By Sue Murray, Defense Logistics Agency Public Affairs
May 21, 2010 - FORT BELVOIR, Va, (NNS) -- The Navy and the Defense Logistics Agency are continuing joint efforts to make the vision of supply chain integration a reality.
Military and civilian personnel from the Navy and DLA are working together to plan and implement the next phase called "Day Two" of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) supply, storage, and distribution (SS&D)transformation.
Day Two involves the transfer of ownership of certain inventories from the Navy to DLA and the roll-out of applicable information technology functions.
BRAC 2005 called for the consolidation of SS&D functions and inventories in support of industrial depot maintenance from the four military services – Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army - to DLA. This means that DLA is performing functions previously performed by the services to receive, issue and store materiel for the men and women who repair aircraft, tanks and ships in industrial maintenance activities.
The first phase of the BRAC implementation for the Navy's fleet readiness centers and naval shipyards was completed between August 2008 and July 2009, when SS&D functions and Navy personnel transferred-in-place to DLA, forming five DLA SS&D sites collocated with Navy industrial customers at Fleet Readiness Centers East (Cherry Point. N.C.), Southeast (Jacksonville, Fla.), Southwest (North Island, Calif.) and at Norfolk (Va.) and Puget Sound (Bremerton, Wash.) Naval Shipyards.
When developing the BRAC 2005 supply and storage recommendations, DLA senior officials said Department of Defense leaders envisioned an integrated supply chain to include industrial depot maintenance operations and depot-level reparable procurement support.
"This BRAC is not about closures, is about transformation. It is about creating an integrated supply chain for DoD maintenance operations," said Navy Capt. Dave Coderre, DLA Strategic Programs. "What the Office of the Secretary of Defense and military leaders envisioned was a seamless supply chain that removes handoffs and layers of inventory and provides end-to-end support. Our joint Navy and DLA effort here is a key part of bringing this vision to fruition."
As part of the BRAC Day Two effort, 120 naval shipyard and DLA military and civilian personnel met in Norfolk, Va., April 27-28, to begin planning the tasks required to execute Day Two for the shipyards.
Conference participants broke out into integrated process teams to identify the tasks needed and interdependencies with other teams. The teams spanned functional areas such as stock transfer, IT and network infrastructure, system implementation, facilities, finance, human resources, change management, organization alignment and training. The system implementation effort includes joint Navy and DLA team activities to work the changes to and interfaces between DLA and Navy systems.
Navy and DLA senior leaders meet weekly to review schedules and key issues and ensure that teams are positioned to successfully complete the changes, per BRAC law, by September 2011 for all five Navy industrial activities.
"Getting from where we are today to Day Two is five times as complex as what was required when we successfully executed the Day One "as-is, where-is" SS&D functional transfers at Norfolk and Puget Sound naval shipyards," said Navy Capt. Scott Wolfe, Naval Sea Systems Command Logistics and Industrial Operations Directorate.
"We are all DoD," said Wolfe. "We have to ensure we avoid creating an 'us-them' mentality and invest the time to build strong working relationships among our DLA and Navy team members."
A similar face-to-face working session was held at DLA's aviation supply and demand headquarters in Richmond, Va., in March for the Day Two implementation in support of the Navy's fleet readiness centers.
"I felt a great sense of team work and cooperation was underway," Navy Cmdr. Bernard Knox, commander of DLA Jacksonville, said of the March conference. "The conference provided meaningful action items to tackle. None of this is easy, but we embrace the future."
The two conferences represent a milestone for the Navy and DLA in creating an integrated supply chain, officials said.
"This Day Two effort is core to the transformation that DoD leaders envisioned back in 2005," said Coderre.
"What the Day Two teams are doing is bringing DoD closer to an end-to-end supply chain and laying a foundation for continued DoD efforts to optimize effectiveness and efficiency of logistics support to the warfighter."
The DLA supply, storage and distribution activities from Jacksonville, Cherry Point and North Island that support fleet readiness centers, and Puget Sound and Norfolk, which support shipyards, were well-represented at the conferences. Representatives from these sites are working with others from DLA headquarters, the defense supply centers in Richmond and Columbus, Ohio, as well as Navy representatives from Naval Sea Systems Command; Commander, Fleet Readiness Center; Commander, Fleet and Industrial Supply Centers; Naval Supply Systems Command and Commander, Navy Installations Command in ongoing Day Two efforts over the next 16 months.
"There is a lot of work in front of us and limited time to do it," said Navy Capt. Mike Ropiak, commander, Fleet Readiness Centers supply officer. "I encourage the teams to work closely with each other to resolve action items quickly."
As the Department of Defense's combat logistics support agency, DLA provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies, and joint and allied forces with a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America's military forces need to operate, from food, fuel and energy, to uniforms, medical supplies, and construction and barrier equipment. DLA also supplies about 84 percent of the military's spare parts.
DLA has about 26,000 employees worldwide. DLA's business revenues were nearly $38 billion in Fiscal Year 2009.
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