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Materiel Sustainer D. Scott Welker Deputy to the Commander U.S. Army Sustainment Command

2014

U.S. Army Sustainment Command

U.S. Army Sustainment Command

Materiel Sustainer

Q& A

Sustaining Army and Joint Forces Globally in Support of Combatant Commanders

D. Scott Welker Deputy to the Commander U.S. Army Sustainment Command D. Scott Welker serves as the deputy to the commander for the U.S. Army Sustainment Command (ASC), a position he has held since October 2005. As deputy to the commander, Welker leads a global organization responsible for sustaining Army and joint forces in the U.S. and abroad in support of combatant commanders. Welker leads and directs the command’s global logistics mission, encompassing a workforce of approximately 300 military personnel, 2,200 civilian employees and 70,000 contractor employees. The ASC links strategic and operational sustainment capabilities to tactical units, integrates and synchronizes materiel distribution, and enables unit readiness. His previous assignment was deputy to the commander for ASC’s predecessor, the U.S. Army Field Support Command.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and economics from Washington State University, and a Master of Business Administration degree from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

He has served in numerous assignments since entering the government workforce as an ammunition management intern at Savanna Army Depot in Illinois. Upon graduation from the intern program, he was assigned to the Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command in Rock Island, Illinois to continue work in ammunition management. From November 1992 to September 1994, Welker served in the Defense Ammunition Directorate.

His responsibilities included the integration of the Ammunition Stockpile Management Plan, munitions operational deliberate planning, and customer support functions. He next served as a logistics management specialist in the Business Management Directorate. He spearheaded the supply depot operations mission and was responsible for establishing the Ammunition Tiering Concept Plan. Welker was next assigned as chief of the Operations Division, DCS for Army War Reserve, under the Industrial Operations Command. During this tenure, he was responsible for all prepositioned operations associated with the Army War Reserve Support Command mission.

From November 1997 through July 2001, Welker served as the civilian executive assistant to the commanding general of the U.S. Army War Reserve Support Command. He managed the overall mission of prepositioned operations, resource management, systems integration, and materiel management. Welker then served as the director of the Joint Munitions Command’s Production Directorate. In that role, he executed the ammunition production missions of the command and oversaw planning, programming, 12 | MLF 8.6 | U.S. Army Sustainment Command

and budget preparation to ensure on-time delivery of quality ammunition. He was also responsible for creating and maintaining an environmentally sound, safe, secure, and responsive industrial production base. He was subsequently assigned as the Army Field Support Command’s first civilian chief of staff.

On October 30, 2005, Welker was appointed as a member of the Senior Executive Service. He has earned many awards and decorations, and was selected as a Presidential Rank Award Winner in the Meritorious Executives category in 2010.

Q: As retrograde efforts continue to accelerate from Afghanistan, tell me about the role ASC has in the process. What TTPs have you learned from earlier efforts that are being employed to manage the effort?

A: First of all, the Army Sustainment Command is a global organization that sustains Army and joint forces in support of combatant commanders. We provide support not only to the Army, but across the joint, intergovernmental, interagency and multinational environments. That’s important to know as we talk about the services we provide, from retrograde to providing combatant commanders with sourcing solutions through our contracting programs, to www.MLF-kmi.com

U.S. Army Sustainment Command sustainment operations, to equipping the Army with the materiel it needs on time and in the right condition.

The withdrawal of equipment from Iraq and Afghanistan is the largest of its kind since World War II, and ASC has a huge role to play in this operation. Through our Army field support brigades (AFSB) stationed in Afghanistan and Kuwait, we regain accountability of equipment no longer needed in the field and bring it back to AMC depots for reset, or redistribute it according to Department of the Army requirements. The 401st AFSB works closely with the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, the Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and Army Materiel Command life cycle management commands to retrograde this equipment in accordance with established goals and timelines.

These timelines, established by the U.S. Force Afghanistan and the Army Central Command, were divided into four phases, with phase three just completed June 30. ASC has made all targets throughout this period, with 184,000 pieces of equipment (10,400 rolling stock and 174,000 non-rolling stock) removed from theater.

More than 100 bases have been closed. We have now started on phase four, which is scheduled to end December 31, 2014.

