidiary Elbit Systems of America LLC has been awarded a five-year, $23 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity national maintenance contract by the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), for depot level repair services on Elbit Systems of America’s aviator’s night vision imaging system head up display (HUD) system (ANVIS/HUD). The contract is a follow-on to a previous IDIQ contract for depot level repair services on the ANVIS/HUD. Raanan Horowitz, Elbit Systems of America’s president and chief executive officer, commented: “This follow-on contract is evidence of our commitment to provide exceptional life-cycle management services in support of mission readiness requirements. We are proud to offer leading solutions and support for our ANVIS/ HUD and many other systems through our repair center of excellence. This agreement reinforces our strong relationship with the Army and we look forward to our continued partnership.”
Cubic Global Tracking Solutions, the asset visibility solutions provider of Cubic Corporation, recently conducted a test of 6,500 mesh asset tags, creating the largest 802.15.4 mesh network ever formed. For the test, Cubic engineers in San Diego, Calif., networked tags that were en route for use in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Once deployed, the tags will track thousands of military vehicles that are being cleaned and prepared for shipment to other locations. “This is a milestone event for the Cubic Global Tracking Solutions team,” said Mary Ann Wagner, president of Cubic Global Tracking Solutions. “We have been working very hard on this development. In our industry, the largest mesh network ever formed was a few hundred mesh devices at one time, so getting 6,500 tags connected is an industry high point.” With such a positive result from the mesh asset network test, the company believes it is possible to achieve a mesh tag “asset density” of 10,000 tags.
“In March of 2009, we conducted a test with 1,000 mesh asset tags, but with our advances in technology we were able to test 6,500 tags to construct an incredibly large network, and our capabilities continue to grow,” said Randy Shepard, vice president of technology innovation. Cubic’s mesh asset network solution, called Mist, consists of mesh asset tags that are attached to valuable and high-risk assets for defense and commercial applications. Cubic Global Tracking Solutions mesh asset tags provide logistics intelligence, asset visibility, intrusion detection and ongoing situational awareness. The tags form a wireless network by linking together and allowing secure data to hop from tag-to-tag-until it reaches a gateway. The gateway transmits the data to the company’s device management center. As compared to an active RFID solution, utilizing a mesh network significantly minimizes the need for fixed infrastructure by extending asset visibility through the mesh network.
On Balance Lord Corporation has completed extensive testing of pre-production hardware of their in-flight propeller balancing system as part of a $4.5 million contract with the U.S. Air Force. The testing, which was the second development test and evaluation of the technology, was completed and has transitioned into a year-long operational test and evaluation. This testing is part of a system design and development contract received from the USAF for the integration of the company’s proprietary in-flight propeller balancing system (IPBS) into the USAF’s C-130H fleet equipped with 54H60 propellers. The contract from the 330th Aircraft Sustainment Group of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, 4 | MLF 5.10
Robins Air Force Base, Ga., was awarded in late 2008 and spans until December of this year. Consisting of a funded $2.7 million base effort and three unfunded options totaling $1.8 million, the contract includes extensive flight and user acceptance testing for their 500-plus C-130 fleet. The IPBS continuously adjusts balance during flight operation. The result is propeller balance maintained at the lowest possible level during the entire flight and reduced direct operating costs. The system is comprised of one balancing device per propeller and a single controller per aircraft. The computer-controlled system uses accelerometer inputs from the rotating propeller
to automatically adjust the balance as needed to minimize total system imbalance for each operating condition. In addition to managing the IPBS system, the small electronic controller also can serve as a predictive maintenance tool. According to Justin P. Manna, business development manager for Lord Corporation, “Controlling vibration with on-line, fully automated balancing technology will lead to reduced maintenance workload and will increase durability and lower the cost of operations This benefits the USAF by reducing maintenance workload, improving aircraft readiness and improving the reliability of engine-mounted components on C-130 aircraft.” www.MLF-kmi.com
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MISSION
AWARD-WINNING CONTRACTOR LOGISTICS SUPPORT Mission success demands mission readiness. That’s why the logistics and technical support team at AAI has developed services that are second to none. They include the industry’s most experienced field reps serving alongside military operators in the harshest conditions of the battlespace environment, as well as supply chain management services that never stop. In all, we have more than 25 years of experience in contractor logistics support, training and simulation systems development and support, supply chain management services, and maintenance, repair and overhaul. To learn more, e-mail RSC_AAIReg@aai.textron.com or call 410-667-7170.
aaicorp.com © 2010 AAI Corporation. All rights reserved. AAI is an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company. AAI and design is a registered trademark of AAI Corporation.
Flag Another One Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) recently celebrated the naming of its fourth U.S. flag tanker, the Maersk Peary, at the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center in Norfolk. The freshly painted, 591-foot, ice-classed ship is aptly named after Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, famous for his excursions to the North Pole. This extraordinary vessel will travel annually to Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, and McMurdo Station, Antarctica, delivering fuel to support military operations and research at the top and bottom of the globe. In July, MLL won a long-term time charter from the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command to support these missions. The ship was reflagged into the U.S. registry on September 19, 2011, and American officers and crew will operate the ship.
MARSOC Support Science Applications International Corporation has been awarded a task order by the General Services Administration (GSA) to support the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) with logistics services. The task order has a one-year base period of performance, four one-year option periods and a total value of more than $35 million if all options are exercised. The task order was awarded under GSA’s Logistics Worldwide Multiple Award Schedule 874 V, which assists federal agencies in procuring comprehensive logistics solutions. Under the task order, SAIC will help support MARSOC by providing logistics services in areas including operations, materiel management, supply administration, warehouse operations and transportation management, including embarkation and motor transport operations. The company will also provide maintenance support in areas including management, communicationselectronics, motor transport, engineering, ordnance (weapons and optics) and facilities management. “We look forward to providing quality support to MARSOC, as it works to meet the operational logistics needs of its deployed Marines,” said Jim Thigpen, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager.
p eop le Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Army Reserve Brigadier General Janet L. Cobb has been nominated for promotion to the rank of major general and assignment as assistant deputy chief of staff, G-4, mobilization and training (individual mobilization augmentee), Washington, D.C. She is currently serving as commander, U.S. Army Reserve Deployment Support Command, Birmingham, Ala. Navy Rear Admiral William D. French has been nominated for appointment to the rank of vice admiral and for assignment
6 | MLF 5.10
as commander, Navy Installations Command, Washington, D.C. French is currently serving as commander, Navy Region Southwest, San Diego, Calif. Major General Robert M. Brown, deputy for acquisition and systems management, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (acquisition, logistics and technology), Washington, D.C., has been assigned to commander, Joint Theater Support Contracting Command, U.S. Central Command, Qatar.
Edward J. Case has been assigned as director, Defense Logistics Agency Information Operations, Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. Case previously served as deputy director, information operations/ chief technical officer, Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. Robert T. Foster has been assigned as deputy director, Defense Logistics Agency Information Operations, Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. Foster previously served as program executive
officer, Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. Clyde R. Hobby has been assigned as deputy director, Defense Logistics Agency Logistics Operations, Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. Hobby previously served as executive director, strategic programs, Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. Northrop Grumman Corporation has named Mike Twyman, vice president and general manager of the Defense Systems Division, one of five divisions within the company’s Information
Systems sector. Twyman reports to Linda A. Mills, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Information Systems.
Our condolences to the family and friends of Rear Admiral Kurt Kunkel who passed away in late September.
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By Lieutenant General Richard A. Hack (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Richard A. Hack retired from the Army in 2005 after 33 years of service culminating in his assignment as the deputy commanding general of Army Materiel Command after serving in the Army. He now serves as an operations vice president for Fluor’s Government Group.
Lieutenant General Richard A. Hack, USA (Ret.)
Team of Teams The history of the United States is predicated on the tradition of rugged individualism nested in a team concept. From its very beginnings, America’s story is one of individuals and teams. From our Constitution’s “We, the people…,” the banding together of 13 colonies, to our country today, our societal DNA drives individuals to gravitate toward teams and then to teams within teams—creating an overall Team of Teams. The Team of Teams notion was reinforced on my first duty assignment in the Army as a maintenance platoon leader. I quickly learned that I was part of a maintenance team. My company and battalion supported a larger team called the 194th Armored Brigade. I realized there was synergy in having all the oars moving in the same direction … that sharing a common purpose and embracing the same goal motivated individual troopers to underwrite the platoon’s mission and contribute to the success of each team within the larger team. The simplicity of seeking the common good ensured complex missions were executed to high standards. I learned that the best teams are formed when individuals and units embrace the notion of a common good greater than self—the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. This is the foundation of teamwork, and by extension, the Team of Teams. Reviewing support of our nation’s wars throughout history reveals there has always been a Team of Teams. Even through structural and doctrinal changes in how forces are supported, the cornerstone of that support is a trinity of three teams melded together into a Team of Teams— Support Soldiers, Government Civilians and Contractors—never before have all three teams been so closely aligned, intertwined and interdependent. Soldiers, government civilians and contractors form a Team of Teams that has overwhelmed today’s logistics battlefield challenges. Each plays an integral role in the successful support of our forces. Support Soldier Team: Logistics warriors do our nation’s bidding in a myriad of units, from the strategic to tactical level, in both Joint and Army organizations, and their service spans from the factory to the foxhole. At all levels, this team focuses on enabling the warfighter to meet national defense objectives. Their ethos is to support the warfighter. They are battletested veterans, exhibiting maturity and professionalism beyond their years. The Support Soldier Team binds the Team of Teams trinity together providing technical and tactical depth and breadth. Government Civilian Team: There are unprecedented numbers of Department of Defense civilians executing today’s logistics missions in www.MLF-kmi.com
organizations from the homeland to the front lines. They share the heavy lifting with our support troopers. So many of our DoD civilians are forward deployed today. For example, depot and arsenal personnel are in harm’s way; not episodically, but constantly and in great numbers. Other DoD civilians are executing missions in tactical operations centers, on staffs, administering contracts; it’s truly amazing what our government civilian team is currently executing. Nested in the Team of Teams, this Government Civilian Team provides the continuity and technical depth necessary to keep the mission operating smoothly. Contractor Team: When the history of America’s efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan is written, it will include several chapters about the admirable contributions of the contractor team. Their performance comes as no surprise, as many are former military, instilled with the values that service members hold dear. Much like their teammates, the Contractor Team has endured the dangers of war, grieved for its fallen, and nurtured its wounded. On the battlefield today, this team provides logistics mass to otherwise austere support formations. In many ways, the Contractor Team provides brute force logistics muscle and sinew to the Team of Teams that aids in overwhelming the logistics challenges encountered supporting the warfighter. Soldier, Government Civilian, and Contractor Teams—this Team of Teams is an essential force multiplier that executes complex missions superbly, allowing the ‘tip of the spear’ to perform at peak effectiveness. The scale and scope of this Team of Teams from the homeland to the battlefield is huge, and its impact on the warfighter and the war fight is profound; some might say miraculous. Like the proverbial duck on the pond—appearing to glide across the water but furiously paddling below the surface—this team literally moves things along, providing food, fuel, ammunition, materiel and services across the globe. The common goal is to support the force. The remarkable scale, speed and quality of support provided by the Team of Teams are enabling victory in today’s operations. Our forefathers called upon the states, with its minutemen and militias, to provide for their “common defense,” establishing the notion of individuals nested in teams and teams nested within teams. Embedded in our heritage, the trinity of Soldier, Government Civilian, and Contractor Teams, which I first experienced as a lieutenant, is fundamental to supporting the current war fight—together these teams form the Team of Teams. O rick.hack@fluor.com MLF 5.10 | 7
Around the Corner What will 2012 mean for the military LOG WORLD?
Many would consider the latter half of 2011 as the calm before the storm—2012 being the storm. The warnings were posted and the storm chasers were out in front, warning of impending disaster. Fortunately, unlike the people who always appear on TV talking about riding it out, most forward-thinking companies have spent time preparing, posturing and focusing on being in the right place at the right time. Military Logistics Forum magazine asked logistics service providers for their crystal ball gaze into 2012. We wanted to know what their views were on how not to do business as usual in the coming years, how they would adapt to the budget limitations that have been playing out, and what the future DoD/commercial partner picture will look like—the same as today or different?