The 401st also operates the Army redistribution property assistance team (RPAT) yards throughout Afghanistan to provide combat commanders with an expedited way to transfer their equipment to ASC accountability. In addition to RPAT yards in seven locations, we have mobile yards to provide combat commanders a convenient

place to take their excess equipment for inspection and turn it in for retrograde back to the U.S. Through these mobile RPAT yards, we go to the customer so that they don’t have to go to Bagram or Kandahar to turn in their equipment.

Our retrograde processes have undergone continuous improvement so that what used to take days now takes hours. Changes in inspection of the equipment to completion of accountability and transportation documentation are all part of our lessons learned from our earlier retrograde of equipment in Iraq.

Q: Contracting is an often-discussed topic, especially when it comes to becoming more efficient and effective. What are elements of your guidance and direction that target the contracting process and how to make it more streamlined?

A: Contracting is just one piece of the acquisition process. There are three separate and distinct pieces, albeit they must be fully integrated, to this process: requirements determination, placing a requirement on a contracting vehicle, and contractual oversight.

What we continually see is that requiring organizations, normally not familiar with the contracting process, go directly to a contracting organization with a requirement to be contracted. Contracting organizations normally are not familiar with the requiring organization’s real needs and essentially put trust in the requiring activity that they have properly documented the true performance

Whether helping our government use real-time intelligence or keeping our troops well equipped and safe, we have one focus–protecting our national security for future generations.

Our customers have a critical mission and they rely on us for solutions they can trust.

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U.S. Army Sustainment Command | MLF 8.6 | 13

U.S. Army Sustainment Command

Maj. Gen. John Wharton Commanding General

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. James Spencer Command Sergeant Major

Col. Darren Werner Chief of Staff

Norbert Herrera G1 Human Resources

401 Army Field Support Brigade

402 Army Field Support Brigade

403 Army Field Support Brigade

Col. William Krahling

Col. Edward Burke

Col. James Kinkade

Col. Jordan Chroman

Sgt. Maj. Brian Marone

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Willie Odoms Jr.

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Ronald Ferdinand

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Dexter Speights

2014

Distribution Management Center Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.

Bagram, Afghanistan

Camp Arifjan, Kuwait

Camp Henry, Korea

Command staff

D. Scott Welker Deputy to the Commander

Vacant Deputy Commanding General

Col. James Baker G2 Intelligence

Col. Donald Mayer G3/7 Operations

404 Army Field Support Brigade

405 Army Field Support Brigade

Joint Base LewisMcChord, Wash.

Kaiserslautern, Germany

Sgt. Maj. Douglas Martin Deputy Commanding General Sergeant Major

Kathryn Szymanski Chief Counsel

Carl Cartwright Field Support

Jay Carr LOGCAP

Jim Coffman G4 Logistics

Jerry DeLaCruz G5 Strategic

Col. Scott Smith G6-Information Technology

Lee Hansen G8 Resource Management

406 Army Field Support Brigade

407 Army Field Support Brigade Fort Hood, Texas

Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.

Fort Belvoir, Va.

Fort Bragg, N.C.

ASC Army Reserve Element

LOGCAP

Col. James Moore

Col. Christopher Roscoe

Col. Richard Menhart

Col. Steve Allen

Col. Sue Henderson

Col. Alex Fink

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Gregory Binford

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Bryan Kroontje

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Eric Fraley

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Nathaniel Richardson

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Stewart Vest

Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Deborah Segebart

U.S. Army Sustainment Command requirements. This method consistently results in poorly defined requirements outlined in non-standardized performance work statements, put on great contracts and don’t meet the needs of the customers. More often than not, the acquisition process isn’t integrated properly across all functional domains. Not only does this lead to inefficiencies, but it also increases costs and places undue risk on operational execution.

So, what we need to start with are clear requirements. ASC has established a contract management program office similar to LOGCAP that acts as an intermediary between the requiring units and the contracting organizations. This office serves as the focal point to ensure standardization and for sound acquisition strategy development. The office coordinates and directs technical subject matter experts to evaluate the requirements. This office also looks at requirements from different units to determine if they can be combined into a single contract. By doing so, ASC can reduce the number of contracts awarded, which will save money and reduce the number of people and organizations devoted to contractual oversight.

Within the contract management program office we have also developed an Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise, or EAGLE, business office where supply, maintenance and transportation support requirements, whether they are from ASC or other Army organizations, flow through before they go to contracting.

The third piece, contracting oversight, is important to ensure that the contractors perform to the specifications of the contract.

ASC has trained contracting officer representatives with technical expertise, made up of both civilians and military, who assure that the contractors are doing what the contract says they should do and are meeting the performance requirements outlined in the properly documented performance work statement.

Q: Recently there was a small business symposium at Quad Cities. What were the big takeaways for ASC? Tell me about Sustainment Command’s relationship with the small business community.

A: This year’s Midwest Small Business Government Contracting Symposium took place May 7-8 at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill. The symposium, sponsored by the Iowa/Illinois Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association and the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, was a great success, with 82 exhibitors and 617 attendees, 327 of them representing small businesses.

John Nerger, the executive deputy to the Army Materiel Command’s commanding general, gave the keynote address. He talked about the importance of an industrial base that can adapt to meet the government’s needs.

We have been conducting these symposiums since 2008, and they grow every year. For instance, this is the first time we’ve combined the symposium with the advanced planning briefing to industry, which included all requirements from Army Materiel Command units here at Rock Island, as well as the garrison and other RIA tenant units.

ASC has focused on providing small businesses more opportunities to win contracts, and we’ve done a good job of it. We’ve met or exceeded our small business goals nine out of the last 10 years.

As of June 10, 2014, we have awarded 15 percent of our contracts to small businesses, against our goal this year of 13.5 percent.

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Another great example of our relationship with small business is our EAGLE program. Of the first six task orders awarded under EAGLE, four of them have been awarded to small businesses.

Through EAGLE, task order requirements with an annual value equal to or less than $35.5 million are set aside for small business.

There are also increased opportunities for small businesses to bid for task orders greater than that amount.

The EAGLE strategy that we developed two years ago estimated the amount of money going to small business would increase by 160 percent. It may require both small and large businesses to think a little differently about their relationships with each other as they build their teaming arrangements under EAGLE. For example, small businesses may want to consider teaming with large businesses when they compete for task orders. The opportunities created for them are tremendous.

ASC is focused on not only meeting small business goals, but on including small businesses as vital partners in the success of this command. We just completed our fifth round of basic ordering agreements (BOA) refresh that included our FY15 EAGLE requirements. We issued nine new BOAs with this refresh, and all were to small businesses, with three of those nine being service-disabled veteran-owned, one veteran-owned, and two that were 8(a) small businesses.

Q: How do you see ASC’s overseas deployment footprint transforming over the next few years?

A: I see our overseas footprint changing tremendously in the wake of the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and the Army’s focus on the Pacific theater.

Our focus remains to support the Army Chief of Staff’s focus for regional alignment: Ensuring that our brigades are postured throughout every theater to support the combatant commanders.

We have brigades in place to support European Command operations as well as supporting Africa Command and special operations forces in support of AFRICOM’s objectives. We’re reposturing in the Pacific. We also are focused on providing support to troops at home station here in the continental U.S., and one of our brigades is aligned to support the Southern Command.

The U.S. is drawing down in Afghanistan, leaving a force of fewer than 10,000 troops by the end of this year. We will still remain in that theater, but obviously our presence will be smaller. We’re still working those plans for what our force structure will look like.

We currently have two brigades in the Central Command that supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next summer, however, we will withdraw our Army field support brigade in Afghanistan to Kuwait, and move the one in Kuwait to its home station in Hawaii to support the Defense Department’s focus on the Asia-Pacific region. This transformation in our AFSBs should be complete by the end of next year. We will then have two brigades, the 403rd and the 402nd, to support the Pacific theater, with the 404th at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington also available for Pacific operations.

We have transformed our Directorates of Logistics into Logistics Readiness Centers to provide a power projection platform for an Army that is regionally aligned but globally engaged. These LRCs are AMC’s single face to the field for Army logistics, providing support services at home station as well as giving the combatant www.MLF-kmi.com

U.S. Army Sustainment Command commanders a rapid support capability for deploying units. We are continuously adjusting, standardizing and improving the service LRCs provide, while retaining the flexibility to adjust to Army strategy.

We are also reorganizing our APS structure to provide more regional logistics support to combatant commanders in accordance with Army directives. We have started the process of developing smaller but more flexible activity sets, which will provide deploying combatant commanders with a combined arms, battalion-sized, ready set of equipment to fall in on during contingency, humanitarian and training operations.

We tested the European Activity Set located in Grafenwoehr, Germany. Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division drew equipment from the EAS on their way to training in Hoenfels in May. The EAS test was very successful, with the unit complimentary of the process.

Q: What is the latest update on the progress of the EAGLE (Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise) program?