Mark Hitch AAI Logistics & Technical Services Senior Business Development Director hitch@aai.textron.com
To be successful, you have to focus on how the U.S. Department of Defense and its commercial partners interact. Due to budgetary constraints and excess capacity in military depots, for example, the focus should be on providing a valuable resource. At AAI Logistics & Technical Services (LTS), we have successfully partnered with our customers for several years, and were recently recognized by the Letterkenny Army Depot as its 2011 Production Partner of the Year. Our primary focus in partnering with military depots is to assist them in performing their work better, and at a lower cost. This will continue to pay dividends in the future.
Respective to current budget limitations, AAI LTS is addressing these fiscal constraints with better buying power. AAI LTS pursues creative options that lower the cost of the services we deliver while retaining the thoroughness and quality customers require to protect their human and technology assets. Our experience with the performance based logistics contracting concept has taught us two important lessons with regard to the future. First, the acquisition cycle for this type of procurement is too long, and therefore cannot become the cost-saving, availability-guaranteeing solution that will address near-term budget gaps. Second and more importantly, certain elements of DoD/ commercial engagement are transferable
to other contracting methods that can be accomplished in the near term. For instance, AAI LTS has teamed with DoD using an aggregator model in which we greatly reduce transaction costs and a multitude of contact points for contracting, vending and support services. As such, this single focal point creates an advantage for DoD customers in cost reduction and simplification, all the while providing outstanding mission support. We are also a proponent of motivating the right behaviors, and contractual methods, such as incentives and shared savings, provide a venue for this valuable alignment. In short, AAI LTS is lowering the cost of sustainment through innovative business models and contracting methods. O
Eric Mensing APL Maritime Ltd President and CEO, APL Maritime Ltd Vice President of Government Affairs/Trade, APL Ltd.
One does not need to be a military theorist to recognize that the near future represents tremendous tumult for those doing business with DoD, but when it comes to 8 | MLF 5.10
meeting the services’ logistics needs, policy planners should protect the model that the Transportation Command and its maritime partners have developed rather than up-end it. Since military operations began in 2002, the VISA ocean carriers have
proven themselves to be one of the U.S. Transportation Command’s most valuable and creative partners. We have delivered 95 percent of all cargo moved to Afghanistan and Iraq, opened multiple routes into Afghanistan, moved entire units at once, and created innovative multi-modal supply www.MLF-kmi.com
chain solutions such as sea-air service. Our military partners can ask us to handle a movement from the interior of the United States to a firebase in Afghanistan and know the container will get where they want it when they want. This is an unqualified success and nothing should be done to undermine the factors that created it. There is room for improvement within the existing structure, and the most fertile ground for change is within DoD. TRANSCOM and SDDC are best served when they can bundle transportation services into one contract, such as was proven by adding
inland truck, sea-air and rail movements to the universal service contract. As many transportation services as possible should be included in this contract for ease of operation and integration. Containerizing as many shipments as possible will allow supplies to move through the most efficient and lowest cost networks there are. Refining contracting procedures to more closely mirror the process we use with our commercial customers, including changing the back room documentation process, bookings, etc., would be an important step in the right direction of improving efficiencies and driving down
costs, as would be to simplify the billing process. Embracing the use of tracking tags on containerized shipments of DoD cargoes will save money by increasing supply chain visibility and reducing risk and pilferage. If anything, DoD should be looking to involve its ocean partners in more of their logistics operations. We no longer just move boxes over water as was done in the early ’90s. Today we are providing point-to-point multi-modal operations in the world’s harshest and most complicated and dangerous environments, and in an efficient and lowcost manner. O
Mary Ann Wagner Cubic Global Tracking Solutions President mwagner.cgts@cubic.com
We at Cubic Global Tracking Solutions look forward to 2012 with optimism, tempered by the reality of the DoD budget picture. As a relatively new player—we began supporting DoD in our current corporate existence in January 2011—we believe that we will continue to grow as our capabilities become more widely known and the results recognized. We are fortunate that our outlook is linked to operations rather than the uncertainty surrounding acquisition programs. However, that also means that as the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq concludes and operation tempos in Afghanistan might
begin to decline, direct DoD expenditures on our asset tracking and condition monitoring solutions could also decline. Offsetting the potential decline in business associated with overseas combat operations, the Defense Department’s drive for logistics efficiencies is where our sights are set for the long term. Specifically, we are convinced that DoD’s multiple supply chains and related business processes can be made more efficient with our container tracking and monitoring service employing satellite tracking, intrusion detection and other environmental sensors, and our yard management system employing mesh networking to continuously track vehicles and other assets. In addition, we made our mesh solution available to licensees in
November 2011. This release of a highly reliable, low power, dynamic network capability will likely be a game changer in the field of sensor networking. These sensors can be linked to monitor practically any condition, such as component wear, environment (heat, humidity), and handling (impact, shock). Besides offering applications directly to the DoD markets, we are working with other companies through teaming, licensing and reseller agreements. These affiliations will create synergies by embedding Cubic Global Tracking Solutions into other offerings from original equipment manufacturers, other vendors and service providers. In summary, we look to 2012 as a great year to be supporting DoD logistics! O
Bill Marvin IHS General Manager and Partner Vice President
Over the past 16 years the DoD has made noble attempts to incorporate commercial practices into DoD business processes. Acquisition reform, performance based contracting, as well as, government industry partnerships are all results of these efforts. But in reality these efforts have still managed to embody a “government business as usual” approach when all is said and done. Government needs to embrace a commercial approach in a purist form and not always fall back on the mantra “we have www.MLF-kmi.com
to operate this way, we’re the government.” Two areas of recent interest are counterfeit parts and material parts forecasting in the acquisition and sustainment process. Recent hearings in the Senate have illustrated a systemic problem the DoD and the defense industry struggle with regarding counterfeit parts. The current practices the industry and government employ is simply not adequate and defined to develop a concurrent process that can be replicated on a daily basis.
As budgets are scrutinized and scaled down, the materials and parts acquisition process needs to look at successful commercial processes in use today. Corporate balance sheets and shareholder responsibility requires the private sector to develop refined methodologies in order to ensure the supply chain is as efficient as possible. A refined commercial practice includes the detailed examination of industry-specific price and cost behaviors and understanding why prices change. MLF 5.10 | 9
This detailed approach has proven more valuable than the use of general indicators of inflation and consumer/producer price indexes; as a result, the government acquisition process should require the examination of current and future costs as opposed to past amounts paid in previous acquisitions.
There is a need for a true renaissance in adopting commercial business practices and understanding that the status quo has not solved the problem; hence the continued need to introduce fresh ideas and business partners into the realm of government industry partnership. IHS Global Inc,
a recognized leader in both the commercial and government supply chain, standards and parts management arena remain posed to work in tandem with clients to further the counterfeit and parts forecasting efforts in both the commercial and government trade space. O
Ella Studer KBR Vice President of Stability & Sustainment Operations for North American Government and Logistics
There is no question that doing business in today’s government contracting market is not what it was 10 years ago. The playing field is much more competitive, the government has trended towards Firm Fixed Price, and the bottom line is the qualifying factor for a winning bid. Single source, winner-takes-all contracts have been replaced with multiple award task order contracts and competitively bid task orders. The acquisition process itself has most certainly changed as well, with solicitation timelines being stretched much further, and early game starting much earlier.
The government’s paradigm shift in its approach to procurement, from seeking the best overall package with the most offerings, to a demand for the lowest price provider is one that industry must not just echo. Industry must also be proactive in responding to a change in the entire business model and philosophy of government contracting. The DoD does not want the Mazerati with flashy bells and whistles, but opts instead for the Ford Edge, an efficient but cutting edge and innovative solution. The DoD is calling upon industry to collaborate with government and amongst one another to develop these innovative, cost saving solutions.
To survive in this new market, contractors must be adaptive, agile, and diversified, with a proclivity for outsidethe-box thinking. We must anticipate the needs of our customers, and align our goals and strategies with theirs to ensure a sustainable future. At KBR, we have also found success instilling a culture of operational excellence, and an adherence to our guiding principles and values. Where there is integrity, transparency and a commitment to providing high quality service, there will always be a successful partnership with clients and the ability to adapt to changing demands at any operational tempo. O
John Haima SAIC Senior Vice President/Business Development Director Logistics and Engineering Solutions Business Unit
You can’t open a website or a magazine or a paper without a reference to the U.S. federal budget reductions and the need to reduce costs. Meanwhile the global war on terrorism and health care costs are placing increasing demands and costs on military logistics. The recently announced Air Force Materiel Command reorganization is representative of what I expect to see occurring throughout the military logistics domain in the coming year to further promote efficiencies. The contractor community has to be equally adaptive and innovative in delivering efficient solutions. The “old way” of throwing money and bodies at problems is unacceptable. Contractors are willing to take risks. The
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government should allow for the additional risk which comes from innovation. One trend in military logistics that I think will continue in 2012 is supporting the rapid acquisition of systems. The rapid acquisition of hundreds of new military systems has created numerous parallel interim contractor logistics support processes and structures with tremendous redundancy in supply, warehousing, maintenance, labor and facilities. It is possible to collapse these structures into common support facilities and processes, thereby using government and contractor resources more efficiently—in essence, achieving efficiency by focusing on the enterprise vice the “rice bowls” of old.
The military logistics community (both government and contractor) needs to be bold. Now is the time to deliver efficiency in a “new collaborative risk/reward environment” focused on the military logistics enterprise. Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and many leaders in the defense community have been highlighting the need for new ideas in military logistics for a while, but things could be moving faster. I am convinced that the defense contractor community can be innovative and adapt to the new reality. But the defense contracting community needs to be able to innovate as well to enable and encourage innovation. O
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Allan Manning SAS Senior Industry Consultant
The hard truth is that all of the military logistics and sustainment communities will be challenged to achieve their collective missions with significantly smaller budgets for the foreseeable future. As the military moves forward with planning decisions, much as is done in the commercial sector, efficiency must be considered on par with effectiveness. Given this scarcity of dollars, any decisions must be made with clarity and truthfulness and a full understanding of the implications and cause-and-effect of one decision versus another to the performance of the enterprise. Fact-based decision-making: Fact-based decisions, informed decisions using data
and rigorous analysis of information, are the only way for the services to achieve their mission objectives while being as efficient with their scarce budgetary dollars as possible. Since trustworthy data is at the core of data-driven decision-making, all barriers to expedient acquisition and sharing and usage of all relevant data must be eliminated. Many such barriers exist—technical or cultural or legal or contractual, or caused by the government or a contractor—and continue to hamper the DoD’s effective use of data. Whatever those barriers might be and whatever the source is irrelevant; all impediments to acquiring all data as expeditiously as possible must be removed. Acceptance of compromise: Given the fact of declining budgets, it’s insanity to believe that all of the same missions in
totality can be achieved across the board with fewer dollars to go around. As such, the services must learn to make decisions— supported with fact-based, data-driven analysis—and intentionally accept trade-offs and lower performance in certain logistics and sustainment sub-components that will allow achievement of overall success for the enterprise. Meaningful metrics and measurement: In conjunction with intelligent trade-offs, leadership performance measurements should be adjusted, again using fact-based data-driven analysis, to intelligently identify the relevant performance metrics and incentivize organizational behavior with appropriate thresholds that align subcomponent performance with the overall enterprise performance objectives. O
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MLF 5.10 | 11
Increasing efficient life cycle management is a proven process to decrease overall program cost. By Peter Buxbaum MLF Correspondent level requires changes in how the subject is approached, perhaps Life cycle management is a methodology that seeks to effieven a merger of early stage processes and organizations, such as ciently deliver and maintain military systems and platforms over a procurement and acquisition, with later stages of the life cycle such period that can stretch over years and decades and—especially in as maintenance and repairs. these times—within the constraints of tight budgets. “Life cycle management starts with the conception of the While life cycle management has been a recognized process design of a product, producing it and sustaining it within both the military and private sectors for some throughout its life, and then disposing it,” said Jim years, some argue that it is honored more in the Beggs, senior associate at the government contracbreach than in the observance in military circles. tor Booz Allen Hamilton. “The purpose of the life One reason system and platform costs sometimes cycle management process is to figure out a way balloon out of control has been the failure to plan for to provide overall performance that will meet user life cycle costs. Operations and maintenance often requirements and to do it optimally.” consume 75 percent of the lifetime costs of military Optimizing performance and efficiency over the vehicles. But the planning emphasis is often on the lifetime of a system or platform involves streamlinacquisition costs, the other 25 percent. ing the logistics tail associated with the operations The prospect of significant cuts to the defense and maintenance of the platform. “We review budget has placed a greater emphasis on the cost a design from a logistics perspective,” said Bob control aspects of life cycle management. This proJim Beggs Cursio, director of logistics for battle management cess begins in the planning phases of a product with systems at General Dynamics C4 Systems. “We examine whether a focus on designing for affordability, rather than capabilities, and the parts are designed for usability and whether the hardware and an emphasis on high reliability, which reduces the lifetime costs software components are right for the configuration of the vehicle of a product. Recapitalization and resetting of platforms extends and the supply chain that goes with it.” their useful life and reduces overall costs. Building fuel efficiency “The challenge,” said Charlie Fletcher, senior manager of the and environmental friendliness likewise reduces life cycle logistics Strategic Operations Group at Alion Science and Technology Corcosts. poration, “is how make things perform at high reliability to meet The practice of life cycle management may ultimately be headmission needs while making it affordable through its life cycle from ing toward a penetrating analysis and understanding of all the conception through design and manufacture.” costs associated with the ownership of a system. Achieving that 12 | MLF 5.10
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Reducing overall life cycle costs means considering the eventual maintenance costs from the beginning. “We try to minimize life cycle support services and reduce maintenance levels on pieces of equipment that we produce,” said Mike Stolarz, vice president for business development at HDT Engineered Technologies. Budgetary pressures mean that military services will likely require longer useful life spans from their acquisitions, making up-front reliability and economical sustainment all the more important, according to Heath Patrick, vice president for defense and space at Honeywell. “We have seen many new startups over the last 10 years in lieu of maintaining or improving an existing system,” he said. “We have also seen user requests for RMUs [retrofits modifications upgrades] that simply add features. Sometimes it doesn’t Mike Stolarz help with affordability but instead adds features that are nice to have. “With the budget pressure, we are seeing more new start programs pushed to the right or canceled altogether,” Patrick added. “Over the next five or 10 years users will not be looking for the faster and sleekest version of things but products that are good enough, so long as they meet the warfighter’s needs and enable the sustainment of existing equipment and reducing current fleet degraders.” Increased life spans mean higher levels of reliability built into equipment. That, noted Fletcher, could build in higher up-front costs for systems but also higher maintenance and sustainment costs over the longer life span. “In the last 10 years there has been an increasing recognition of the costs incurred in the field,” he said. “These have to be better understood in the development of capabilities. This also involves creating a much closer marriage between acquisitions and logistics.” Higher development costs and higher maintenance costs could mean that certain capabilities simply cannot be built, according to Fletcher. But Beggs noted that there are several ways to wring costs out of equipment life cycles. “In the past, the military has responded to budget cuts by cutting training and discretionary spending and living through that until times got better,” he said. “But the current environment may require a step-change in how the military approaches these issues. We are entering an era where budget cuts will likely be dramatic.” Three routine approaches to cost cutting during times of tight budgets, according to Beggs, include cutting around the edges of programs, buying less equipment or fewer systems, and trying to cut into the profitability of vendors “by negotiating more fiercely.” “The government will stress price competitiveness on the delivery of equipment,” he explained. A fourth and more profound effort to streamline life cycle costs revolves around reorienting the entire enterprise and examining how functional areas such as acquisitions, maintenance and logistics relate to each other. “This involves performing a base line analysis of how you do business, how lines of authority are working and gaining a clear understanding of where and how costs are incurred,” said Beggs. Designing for affordability as opposed to designing for capabilities could be the result of such a penetrating analysis. www.MLF-kmi.com
While military organizations have yet to embrace this process in a meaningful way, private organizations already have. The design and delivery of the Virginia class submarine by General Dynamics is one example of where such a penetrating analysis worked. After having been informed by the Navy that it would be buying fewer vessels at the then-current costs of $2.5 billion a piece, General Dynamics was able to remove $500 million in costs from each unit allowing to Navy to maintain its original acquisition level. “What they did,” said Beggs, “was to make sure the submarines continued to meet operational requirements while making it less expensive to build and maintain. They did this by performing a detailed cost analysis to understand component costs and to prioritize them.” “Honeywell focuses on overall life cycle management with our defense customers by focusing on overall safety, reliability, sustainability and affordability,” said Patrick. “We focus on designing and developing highly reliable, fuel efficient and powerful products that to meet the warfighter’s needs. We also look at products that can increase the overall life cycle of a platform or system.” RMUs, recapitalizations and refurbishment of military platforms extend their life and are likely to become more prevalent as the military requires additional years out of its investments. “We work closely with the operators to understand what their pain points are,” said Patrick, “and from that discussion and analysis, we develop an RMU that addresses their needs by making the product more fuelefficient, more powerful and enabling the system to operate more effectively.” Honeywell performed such a process for the U.S. Air Force in the case of the F15 fighter jet. “Failures were resulting in a highly unusual abort rate,” said Patrick. “Analysis showed the number of failures that were occurring within the secondary power system. We came to the conclusion that it was a switch problem and the integration of the wiring with the aircraft.” Honeywell then developed an RMU solution. “We were able to quantify dollars and cents that the Air Force could save by using our RMU,” said Patrick. “The success comes by drilling down to identify critical needs and mission degraders and showing the customer the exact dollars and cents that it is costing them. In the case of the F-15 secondary power system, some of the aircrafts were used by student pilots and we calculated how much it cost them when these students were not in the air. Altogether, we were able to show the Air Force substantial maintenance and operational savings, which resulted in them funding this critical RMU.” Oshkosh Defense has been active in recapitalizing military vehicles, including the Palletized Load System and Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). In the case of HEMTT, Oshkosh upgrades A0 and A2 configurations of the vehicle to the currently manufactured A4 variant, a process that includes installing improved suspension systems, an Mike Ivy air-conditioned and armor-ready cab, and a more powerful drive train. “Oshkosh Defense vehicles have such a long operational life that they often outlive their original technology,” said Mike Ivy, vice president and general manager for Army Programs at Oshkosh MLF 5.10 | 13
Defense. “That’s why Oshkosh also offers recapitalization and retrofit services.” The Oshkosh recap process is more than simply replacing a few components that have reached the end of their useful life. “Vehicles can be torn down to the frame rails and stripped of any old paint, rust or corrosion,” Ivy explained. “Worn parts are replaced and the vehicle is refitted with the latest technology, ensuring top performance from the recapitalized vehicle. Recapitalized vehicles are dialed back to zero hours and zero miles and come with a new vehicle warranty.” Under the HEMTT recapitalization contract, Oshkosh integrates engine and transmission upgrades, new armored cabs, LED marker lights, two-piece wheels, and air-ride seats. Cargo bodies, cranes and fifth wheels are also overhauled. The tires and all electronics are replaced with new parts. The vehicles are reassembled on the same integrated vehicle assem- Maintenance on any system is going to happen. The difference—and savings or costs—comes from whether the work was part bly line as a new truck. By weight, 97 percent of the life cycle management of the system from the beginning. [Photo courtesy of Oshkosh Defense] of the vehicle is reused. Recapped vehicles cost an average of 15 percent less than new Oshkosh operational performance with online monitoring of key subsysvehicles, according to Ivy. tems and components for signal processing, detection of incipient Oshkosh Defense also participates in the Army’s Theater-Profailures and prediction of their remaining useful life. vided Equipment Refurbishment (TPER) program, which restores “CBM will improve reliability, lower the total ownership costs battle-damaged and heavily worn vehicles from the Army’s famof platforms, and extend their life spans,” said Cursio. “Industry ily of heavy tactical vehicles (FHTV) and line-haul fleets to the needs to gain a better appreciation for these capabilities in order military’s equipment readiness standards so they can be returned to assist the government with its logistics endeavors.” to the field. Oshkosh has refurbished 1,850 FHTV trucks and 460 “Honeywell’s onboard monitoring systems monitor vibraline-haul trucks for a total of 2,310 vehicles under the program. tions, rotor wear and engine wear, to help identify and prevent “The TPER program eliminates the cost of shipping vehicles component or system failure,” said Patrick, “increasing the life of to the U.S. for repairs and returns the trucks to soldiers stationed product and lowering the overall cost of maintaining a platform in-theater more quickly,” said Jeff Koga, Oshkosh Defense senior or system.” director of Integrated Product Support. “The TPER program Meanwhile, Alion is assisting U.S. Army TACOM to adapt rapid allows us to significantly reduce the cost of refurbishing the maintenance and repair techniques from automobile racing to Army’s vehicles, and cuts maintenance cycle time by at least 60 military vehicles. “We are developing a pit stop approach,” said days compared to U.S.-based repairs.” Fletcher, “to improve the speed of repairs and, more importantly, HDT supports life cycle management by integrating green integrating technology used in race cars which identify repair and technologies into the shelters, heaters, generators, pumps and maintenance needs.” filters it provides the U.S. military. “Environmentally-friendly As Beggs suggested, the current budgetary climate may technologies help reduce the logistics tail associated with the require a paradigm shift in the approach to life cycle manageoperation of these products by reducing things like fuel consumpment in order to make the headway required in the face of steep tion and waste water production,” said Stolarz. “Thermal barriers budget cuts. “There could be a time in the future that we see the that go on our shelters reduce heater run times. They are the two budgetary conversations over procurement and sustainment greatest consumer of fuel in some base camps.” come together,” said Patrick. “The cost of sustainment, including Fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness are also part spare parts support and RMU road maps, must be considered in the of the life cycle management contribution made by Honeywell, initial procurement decision as it is a huge part of the cost of life according to Patrick. “We design products to help the customer cycle management. The end result for the government will be cost fly straighter, more efficient routes to systems to engines that of ownership savings over the life of the product.” O are lighter and integrate software that minimize fuel burn,” he said. “Honeywell is also playing a significant role in the biofuel segment. Honeywell engineered biofuel has powered every Navy testing flight to date and a large majority of the Air Force biofuel flights.” For more information, contact MLF Editor Jeff McKaughan at New approaches to maintenance also extend the lives of jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at military vehicles. Condition based maintenance (CBM) attempts www.MLF-kmi.com. to optimize maintenance tasks, save money, and improve machine 14 | MLF 5.10
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Every Voyage has a Purpose
We have supported our armed forces for almost three decades by deploying our ships and utilizing our assets ashore. Our commitment to U.S. troops extends beyond our daily operations to partnerships with charitable organizations that support service members and their families. We are proud of the role we play in their success.
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
All Weather Computer DRS Technologies Inc., a Finmeccanica company, announced that its Tactical Systems Group has partnered with Rugged Notebooks Inc., a provider of ruggedized portable computers and handheld devices. The partnership will enable Rugged Notebooks to resell DRS Armor rugged mobile solutions. As part of the agreement, Rugged Notebooks will offer to its customers the Armor X10gx and Armor X7 rugged mobile tablets, which are specifically designed for mission-critical tasks that require connectivity, mobility, ease of use and the durability to support all-weather operations. “Rugged Notebooks has built a strong reputation in rugged computing with their excellent customer knowledge and customer care,” said Mike Sarrica, vice president and general manager for DRS Tactical Systems Inc. Alan Shad, president of Rugged Notebooks, said, “We’re pleased to partner with DRS Technologies to provide its top-of-the-line Armor rugged tablets.” Both the Armor X10gx and X7 are MIL-STD certified for extremes in temperature, vibration, shock and drops. They feature a range of connectivity options that go beyond WWAN, including Bluetooth wireless, integrated GPS, Gobi mobile broadband, and 802.11 a/g/n WiFi. With a weight of just 4.7 pounds and a 10.4inch sunlight-readable touch-screen display, the Armor X10gx carries an ingress protection rating of 67, which means it is fully protected against dust and can withstand the effects of immersion in water to depths up to three feet (or one meter). Other features include a new docking system, an Intel Core2 DuoT Processor with up to 4GB RAM, an Intel embedded Montevina system architecture, and a 64GB solid-state hard drive with options up to 160GB that is user-replaceable. The Armor X7 compact rugged tablet offers handheld mobility at a weight of 2.85 pounds, with a sunlight-readable touch-screen display. Like the X10gx, it has the durability to support all-weather operations with an IP65 rating. It features the Intel Atom processor N450 and runs Microsoft Windows 7 Professional. The Armor X7 also marks the debut of the new m-SATA solid state drives from Intel in the rugged marketplace, in both 40GB and 80GB capacities.
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Four Wheelin’ The new John Deere M-Gator A3 is designed as a fast, all-terrain vehicle to transport troops and cargo across the most challenging landscapes. “The John Deere M-Gator A3 has the most powerful, fastest accelerating engine in its class,” said Mitch Fincher, manager of federal and military sales. “And with 11 inches of ground clearance and 1,400 pound payload capacity, the A3 can handle any task.” The M-Gator A3 reaches a top speed of 32 mph with the 25-hp, 854cc, liquid cooled, diesel engine. To simplify battlefield fuel logistics, the A3 is also JP8 compatible.
Tough terrain is easily traversed by the M-Gator A3, with 11 inches ground clearance, 8 inches front travel, and 9 inches rear travel. The tire ball run flat tire system is standard and provides additional confidence when there’s no road to be found. With a payload capacity of 1,400 pounds (passengers and cargo), 13 tie-down points, and fold down sides, the cargo box on the A3 can accommodate the most awkward loads. In addition, power dumping comes standard on the M-Gator A3 cargo box. It also has a standard pintle hitch, front bumper with tiedown rings, and a front cargo rack with 150-pound capacity.
Reserve Support CGI Federal Inc. (CGI), a wholly-owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group Inc., has been awarded a contract renewal with additional scope worth $38.36 million by the U.S. Army Reserve Command Deputy Chief of Staff (G-4) for the Logistics Information Systems (LIS) Support Services program. The contract was awarded in the fourth quarter and is over a one-year base with two one-year option periods.
CGI will deliver a range of LIS operations support, including configuring and testing hardware and software, training, network support, and maintenance. The Army’s LIS program includes critical information systems required to support Army Reserve operations, including the Standard Army Management Information Systems and Business Intelligence Tools.
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Special Supplement to Military Logistics Forum
The Value of
Innovative Logistics
Northrop Grumman delivers innovative logistics solutions enabling
Affordability – Cost-Driven Solutions
affordability, effectiveness, and global mission readiness.
A major driver within logistics is the cost of products and services.
As our customers face tightening budgets, the
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importance of affordability is critical. Northrop Grumman’s
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by the integration and application of new technologies, tools, and devices. Process innovation is achieved through the application
We leverage technology to improve program performance by
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improving quality. Low-quality logistics products and services create rework and additional effort to correct deficiencies,
Northrop Grumman is developing and implementing integrated
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Effectiveness – Sustainable Superior Performance
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Northrop Grumman proactively partners with our customers
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We deliver modification, upgrade, and modernization
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Air Mobility Planning System Tapestry Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing, is part of an industry team selected to upgrade and support the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command’s Consolidated Air Mobility Planning System (CAMPS). As a subcontractor to SAIC, Tapestry was awarded a six-year contract valued at up to $15 million. Under the contract, Tapestry’s engineering support team will insert new software technology into CAMPS, an airlift and air-refueling mission planning and scheduling system used since 1990 across the Department of Defense for peacetime, crisis, contingency and wartime
operations. Tapestry also will lead operations and training for the updated web-services-based system. As the developer of a cornerstone component of the principal planning system for airlift worldwide, Tapestry will be able to apply its suite of planning, optimization and disruptionmanagement software applications to enhance mission readiness. “The CAMPS win is a tribute to the team that developed a cost-saving, low-risk solution for the government,” said Tony Rigazzi, senior director of strategic programs for Tapestry.
Micro-Grid L-3 Westwood has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army for the new load demand start stop (LDSS) micro-grid system. L-3’s new LDSS system offers a fuel savings of up to 40 percent by allowing up to six 30 kW or 60 kW tactical quiet generator sets to be connected as a single power source that automatically cycles on or off depending on power demands. In addition to fuel savings, the LDSS system offers significantly reduced maintenance and lower operational costs compared to existing equipment. “The rapid development of the LDSS system exemplifies what can be achieved in the area of fuel and operational cost savings when the U.S. Army and industry collaborate,” said Clayton McClain, president of L-3 Westwood. “I am proud of the innovations from the L-3 Westwood team and the foresight of our U.S. Army partner. We look forward to the further success of the LDSS system and the opportunity to continue to assist the U.S. Army in meeting its green initiatives.”
Newest T-AKE The U.S. Navy’s newest supply ship, USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE 13) was recently christened as the newest ship in the Navy. Named in honor of the African American civil rights leader from Mississippi, the USNS Medgar Evers is the 13th ship of a class of 14 dry cargo/ammunition ships designed and built by NASSCO. As the first field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi, Medgar Evers ( July 2, 1925 - June 12, 1963) created and organized voter-registration efforts, peaceful demonstrations and economic boycotts to draw attention to the unjust practices of companies that practiced discrimination. Evers became one of the most visible civil rights leaders in the state of Mississippi, working closely with church leaders and other civil rights advocates to promote understanding and equality. His life’s www.MLF-kmi.com
work helped increase support for the legislation that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “Each ship in the T-AKE Class is named for a noted pioneer in our nation’s history. Mr. Evers was an Army veteran of World War II and an important civil rights pioneer. The NASSCO team is proud to add Medgar Evers’ name to this distinguished list,” said Fred Harris, president of NASSCO. USNS Medgar Evers is the 13th ship of the Lewis and Clark (T-AKE) Class of dry cargo ammunition ships General Dynamics NASSCO is building for the U.S. Navy. NASSCO began constructing USNS Medgar Evers in April 2010. Following its at-sea testing phase, the ship will be delivered to the Navy in the second quarter of 2012.
Navy Alternative Fuel Test
Naval Sea Systems Command and the Program Executive Office Ships conducted alternative fuel testing of the Landing Craft Utility (LCU) 1600class, aboard Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Va. The testing is the most recent in a series of alternative fuel maritime vehicle tests supporting the U.S. Navy’s efforts to reduce petroleum using a 50/50 blend of hydro-treated renewable diesel, derived from algal oil and NATO F-76 fuel. “This demonstration continues the proud tradition of leveraging emerging technology to decrease the energy footprint in our ships and craft,” said Captain Chris Mercer, program manager for amphibious warfare. “In 2010, we delivered USS Makin Island, introducing hybrid, gas turbine/electric drive technology with a projected savings of $250 million in fuel costs during the ship’s life cycle.” During the alternative fuel test and trials, the LCU operated at full load, over a wide-range of engine speeds. Data was collected to compare traditional F-76 fuel performance to powering performance and engine parameters using the alternative fuel blend. The test also examined engine parameters, such as fuel consumption, exhaust temperatures and engine room temperatures. The test results verified the propulsion system is capable of producing output power similar to NATO F-76 fuel.
MLF 5.10 | 21
Mission Supplier
Q& A
Responsible Stewardship of the Military’s Supply Chain Mae E. DeVincentis Vice Director Defense Logistics Agency Mae E. DeVincentis became the vice director for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in August 2010. DLA is the U.S. Department of Defense’s combat logistics support agency, providing worldwide logistics support for materiel and personnel readiness, and sustainment of military departments and unified combatant commands under conditions of peace and war. It also provides logistics support to other DoD components and certain federal agencies, foreign governments, international organizations and others as authorized. DeVincentis is the agency’s second in command. She assists the director in all aspects of leading the global DLA enterprise. Before becoming vice director, she was director of logistics operations (J-3) since January 2010. She led all aspects of DLA’s worldwide warfighter support mission, which provides most consumable spare and repair parts and virtually all clothing, food, medical supply and fuel items used by military forces worldwide, involving over $40 billion in annual sales of logistics materiel and services. DeVincentis was previously director of information operations (J-6) and chief information officer (CIO) for DLA since April 2001. She was responsible for all agency information technology (IT) activities across 11 sites, involving a staff of over 3,000—including modernization of the agency’s principal business systems, sustainment of contemporary business systems, program management for acquiring and implementing major automated information systems (MAIS), information assurance, and overall IT policy guidance and operational performance. She was also responsible for DoDwide logistics information operations that included cataloging, electronic routing of logistics transactions, a logistics customer interaction center, logistics process guidance and DoD document services. Her prior assignment was as the program executive officer (PEO) and deputy director of information operations (IO). As the PEO, DeVincentis had management and oversight of DLA’s MAIS programs and special interest programs. As deputy director for IO, she also assisted the IO director in overseeing all agency IT functions. Before becoming the PEO in early 2000, DeVincentis served as executive director for information systems and technology for the Defense Logistics Support Command (DLSC), then a major DLA subordinate command. She provided a comprehensive IT systems strategy to facilitate DLSC’s business objectives, including oversight of the business systems modernization program that became the core of DLA’s transformation to meet the challenges of 21st-century logistics support. Prior to joining DLSC in 1998, DeVincentis held a variety of leadership positions in contracting, logistics and information technology at the then-Defense Personnel Support Center Philadelphia. DeVincentis attended Temple University, where she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration. She is a member of the Senior Executive Service and the Defense Acquisition Corps, and has served on a variety of DoD and public/private sector 22 | MLF 5.10
councils. She has received numerous honors, including two Presidential Rank awards, Civilian Meritorious and Exceptional Service Awards, the DLA Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the DLA Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the DLA Employee of the Year Award. Q: In what ways has DLA evolved over the years to better support the warfighter? A: DLA began as the Defense Supply Agency in 1961. That was based on the department recognizing in the late-1950s post-war environment that there was a lot of duplication and overlap and high inventory levels among the services. The goal was to manage common supply and distribution services to create efficiencies while being effective, and thus began the journey that we’re still on. I think we have been very successful over the years in meeting this basic goal. Even early in my tenure at DLA I watched as we added missions and different supply chain roles in areas like property reuse and disposal, fuel management and various other mission sets. In 1977 we were renamed Defense Logistics Agency in recognition of the fact that we were doing Big L logistics, meaning more than inventory management, more than supply—really expanding into a broader gamut of logistics services. We became a combat support agency in the 1980s as a result of Goldwater-Nichols. Over the years we took on more responsibility, www.MLF-kmi.com
especially in areas that involved a closer on-scene role in supporting equipment maintenance and the readiness and sustainment of deployed forces. And with that, we of course had more business. The early 1990s were a big part of this as things really began to change at a much more rapid clip. The DMRDs [defense management report decisions] realigned a lot of the services’ own warehouses to us, as well as responsibility for managing their inventories. We had the first Gulf War and we all remember the mountains of supplies that were left on the battlefield, many unopened—that led to the call for increased asset visibility and improvements in IT systems. During this time we also embarked on use of private sector practices—things like reliance on Prime Vendor support for brand name medical and subsistence items, which we continue to use today. And of course in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the advent of the personal computer and its employment here in the agency helped us a great deal. We began to get serious about replacing our existing IT system in the later 1990s and early 2000s, implementing an enterprise resource planning system currently called the Enterprise Business System, which we have completely fielded and continue to use as the platform for further improvement. As I mentioned earlier, we also took on increasing responsibilities forward-supporting the warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan and the maintainers at the services’ industrial sites back home. Over time, we came from a very modest agency with responsibility for a couple of supply chains to a $46 billion enterprise that is essential to the warfighter around the globe. At this point in our history, we continue to supply about 100 percent of all the fuel, all the medicine, all the food, all of the energy beyond fuel, the uniforms, and the construction and barrier equipment to the services—and roughly 85 percent of the military’s repair parts. Our broad role and long experience in enhancing supply chain efficiency mean it pays to load us up because we are able to get those efficiencies and leverage our buying power and drive down the prices for the military customer. Q: December 31 is a pretty important date as it relates to our involvement in Iraq—how will DLA be involved in Iraq after December 31? A: Let me start with our involvement before the December 31 withdrawal target, which is different from those earlier Gulf Wars. We have had staff forward in Iraq and Kuwait for many years, supporting the war effort. Based on this involvement and significant lessons learned from the first Gulf War in the early ’90s, we now engage with our customers to start the planning early, in terms of what the withdrawal will look like and how we can assist with disposal and removal activities and ensure we have just enough supplies available to support the troops as they withdraw. This puts us in lockstep with our customer as they draw down those camps and stations, and we are there helping them sort through whatever it is that they need to dispose of or sell off before we get to the final day. This way U.S. forces are not abandoning materiel in place, but rather being environmentally good stewards and paying attention to all of that before they depart. After December 31 the Department of State will still have a key role in Iraq and we will continue to support them for food and fuel—we’ve been doing that all along in Iraq. When the decision was made to begin this transition, we quickly partnered with State and have forged a relationship and an agreement that says DLA will continue to support them for what we call Class I, which is subsistence, and for all Class III, which is fuel. It’s done on a reimbursable basis but we are going to keep those contracts in place for their use. We’re thinking this will probably www.MLF-kmi.com
be for a year—the State Department has a plan to pick up that contract mission when we finish. But for 2012 we’ll be providing food to all 13 of their dining facilities and we’ll provide fuel to 11 bulk fuel storage sites, as well as supporting a couple of the airports with into-plane contracts and also doing some disposition services. Q: Iraq has its challenges in its own ways but Afghanistan, partially because of geography and infrastructure, has issues that are somewhat different. Can you tell me about the Northern Distribution Network, its growth over the past year, and what’s expected of it in the coming 12 months? A: I would tell you that this Northern Distribution Network idea has been several years in evolution, so I think that your readers know that it is an alternate route into Afghanistan to supplement and balance the sustainment flow with the pak GLOC. It has been very successful because it’s been a coalition of people that wanted to make it so, that coalition of course being the military services, CENTCOM, TRANSCOM and DLA, led overall by CENTCOM and with oversight from the Joint Staff and OSD. The Northern Distribution Network does give us the capability to move supplies and services into Afghanistan from a northern route, and there are a number of feeder routes into this NDN, but essentially it is an alternate to the paK GLOC. We are continuing to look for ways to be more efficient in our use of it. DLA has been the major contributor to container shipments along the NDN—we account for about 78 percent of the 20-foot containers that are shipped on this route. To date, about 46,000 containers have been shipped on the NDN, and since the inception of this route, about 38 percent of everything we’ve shipped into Afghanistan went in on the NDN. This is important for a number of reasons. There are some supplies that just cannot go into Afghanistan over the northern distribution route, even more so in winter, and so it’s important for DLA to pick up the volume that others aren’t able to put on the NDN, in order to keep the pak GLOC viable for those supplies that can only go that way. Q: Forces will begin coming out of Afghanistan at some point. How, if at all, will DLA’s role there be different than supporting the drawdown from Iraq? A: Again, we’re drawing on lessons learned in the early 1990s in Iraq and one of the most important is having a presence from the very beginning. As with Iraq in this past decade, we have had teams embedded with CENTCOM and at forward locations in Afghanistan to support basic supply and selected distribution and disposal services, including for the surge in 2010. In that vein, having our disposition services team there in Afghanistan is very helpful because they can help ensure things that need to be disposed of or somehow dispositioned do not all pile up in the final three months of the conflict—they help execute these actions over a period of time, and so we’ve learned that having those people embedded early gets us ahead of the tsunami of materiel needing disposition when troops withdraw. As part of this, we also learned from recent years in Iraq that groups which we refer to as EDRTS [expeditionary disposal remediation teams] have been hugely helpful. They are mobile teams that traverse the battlefield and collect up, from the users, any products that are meant to go into disposal. We’re taking the extra step to get out to the forward operating bases in Afghanistan on a regular recurring cycle to visit and collect what they may have so that equipment that the services no MLF 5.10 | 23
longer need for themselves or some form of transfer to the country the U.S. is supporting doesn’t pile up at the end of our deployment there. We’re also working hard on the front end to work with the services so that we don’t end up with excess inventories of things like spare parts or bulky consumables. The military services—certainly for Afghanistan, the Army and the Marine Corps—are the big players from the perspective of creating the requirement and ordering the product. As their partner we are making sure that we’re keeping an eye on inventory levels since we do manage inventory. This helps ensure we are all on the same page in terms of equipment changeover. We also work very closely with Transcom to make sure that the necessary transportation requirements are being met, and with the services to ensure the right policies are in place that enable us to get unneeded items out of the country. For example, a lot of what is used is hazardous, and there are international agreements that we have to abide by as we move some of this material. We also go through a decision matrix of what has to be demilitarized before disposition so it does not wind up in the wrong hands. In all, it is a very complex business area—like anything in supply support of forces in Afghanistan, it’s not simple— certainly not like putting your bag of trash out every Sunday evening. We have a key role in this and so we’re working with our customers to get ahead of the end-state drawdown and start the planning now, and for those things that we can disposition early, to do so. Q: You mentioned managing inventory and the other services. What is the actual process of coordinating with the service components to come up with the best delivery methods—which route needs to be used to ensure that there’s never a breakdown in those critical supply lines? A: For overseas support such as in Afghanistan, delivery methods are largely the role of TRANSCOM and, once the items are in-theater, CENTCOM and the military services are involved. But what and how DLA ships from our own warehouses and direct from our vendors has a major role in this. So we partner with SDDC [Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command], which is a component command of Transcom, as well as with CENTCOM and all the service elements as we walk through this. Ultimately the military services are the requirer and we are responding to their requirement. TRANSCOM builds the transportation network that moves our product for us. We work with the requirer to establish what the requirement is, and then start the planning process of how much inventory we have to move in what period of time. Then together, we work to get to a place where we can move big, heavy, bulky types of product via surface, meaning that we want to get into a rhythm so we’re replenishing bulky, heavy products via ocean transportation and then over land transportation in countries as opposed flying it. We prefer to use air transportation for emergencies or other unanticipated requirements, and not to use it as sort of our normal mode of moving product around. It has also helped that we have a forward inventory presence in Afghanistan which, although modest, is a footprint nonetheless of some fast-moving items that are forward-positioned. We also have items stored or accessible in Europe and we use the Europe-to-Afghanistan line of communication to move product from our warehouses there and meet some pretty aggressive turnaround times that way. We’ve been working on this with all the players, including the joint staff and OSD, where we received help on policy changes to make sure that we never have a break in those critical supply lines. 24 | MLF 5.10
Q: Does DLA, and perhaps the military in general, have the degree of asset visibility that you expected to have at this point in time, and is the current ability to track equipment and supplies meeting your expectations? Finally, how can that ability be improved? A: This goes back to the first Gulf War when it was recognized that we didn’t have a strong enough asset visibility system in place—and we’ve been working this since in the department. By-and-large, in terms of putting RFID tracking devices on DLA products that are moving into the AOR, we’ve got that down. The challenge is always what is typically called the last tactical mile—once product is in-country and has to then be broken down and re-palletized for onward movement to forward operating bases, this is where we probably don’t have a perfect assettracking system in place across DoD. So I think this is an area we still need to work on. That said, the TRANSCOM staff has the overall lead in asset visibility and supporting RFID arena, as a part of their role as the department’s distribution process owner. In support of their and the entire department’s efforts, DLA makes it a standard practice that any containers leaving our warehouses, whether they are stateside or overseas, have the appropriate RFID tag on them. The services have invested a lot of money, as have all of us, in instrumenting the various routes so that we are getting the proper ping to be able to track the product. But as I said, the last tactical mile in-country remains a challenge for all of us. When products come in, they go to a theater or consolidation and transshipment point—it gets broken down and then it gets repackaged and that is where we probably are not quite doing as much as we’d like to be able to do with tagging. However, compared to what I personally witnessed at the end of the first Gulf War, and even how we were doing in the early years in Afghanistan, we have come a very, very long way. Q: How important are commercial partners to the agency in being able to manage your supply chain from end to end? A: We could not do the mission without the industry partners. DLA does not make anything, and no one else does in the department, except in rare cases where we’ve got some organic manufacturing capability that is really meant for very specific purposes. That means we all rely on industry every day to supply the warfighter. For DLA, we started changing our business model in the 1990s to reduce our own and the services’ inventory levels and began embracing best commercial practices like direct “as needed” deliveries via approaches such as Prime Vendor contracts. We used electronic data interchange, RFID and other technologies to make the supply chain more seamless, more responsive and a lot more agile. We have some very strong partnerships with our commercial partners, and the bottom line to all that has been improved customer support at reduced costs. We also have embarked on agreements called strategic supplier alliances, and we are working with those who are the big dollar value, very critical suppliers to us and our military customers. We have close to 30 of these alliances in place now, with major hardware suppliers for our aviation, land, maritime and other weapons support supply chains. These are very involved, complex agreements that have a lot of metrics associated with them, that we and the supplier sign ourselves up to maintain and watch and work closely to be sure we are delivering the outcome to the customer that they’ve asked for. Going back to Prime Vendor for a minute—in subsistence and food, our Prime Vendors are critical to keeping the food flowing into www.MLF-kmi.com
U.S. Flag Services
Afghanistan. Our Prime Vendor contracts in that AOR are a huge success bringing in commercial product that is flowing into the dining halls. It is a huge morale boost to our troops to be able to go into the feeding facility and enjoy products that they are accustomed to from home. We have some unbelievable requirements that are levied on our prime vendors like the Thanksgiving meal, the Christmas meal and the Super Bowl Sunday celebrations. The results have been absolutely remarkable. It is also important to mention our relationships with small business; without them we just couldn’t do what we do. DLA is one of the largest in terms of DoD contracts to small business. They play a huge role in making DLA successful. They affect every aspect of our business, from being support contractors to prime vendors or other big service contracts, to being direct suppliers to a portion of our Class IX spare parts. They play a huge role in our overall business strategy and we always consider the effect on small business as we’re devising new acquisition strategies, because our results here today with them have really been phenomenal. Q: What challenges do you think DLA will face in light of the anticipated DoD budget cuts and what impacts will that have on DLA support to military services? A: Certainly like everyone else in the department, I am very concerned about the impact of any cuts on our ability to support the warfighters, as we take our job very seriously and are already focused on never squandering a penny of those taxpayer dollars. So it is going to be a very difficult challenge to be able to support the warfighter on a reduced budget. That said, there are ways to do this and DLA has a track record of being able to generate efficiencies while remaining effective. That is the real principle here—we want to become more efficient but we cannot risk effectiveness to the warfighter. Things that maybe did not have appeal previously in the realm of efficiencies will probably be revisited by the departmental leadership. We have a tough job ahead of us but I think we can do this—like all other thing in DoD, it requires some unity of purpose but our track record is strong. Aside from the budget cuts, there are other challenges that we face. One is the challenge of counterfeit parts, which we are working very aggressively against. We have programs in place to try to root out some of these bad actors, to keep those counterfeit parts out of the supply chain. This will continue to be a challenge moving forward. As part of BRAC [Base Realignment and Closure] 2005, DLA was tasked with directly supplying some of the industrial repair facilities in the U.S. This is new work for us and we have to be able to do that to the level that the services require. We have a similar challenge with our new BRAC-driven role to buy depot level reparables for the services. We’re going to have challenges keeping the workforce engaged and refreshed with caps on hiring, caps on raises and limits on the amounts of money we can give people in awards—assuming the war fighting support tempo declines as expected, it will then be a challenge to keep people engaged and excited about their work given these limits on compensation. Having been the CIO here, I also worry a lot about cyber challenges. I am concerned about the threat that these challenges pose. We do a lot of our business over the Internet, and the Internet has been the great equalizer. Most of us thought that the good part of the 26 | MLF 5.10
Internet was that it gave a new and highly useful capability to people regardless of their financial standing; it also gave the capability to bad actors regardless of their financial abilities, so now we have a risk that we did not have 15 years ago. This is a serious risk that we’re going to have to face in spite of the budget cuts. The bottom line is there are a lot of challenges ahead of us, including certainly those related to expected budget cuts, but I believe that the department is up to the challenge and that we in DLA will figure out ways to help deal with and continue to be as effective as we’ve been in the past. Q: The Air Force Materiel Command has just announced a significant reorganization of their organization. Could you add some insight as to how that will affect how DLA supports those facilities, especially the air logistics centers—now complexes? A: It will affect us from the perspective that we were dealing very closely with the Global Logistics Support Center and so the reforming of that capability within the Air Force will probably require a little adjusting on our part. That said, we’ve worked very closely with the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command and all of the ALCs. We are going to be able to adjust to meet their requirement, regardless of their organizational structure. It is our intent to work with them to help make their organization as efficient and effective as we can. If there are things that DLA needs to change or to do for them to help them in that regard, we’re ready to do them. Q: Do you have any closing thoughts on the men and women of DLA and the operations that you manage? A: My thoughts on the folks that work at DLA are always very positive. I have a long history with the agency—my father worked here, and now I’m here, and so our family goes back to the very beginning of DSA. This 50th anniversary of DLA gave all of us an opportunity to look back and take stock and to think about where we came from, where we’ve been, the lessons that we’ve learned, and where we should be headed in the future. I see a bright future for the agency because I believe that as operations and support become even more joint, there will be more of a call for organizations like DLA to create more efficiencies, to bring together the requirements of the military services and to deliver them effectively and in a more efficient way. I think that we have a lot of work ahead of us, but that the outcome will be going in the right direction from a warfighter and a taxpayer perspective. And to refer back to your question, our strength is our people—we’ve got great IT systems, we have some wonderful facilities, we have lots of interesting programs that we’re implementing, but at the end of the day it’s the people. We are about a 98 percent civilian organization; it is a very dedicated group of people that teams well with the small but strong military cadre assigned to us from the services. During this last war, many of our civilians deployed into the AOR. Vice Admiral Thompson put a call out for us to supplement the military members in that regard and he was totally overwhelmed by the positive response he received, and we continue to receive. I think that’s just one example of how we have a world-class team of logisticians that continues to grow, evolve and stand ready to take on the next challenges as we go into the future. O www.MLF-kmi.com
Industry stays agile as the services maneuver for efficiencies. By Les Shaver MLF Correspondent
In August, the U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Command (MARCORLOGCOM) released an announcement that drew some interest in the contractor arena. By October 2013, MARCORLOGCOM aims consolidate two USMC organic depots located in Albany, Ga., and Barstow, Calif., under a unified Depot Maintenance Command. The Marines estimate that the plan will provide an integrated and synchronized logistics solutions for the Marine Corps while also realizing an estimated cost savings of $40 million to $60 million over the Five Year Defense Plan. The service was seeking an outside source to assist MARCORLOGCOM’s depot maintenance consolidation implementation team throughout the development of integration plan and implementation. For Jim Beggs, a principal in the McLean, Va., office of Booz Allen Hamilton, the announcement definitely represented a sign of the times. “The idea is they could combine those two; they could reduce the cost of overhead and still meet the capacity that those two depots offer,” Beggs said. “That is the start of maintenance command areas trying to get more efficient and more effective with this upcoming slug of work.” Right now, the military is facing a double whammy as its heads into 2012. The increased operations from the campaigns have already taxed weapons systems, equipment, parts and supply lines. Add impending budget cuts and the challenges to keep the supply line running become even greater. “The big challenge for the supply chain is for the maintenance and infrastructure side,” Beggs said. “There’s going to be a huge pressure on budgets and there’s also going to be a significant pressure on getting things done.” Others agree. “If budget is down, they have to make decisions of what they can get with that,” said vice president of operations Tom Hazelbaker at Virginia Beach-based ADS. But there’s hope. “We believe that there is more that all of the maintenance commands can do to meet this challenge,” Beggs said.
“How does the decision process go for what they leave in theater, and are they going to be able to repair everything that comes back?” Beggs asked. “What’s the importance of getting it repaired within a reasonable timeframe?” With budget constraints, the government isn’t buying new systems as fast as it was before. “The challenge is with the budget pressures can we rest, complete the repairs, and get our equipment and readiness, and keep that running under the same budget pressures?” Beggs said. “On the supply chain, the difficulty is the depots and contracts to the OEM. Are they going to be funded to a point to where they work to their capacity?” Beggs said the military needs to consider how it can maximize its productivity under budget pressure, become more efficient, and do more or the same amount with fewer resources. This system also forces the services to prioritize, but that gets tricky. “If I prioritize, I will make sure the engines get fixed and I have a vehicle can actually move,” Beggs said. “The electronics and communications suites may get short shifted. Do you have a fully capable unit if you end up prioritizing that way?’” Revamping your buying strategy can help; Beggs is a firm proponent that if an organization hasn’t evaluated their purchasing system in the last decade, it needs to take a harder look at it. “Processes and capabilities degrade over time,” he said. “If you did it 10 years ago and haven’t analyzed it in the last 10 years, there’s a good chance things have gotten out of control and don’t make sense anymore.” Beggs also suggested that it’s important to take a look at the services you’re buying, whether it’s parts, maintenance support, or even the company that’s cutting the lawn at your facilities. For something like computers, centralization may be best—while items like paper clips can be bought independently. “Some things you can centralize for efficiency,” he said. “Some things you empower people to buy because it doesn’t make sense to centralize. When you are buying, how does the approval process work so that it’s efficient?”
Refilling the Pipeline
Replacing What’s Lost
With operations in Iraq shutting down, there will be lots of equipment on its way back to the States. That will lead to questions.
The procurement strategy can get harder if a manufacturer that originally produced a part is no longer around, according to
www.MLF-kmi.com
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Naval Maneuvers As suppliers get ready for budget cuts, the Navy Enterprise Resource Planning is focused on improvement. “The challenge for Navy ERP and the Navy’s supply capabilities has always been to improve the ability to deliver the things sailors need, where and when they need them, anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Jennifer Carter, program manager, Navy ERP Program. “When the Navy embarked on an integrated ERP system, leaders recognized that fully integrating the supply system with the financial system would provide a robust, near real-time view of all critical aspects of the logistics operations of the Navy, and speed its ability to supply sailors the things they need.” The service seems well on its way to accomplishing this. “Getting the Navy’s Working Capital Fund repair assets and inventory management into a single supply solution, and having that solution also integrated with real-time financials, offers commanders visibility over all their assets,” Carter said. “This positions the Navy to plan its purchases and repairs with a higher degree of confidence and effectiveness.” And it represents an upgrade over its 1960s era aging information technology system. “A multitude of stovepiped legacy systems, not necessarily compatible with each other, difficult and costly to maintain, and supported by an aging workforce, were being relied upon to support our sailors working on the front lines,” said Karen Meloy, NAVSUP (Naval Supply Systems Command) ERP program manager. “The legacy systems did not offer real-time data, often just a snapshot in time. They worked, but often by means of manual workarounds, bolt-on solutions, and sometimes users literally had to pick up the phone and
Willie Brown, director of obsolescence management services at Arlington, Va.-based BAE Systems Support Solutions, which is managing the loss of either a qualified of manufacturer or mitigating the loss of your on-line source materials, like metals and chemicals. “[Obsolescence management] has been something that’s been growing in awareness for at least the last 15 years,” Brown said. “With tightening of budgets, there’s been the realization that this is both an opportunity and a risk for the government and industry.” With platforms lasting longer than expected, the original supplier of a part may no longer be around. “Increased tempo and use rate is going through the existing supply that they have on hand,” Brown said. “That is heightening the awareness of the need for obsolescence management.” In fact, the government is writing into contracts that you will have a proactive obsolescence management program. 28 | MLF 5.10
call the particular location and have inventory levels checked by hand counting.” The Navy implemented ERP using state-of-the-art technology provided by Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing (commonly referred to as “SAP”). In the program, one database holds all of the data, which means there is no need for periodic reconciliation of financial or inventory data, which is why it’s called a single supply solution. Navy ERP will provide $500 million in inventory efficiencies for the Navy, by increasing the velocity of its inventory. “SAP provides, in one system procurement, planning, inventory, financials, and enterprisewide material and inventory forecasting,” Meloy said. “Additionally, life cycle requirements calculations can forecast five years into the future, as well as provide five years of historical data.” In March, the first deployment of Release 1.1, or “Phase I” of the single supply solution was successfully implemented at the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP). A couple of months later, in July, the first of four regional go-lives for Navy ERP at NAVSUP’s Phase II of the single supply solution was deployed. Phase II of single supply solution should complete in August of 2012. “Currently, Navy ERP provides a single planning engine, improved asset visibility, and improved material support, complete visibility of repair pipeline, and complete visibility of customer demand,” Meloy said. ‘Navy ERP will help to enable our sailors to be aligned, agile and armed to support our sailors worldwide in a single integrated data system in near real-time.”
“The supplier may have been mom and pop,” Brown said. “If I have a program or platform designed to last for 20 years and you’re in the 1950s, as some of the Air Force programs are, then that poses a big problem with supplier base. In sustainment mode, you may not go back to that supplier for five or 10 years, then you find out they no longer exist.” That’s the reason BAE offers a program monitoring vendor health. That way, they keep the supply chain flow if someone disappears. BAE also tries to keep up with those vendors and it determines how many vendors are making a product. “We’re pinging a vendor on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis depending upon the vendor and the type, and we’re asking them if they’re still supplying it,” Brown said. “If not, do they have a recommended substitution?” Other companies are trying to help with future budget issues by putting replacement parts together. ADS specializes in pulling together gear from many different manufacturers and putting www.MLF-kmi.com
In the process, the company has learned that time can save money. “One of the most basic things that we do is in our maintenance factories is we designed them for speed,” Gonzales said. “We designed a factory to ensure they come within 40 or 45 days.” The company also constantly collects and analyzes data from its factories, collects usage and condemnation data, and does trend analysis. “When you’re able to collect very robust data, analyze it in real time and give it back to the suppliers, they’re able to support you with parts,” Gonzales said. “It minimizes the demand on the parts suppliers. Our goal is have a 95 percent first pass fill rate.” StandAero ensures that if they don’t have the part the customer will get it within five days. It also has tools that allow them to analyze data and predict how an engine will act in the field. “That can save costs with predictability,” Gonzales said. “It’s a philosophy of using the customer’s data to do things smarter— using depot data and field data to build reliability models and predictability that allow the customer to extend life on wing.” O
it into a mission-ready kit that eliminates logistics problem of multiple deliveries from multiple suppliers. “They just have one part number and one supplier to get all of the components in,” Hazelbaker said. “With the Army dyed kit, they were buying 20 parts from 15 suppliers.” Hazelbaker said the ultimate goal is to free up guys who would be loading and unloading packages to do other things. “Some of the things that we offer are warehousing, buying and holding, issuing gear to individual units, shipping it to wherever they may need, and smarter inventory procurement and practices,” he said. “Where we can consolidate buying power, we can offer alternatives to help their budget dollar go further.”
Better Parts One obvious way to make the supply chain better is with better parts. StandardAero is the Air Force’s depot for C-130 and C-56 engines and also overhauls some Navy, Army and Coast Guard engines. “We have tried to give value back to the customer through an extended life on wing, as well as cost reduction built into certain contracts,” said Daniel Gonzales, vice president of the government and military sector for Tempe, Ariz.,-based StandardAero. In addition to that, StandAero has a side project called engineering services, which does a lot of data analysis for customers and assists them in doing things smarter.
For more information, contact MLF Editor Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.MLF-kmi.com.
GLOBAL DEFENSE LOGISTICS Norwegian Sea
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MLF 5.10 | 29
By Kathryn Bailey, PM MC
The advent of online purchases with links to track their progress has provided consumers with direct, easy-to-use access to state-of-theart shipping software. Imagine expanding this convenient feature into a full logistics decision-making capability that tracks a multitude of cargo, equipment and convoys for the military—often in dangerous battleground territory and during emergency deployments. The joint forces perform this task daily using the Army’s Battle Command Sustainment Support System (BCS3), which provides affordable end-toend solutions allowing users to track the logistics common operating picture (COP) in near real-time. The combination of high-tech capability and joint forces usage makes BCS3—and its expanded distribution management derivative system, BCS3-Node Management (BCS3-NM)—a smart logistics management choice for deployed forces and in the garrison environment during fiscally challenging times. More than 5,000 systems have been deployed throughout the U.S. and internationally. “This system is built on an economy of scale because the application can be used by joint forces; they don’t have to develop new capabilities,” said Leonette Peters, chief of operations of sustainment C2 for the Army’s Project Manager Mission Command (PM MC), which houses BCS3. Most of the joint forces employ BCS3, but the Marines are the second largest user of BCS3 and BCS3-Node, following the Army. Calvin Pilgrim, product director for sustainment C2, referred to the Marines as “power users.” 30 | MLF 5.10
Before BCS3, commanders, soldiers and Marines had to view multiple in-transit visibility (ITV) and asset visibility (AV) systems that did not present near real-time information in one place. Today, BCS3 provides users access to a logistics reporting tool and a visual logistics picture of the battlefield. This picture provides near realtime accountability of status reports, in-transit visibility of supplies and equipment, and resource asset visibility with the units and supply points. Commanders can see what is in the pipeline and visualize cargo and equipment deployment. This Microsoft Windows-like COP for logistics (log) that is modular, tailorable and scalable meets the full spectrum of battlefield Log Mission Command requirements. “It is also a force-protection combat multiplier,” said Richard Schwartzman, of the Sustainment C2 product office. “It displays intransit visibility data that reflects convoy movements and provides alerts when convoys reach their destination, go off-track, or are late to support movement.” BCS3 is currently fielded to approximately 92 percent of active forces, and currently 100 percent of the deployed forces have BCS3 systems on-hand. The BCS3 system is also fielded to U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), National Guard, and Reserve training institutions along with the majority of the Army’s mission command training centers. Users are not left to their own devices to operate BCS3. A comprehensive new equipment training (NET) program has been established to train receiving units on the capabilities of BCS3. www.MLF-kmi.com
The NET is backed by web-based computer-based training and field support representatives (FSRs) who deploy with units to assist them in answering questions or resolving technical issues that occur during use of the system. “The FSRs are the critical link between the product office and the users,” Pilgrim said. “They reside with the users and are crosstrained on BCS3 and BCS3-NM; therefore, they are fully aware of the challenges that users encounter.” The reach-back system to PM Mission Command allows the FSRs to transmit those challenges to the product office, and thus achieve a comprehensive, joint resolution.
BCS3-Node Management To address the need for distribution management software, the Army—with support from its joint partners from the Defense Logistics Agency, the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and Pacific Command—took the core BCS3 application and in 2006 collaborated in an advanced concept technology demonstration to create Node Management Deployable Depot, the forerunner to the Battle Command Sustainment Support System-Node Management. By leveraging the lessons learned, knowledge and experience of joint, deployed forces, this heavily modified version of BCS3 integrates additional joint ITV and AV data sources and provides a COP for distribution management that is focused on distribution nodes and supply storage activities end-to-end for both inter- and intra-theater materiel movements. Once integrated and associated through detailed business logic, these data sets provide the BCS3-NM user access to almost all cargo moving in the Defense Transportation System via air, sea or land, including: • Vehicles and containers equipped with satellite transponder technology and associated content level detail of cargo when available. • Shipments moving through the Northern Distribution Network/Pakistan Ground Line of Communication, even when non-instrumented and reported through manual update means. • Cargo moving through commercial shipment systems such as UPS and FedEx. Ryan Roberts, BCS3 field support representative for U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), remembers the night of July 7, 2011, when he woke up to track the status of high-priority items—MRAP all-terrain vehicle armor kits—and expedite their delivery. With more than 100 transportation control numbers (TCNs) to track, Roberts was able to load data into BCS3-Node management and locate each TCN’s last location. He said the process of finding the TCNs was performed twice a day for the next week. “With this accomplishment, node management has proved its worth,” said Captain Israel Camacho, USFOR-A mobility officer. Gunnery Sergeant Carl Thomas, the senior non-commissioned officer in-charge of the Marine Expeditionary Force Distribution Center, said BCS3-NM is the most useful system he has encountered in some time. “We use BCS3-NM on a daily basis to locate cargo that is being shipped in and out of theater,” Thomas said. “I would like to use this system in the rear at Camp LeJeune [N.C.], because it www.MLF-kmi.com
gives us a one-stop shop for tracking and tracing of cargo coming and going out of the freight section.” Joint Task Force Port Opening (JTF-PO), managed by USTRANSCOM, has been using BCS3-NM as part of their suite of capabilities for the past four years. JTF-PO has a unique process to quickly open and establish ports of debarkation and initial distribution. This organization was on the leading edge of deployment of BCS3-NM and has strongly advocated for BCS3-NM’s inter- and intra-theater distribution reach. “Every time we embark on a port opening mission, we incorporate the BCS3-NM,” said Major Armando R. VelasquezKuppinger, LG JTF-PO 690th Rapid Port Opening Element commander. “It provides our commander a great logistical situational awareness at the port, of our traffic on the roads, and our customers we are supporting.”
Future BCS3 continues to evolve into an even more powerful system. The Afghanistan ITV Joint Task Forces recommended BCS3-NM to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the joint staff as a “ready to go” capability to establish a joint distribution COP for the Combined Joint Operations Area–Afghanistan (CJOA-A). A joint urgent operational need statement for modified BCS3NM capability has been approved and will lead to new capabilities that will provide the most accurate and responsive distribution management tool available for both U.S. forces and International Security Assistance Force coalition partners.
Project Manager Mission Command Collapse Strategy The BCS3 product line falls under the Mission Command Collapse strategy, which is converging several Army systems toward a consolidated software product line to ensure streamlined capability. Sustainment C2 is merging and migrating existing BCS3 and BCS3-NM functionality to provide ITV functionality via the BCS3 National Enterprise Data Portal as web services. The objective is to transition BCS3 functionality to collapse client computer or web client as soon as possible to allow existing BCS3 systems to be retired. This means that in the future, BCS3 capabilities will be converted into web services and the user will use a laptop to pull down information and maps for empowered decision making. BCS3 and BCS3-NM continue to provide unique logistics management capability to the joint forces. In an era of budget cuts, BCS3’s joint development, deployment and utilization will ensure that fiscally efficient, state-of the-art logistics systems continue to support soldiers and joint forces. O Kathryn Bailey is with Project Manager Mission Command.
For more information, contact MLF Editor Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.MLF-kmi.com.
MLF 5.10 | 31
Stretching Forward
and Reaching Back Maintenance has to be where the equipment is and for many U.S. forces, this means deployed. By Henry Canaday MLF Correspondent
AMC initially set up a forward base in Southwest Asia that was The long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have demanded very centered on pre-stocked assets. “Then we went from the Phased high availability of all defense assets, both on the ground and in the Troop Deployment Model to the Request for Forces air. This in turn means as much maintenance as posmodel,” Cartwright said. sible has been done in deployed field facilities. Field “We went into Iraq lean and we had to establish units have kept assets operating by reaching back to facilities in Iraq to handle battle damage and losses.” manufacturers and depots for parts and expertise. So AMC reached back to the United States to bring A brigade commander in Kuwait in 2002, Carl LCMC, logistics and research-and-development assets Cartwright is now executive director of field support forward. operations at Army Sustainment Command (ASC), Forward repair facilities were set up in Iraq: one a part of Army Materiel Command (AMC). “We have facility for light tactical vehicles, one for medium tacmade major changes in the last 10 years in AMC and tical vehicles and one for the heavy tactical vehicles. the generating force,” Cartwright emphasized. Facilities in Iraq also completed modifications—for “AMC has made a bridge between the supporting Carl Cartwright example, up to seven levels of up-armoring on commands and the force command in Iraq, bringing soft-skinned high mobility multi wheeled vehicles the generating force to the operating force,” Cart(HMMWVs). Electronic sustainment facilities were also set up in wright summarized. “And we reached back to the Lifecycle ManageIraq to work on high-end equipment. ment Commands (LCMCs).”
32 | MLF 5.10
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Facilities were manned by both contractors and government depot staff. The usual Army standard for repair, all faults identified and parts ordered, could not always be met in wartime, so the Army went to a fully mission capable (FMC) standard. “It can do the mission assigned to it,” Cartwright explained. The Army aimed for 90 to 100 percent readiness according to this FMC standard. The Army established 21 maintenance support teams (MSTs) in Afghanistan and now has 40 of these MSTs in the country. Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) built a joint maintenance facility for light, medium and heavy wheeled vehicles. TACOM and AMC are heavily involved with mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) and MRAP all-terrain vehicles (M-ATVs) in Afghanistan. Eight to 12 Stryker fire support and reconnaissance vehicles are repaired for battle damage each month outside Afghanistan but still in the region. “Looking back, in the two theaters of Iraq and Afghanistan we had a field Army of 230,000, plus support staff,” Cartwright said. “And we met the operational readiness rates.” At peak, the Army had three support battalions in Iraq, and these have been standing down, moving to Kuwait and helping with the return of 12,000 rolling assets and nearly a quarter million non-rolling assets to the United States. In Iraq, The Army will soon be responsible only to the State Department for support of assets assigned to Iraqi forces. Force Protection Industries manufactures and supports blastand mine-protected vehicles such as the Buffalo, Cheetah and Cougar. Theater Manager Mark Gander said basic support in theater is similar for these products. “They have different characteristics, but they all have engines, tires and drive trains. Service in deployment is critical, so we have regional support in these areas and can reach back to the manufacturer and military depots.” In deployment, Force Protection vehicles are fixed and repaired only. “They want to get it out quickly, so deployed facilities are less robust,” Gander explained. “Usually in deployment we replace major components that are torn down to their innards at regional support facilities or at depot.” For example, deployed facilities will swap out an old engine for a new one. “We want to do it at whatever level gets it out quickest,” Gander summarized. “That may not be the least expensive, but it keeps vehicles in operation.” Forward bases have only mechanics and tool boxes. But new vehicles have either links to diagnostic computers or self-diagnostics on board. This helps with the preventive maintenance—warfighters can avoid sending components back to the United States for major repairs. Force Protection also assigns field service representatives (FSRs) to forward operation bases. “These give tech advice and also turn wrenches,” Gander said. “Our FSRs are spread across the country based on the density of the equipment. And they can also repair battle damage or road damage at regional support centers.” The company can modernize vehicles as it replaces components. “Every service has a long-term improvement program, due to age and use, so there is always a decision whether to do it there or bring it back.” Similar efforts are made for air assets. “All scheduled maintenance is completed in the area of responsibility [AOR] when possible,” said Master Sergeant Emilia Martin, superintendent of Knowledge Operations Management at Air Force Air Combat Command. Performing maintenance in the AOR www.MLF-kmi.com
increases availability and saves costs on the fuel and manpower necessary for swapping aircraft. If this is not possible, aircraft are swapped and rotated to home stations—this can happen if hangar space not available in the AOR, if a depot maintenance team is required, or if there is extended down time or long inspection time. “In most cases, fighter aircraft can complete all required major phase inspections in the AOR,” Martin noted. Hangar space is always a challenge for heavy maintenance in the AOR. Some bases have no hangars, while others have one or two. “Jacking aircraft, engine changes and seat and canopy removals usually require aircraft to be out of the elements, especially wind,” said Martin. Performing major maintenance in the AOR requires additional manpower. Phase inspections for a fighter may require eight to 12 extra mechanics for the inspection and any extra maintenance with return to service in a few days. More equipment is required for major maintenance. Special tools and test equipment are deployed with the Aircraft Maintenance Unit to complete inspections and perform heavy maintenance. “There are times an inspection team finds a broken part is not available and requires supply experts to source the part from a different base in the AOR, from a base in the United States or from the manufacturer,” said Martin. Some aircraft in Central Command are maintained by contractors that are required to keep airframes mission capable at certain percentages of time. “Contractors do a great job in keeping aircraft above the mission-capable threshold,” Martin said.
MLF 5.10 | 33
Air Force Central Command does not plan to change these practices. “We have a good mix of in-AOR and home-station maintenance plans,” Martin emphasized. “The formula is working and we are successfully generating mission sorties.” Northrop Grumman Technical Services’ Walter Hill handles sustainment for NGC’s unmanned aerial systems (UASs). He is project manager for the 13-foot Bat and MQ-5B Hunter and also works with the MQ-8 Fire Scout and the new Firebird and on payloads for the C-12 Huron. Two Hunter units in Afghanistan are government owned and company operated, with NGC doing all the work under a military commander. Another Hunter unit is mixed with Army soldiers. “We work side by side with the Army on pre-flight/post-flight and we help recover and fix them,” Hill summarized. “We also do the quality Deployed contractors are an important and sometimes integral part of the maintenance and operational capability of assurance function and the supply chain, ordering parts tactical systems. [Photo courtesy of DoD] that come in on DHL, FedEx or military air.” explained Stanley Stevens, Pratt & Whitney’s F135 site leader and Most deployed maintenance consists of pulling and replacing manager at Eglin Air Force Base. components such as engines. But some depot-level repairs, for Intermediate stations traditionally disassemble engine modules example, cracked wings, can be done in the field if a qualified tech and remove line replaceable units. is there and NGC authorizes the work. But the new F135 engine on the F-35 Lightning II will have In addition, NGC has a four-person reset team that visits every no intermediate maintenance. Instead, an “O or O Plus” level will Hunter unit for several months each year. These teams do modificaremove engines, engine modules or line replaceable components tions in the field and can replace both hardware and software. “They (LRCs) for return to depot. Extra modules and LRCs will be stored also integrate new payloads, which are very important,” Hill said. at O level to enable quick return to service. “We do as much as possible in the field,” the NGC exec emphaO Level mechanics will remove engines, remove faulty modules sized. “The alternative is two weeks to get them back to the States, or swap LRCs. The F135 has five modules, fan, power, augmenter, repair them, and then two more weeks to get them back. They nozzle and gearbox, and several times that number of LRCs. should only come back if they are wrecked, and that has not hap“This will give a much smaller logistics footprint at deployed pened in a year.” stations, with fewer people,” Stevens said. “The tasks in the field A Hunter may also be returned to the United States for nonwill be much simpler, requiring fewer skills and less support equipdestructive inspection if it has high time, say 5,000 hours. “These ment. It will maintain the aircraft at a higher availability than on things were originally expected to fly about 500 hours and then be legacy aircraft, but at a lower total cost including the footprint.” For thrown away,” Hill observed. “We haven’t thrown any away.” example, engine mechanics were typically assigned to the flight-line The Army is now moving communications to Tactical Comfor legacy engines. For the F135, the crew chief will be the engine mon Data Link and all UASs will need retrofits. Two Hunter units mechanic. in Afghanistan have already been modified and the other will be, in Elimination of intermediate maintenance is possible because the field. the F135 is more reliable and maintenance-friendly. Additional senLockheed Martin supports the C-130 Hercules deployed in thesors will enable true engine prognostics with constant analysis of ater with FSRs. At the request of Air Force and Marine operators of performance and reliability. “Any degradation will show, [and] the C-130s, FSRs stay for 90 days up to two years. engine talks to us,” Stevens said. “We can forecast when a module Lockheed spokesman Peter Simmons said FSRs provide support will have to be replaced.” in all areas, from the initial delivery of C-130s to rescue and other Pratt and its customers are now verifying the two-level maintespecial missions. “Their primary function is to be the subject matter nance concept at Edwards Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Patuxexperts on hand with operators to enable the C-130s to be turned ent River and the F-35’s first operating base at Eglin. With six F-35s as quickly as possible. It is critical to have availability and mission on station in late October, training of mechanics was set to start capable rate as close to 100 percent as we can.” soon. The Pratt exec says there has been movement in this direction Expert advice by FSRs enables a deployed unit to do deeper fault in the last 15 years, even for older engines. But original designs and diagnostics on site and thus to sometimes avoid pulling an entire the investments made for the old, three-level maintenance program component for return to depot. The FSRs also have reach-back to limits what can be achieved for older models. O Lockheed engineers and direct access to the manufacture’s expertise that military units do not. Deployed maintenance is also affected by technologies, especially in aircraft engines. Legacy engines on Air Force aircraft have For more information, contact MLF Editor Jeff McKaughan at traditionally been maintained at three levels. The organizational jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at (O) level in the field does quick fixes on the flight line. “It’s remove, www.MLF-kmi.com. repair and replace, with servicing any inspections required,” 34 | MLF 5.10
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MLF CALEND A R & DI REC TO RY Calendar
Advertisers Index AAI Logistics & Technical Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 www.aaicorp.com Ability One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 www.abilityonedod.org APL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 www.apl.com Aviall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3 www.aviall.com Cubic Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 www.cubic.com Honeywell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 www.honeywell.com/logistics Maersk Line Limited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 www.maersklinelimited.com Northrop Grumman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-21 www.northropgrumman.com/performance Rockwell Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 www.rockwellcollins.com SupplyCore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 www.supplycore.com Trailer Transit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 www.trailertransit.com
NEXTISSUE
November 29-December 2, 2011 Defense Logistics Arlington, Va. www.defenselog.com
March 26-29, 2012 National Logistics Conference Miami, Fla. www.ndia.org/meetings/2730
December 6, 2011 Supply Chain Cyber Risk Forum Arlington, Va. www.afei.org
May 21-24, 2012 Environment, Energy & Sustainability Symposium New Orleans, La. http://e2s2.ndia.org
February 22-24, 2012 AUSA Winter Fort Lauderdale, Fla. www.ausa.org February 28-March 2, 2012 Defense Maintenance & Sustainment Summit San Diego, Calif. www.defensemaintenance.com
July 25-27, 2012 Performance Based Logistics Alexandria, Va. www.pblusa.com October 22-24, 2012 AUSA Washington, D.C. www.ausa.org
The Publication of Record for the Military Logistics Community
Cover and In-Depth Interview with:
AUSA/WINTER
Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody
ISSUE
U.S. Army Materiel Command
Who’s Who Tank-automotive and Armaments Command/ LCMC
Special Section • Recap/Reset Features • EAGLE • Future Logistics C2 • Expeditionary Base Camps
February 2012 Vol. 6, Issue 1
• Supply Chain Assurance • Rugged Computers
This special pull-out supplement is a detailed look at the organizational structure and business operations of TACOM
Insertion Order Deadline: January 31, 2012 • Ad Materials Deadline: February 7, 2012 To Advertise, Contact: Jane Engel, MLF Associate Publisher 301.670.5700 x 120 • jane@kmimediagroup.com
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MLF 5.10 | 35
Industry Interview
Military Logistics Forum
Mike McGovern Vice President for Business Development DLA Account Manager Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) Mike McGovern is vice president for business development in SAIC’s logistics and engineering solutions business unit and the company’s account manager for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). He has 25 years of aerospace and defense business development, sales, marketing, customer service, account management and operations experience. Q: Please provide some background on SAIC and the company’s work with DoD in the logistics arena. A: As our company description states, SAIC is a Fortune 500 scientific, engineering and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world in national security, energy and environment, health and cybersecurity. Our logistics, readiness and sustainment [LR&S] business is a robust, diverse growth area of the enterprise. We provide our DoD customers with products and services that range from operational logistics for the mine resistant ambush protected family of vehicles, to supply chain integration services for numerous product commodities, to logistics information technology development and sustainment. Q: How is SAIC ready to meet the challenging DoD budgetary times that are ahead? A: As we all know, for the forseeable future DoD will be challenged to significantly reduce costs while maintaining effective support to our warfighters. Industry will need to be on the same page with government for this effort to succeed. SAIC’s LR&S business, and for that matter the entire SAIC enterprise, is keenly focused on providing innovative solutions that reduce costs and improve efficiencies. An overarching objective of SAIC LR&S is to provide affordable readiness and operational availability at the lowest life cycle cost. Whether it’s for logistics support of the ammunition supply point in theater, or supply and delivery of chemicals, packaged petroleum, oil and lubricants to thousands of DoD and foreign military sales [FMS] customers, we’re using integrated technology to reduce 36 | MLF 5.10
costs and improve our performance and our client’s. For example, our proprietary IT tools provide our logisticians and customers with total asset visibility throughout the asset life cycle—resulting in improved situational awareness, better decision-making ability and optimized stock positions. We continue to invest heavily in modernizing our enabling technology. We also strongly believe in partnering both formally and informally with government and industry teamates. This can be accomplished through public-private partnerships where government organizations are performing key elements of an SAIC product support offering, or collaborative demand planning where we work together with defense depots to better understand operational and maintenance trends—thus improving forecasting accuracy and our ability to stock the right products in inventory to meet ever-changing warfighter demand. Q: What are some of the new programs you are working on in partnership with DoD, agencies and the military services? A: We’re excited to begin work on the $1.2 billion DLA Tires Successor Initiative [TSI] and proud of the continued confidence DLA has shown in SAIC with this recent contract award. The program’s scope is complex and calls for supply chain management of military land and aircraft tires—to include forecasting, procurement, inventory management and worldwide distribution directly to DoD and FMS end-users. TSI program responsibilities also include managing the supply of aircraft tire retreads, scrap pick-up, recycling and disposal and the Air Force’s tire life cycle cost program. We’re confident that TSI will allow DLA and DLA’s customers to capitalize on the latest commerical supply chain management
technologies and business practices, which will translate into improved customer support at the lowest possible cost. As we implement this new program, we will be leveraging existing infrastructure built to support more than 20 similar, active DoD supply chain management programs—including use of experienced supply and logistics professionals with domain expertise, existing global warehouses, in-place inventory and use of proven technology solutions. Q: How has SAIC positioned itself and prepared for 2012? A: As we look to 2012 and beyond, SAIC continues to focus on integrating technical capabilities from across the enterprise to meet our customers’ increasingly complex logistics needs. With the budgetary constraints DoD is facing, application of innovation in equipment modernization and sustainment are a must. To this end, we’re threading capabilities such as training, modeling, maintenance and cybersecurity into our core logistics offering. The result is a comprehensive contractor logistics support solution built to meet the requirements of military logistics customers in ground, air and maritime domains. Q: What are some of the main challenges you are facing in meeting the needs of the 21stcentury warfighter? A: There is so much attention on the cost side of the equation right now, and rightfully so. However, our collective efforts to reduce costs can in no way impact readiness or quality. SAIC is incredibly proud of our support to the warfighter and recognizes that our logistics support directly impacts the troops. We help to save soldiers’ lives by fielding and supporting MRAPs in Iraq and Afghanistan; we upgrade air traffic control and landing systems to provide more reliable and safe means to guide military aircraft to airfields; we keep weapon systems operational by providing thousands of unique replacement parts, delivered on-time, around the globe. Moving forward, we need to maintain the proper balance and retain our focus on the customer mission and the warfighter’s needs. O
michael.mcgovern@saic.com www.MLF-kmi.com
Fight proud. Work proud.
Soldier photo courtesy of U.S. Army.
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