A: As you are aware, EAGLE was established as a strategic sourcing tool for logistics, and is on track to reduce redundant LRC contracts from 150 to about 40. Consolidation of like contracts has yielded a reduction in execution costs and has eliminated the need for multiple contractual overhead staffing requirements.

EAGLE is on track and set to save the Army significant dollars and make the service contracting requirements for logistics more efficient as additional task orders are awarded.

Three of the primary objectives of EAGLE are to: 1. Eliminate redundancies in supply, maintenance and transportation services-related contracts 2. Expand competition 3. Increase opportunities for small business to operate as prime contractors.

We are achieving these objectives and seeing better-thanpredicted savings from the implementation of the EAGLE program.

We have awarded six task orders and are on track to award 12 more by the end of FY14, 10 in FY15, six in FY16 and five in FY17.

In the first six task orders, we have seen an overall 19 percent cost reduction, equating to nearly $110 million.

We currently have 147 basic ordering agreement holders, with 97 of those being small businesses.

We have recently concluded the process of finalizing BOA number five, which will introduce revised teaming arrangements and a new entrance into the EAGLE program as part of our on-ramp strategy, in line with the improved acquisition strategy to support advertised FY15 requirements.

Industry’s feedback is critical to our continuous improvement efforts with EAGLE. We’re getting a great response from industry on the improvements we’ve already made, but we continue to reach out to industry through various forums such as the BOA holder meetings, one-on-one discussions, small business conferences, and the draft request for proposal process to dialogue on ways to continuously improve the EAGLE process.

As the Army strategy transforms, continuing improvements in the EAGLE program are vital to its remaining relevant. As the www.MLF-kmi.com

Despite challenges of geography, politics or enemy action, any interruption to the supply chain will have second and third order effects and require diligent planning for alternate supply options.

[Photo courtesy of DoD]

Army transforms from war to peace time, the requirements have changed. For instance, the LRCs will continue to be supported through the EAGLE program, but we have improved the source selection process to be more responsive to new Army requirements.

We are hoping that the EAGLE program will become the model of materiel and services acquisition throughout the Army and elsewhere in the Department of Defense.

Q: What are the challenges to managing pre-positioned stocks around the world? What do you do to keep the materiel in a combat-ready state?

A: One of our biggest challenges is to assure our strategic depth, that APS is modernized and meets the needs of those units that fall in on it. To keep materiel combat-ready, we are required to configure the unit sets and maintain the equipment to 10-20, or operational, standards. We continuously modernize our APS equipment and processes to meet the objectives of the combatant commanders.

We’re issuing the APS equipment out routinely to support theater security cooperation exercises as well as contingency operations. But more importantly, we’re getting the equipment back and gaining readiness data that we can use for future programs. We can determine where our maintenance needs to be increased, what areas we must focus on, and then turn it into action to ensure the APS program maintains readiness and that those issues are eliminated for future equipment draws.

Storage of equipment is a huge issue for us. For instance, in Kuwait, where the equipment is exposed to a desert environment, we leased an off-post facility that provides climate control. This resulted in a first-year savings of about $60 million in maintenance costs, with a projected $500 million savings over the next five years.

We are also changing our APS structure by establishing combined activity sets that will provide ready and modernized equipment sets in locations aligned with combatant commands. We have already tested the European Activity Set with the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, and the test appears to have succeeded, with the unit pleased with the condition of and the process for issuing the equipment.

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U.S. Army Sustainment Command Q: Will there be a need to retrain ASC logisticians in skills that may have not received the same level of focus as the skills needed by the logisticians who were engaged in major combat in Afghanistan and Iraq?

A: Over the last 12 years of war, we’ve focused on deploying forces within the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) cycle of reset, train/ready, and available, and we’ve used different means to get to the end of the wars. At this point, the Army is resetting. We’re going back to a CONUS-based Army, where we’re changing our basic focus from counter-insurgency operations to decisive action.

The logistics functions that we perform in a deployed environment, though, are incredibly similar to those we use in CONUS. The skills we use at home station, supporting training and exercise operations, are very similar to those we used in a deployed environment. When I look at the core functions of LOGCAP and the LRCs, the skills are almost the same. So, from the ASC perspective, what our logisticians are doing in a deployed environment, they already do in CONUS. So what we’re looking at is not so much retraining but refocusing our logistics workforce. We’re transitioning programs; we’ve closed out left behind equipment and are in the process of closing pre-deployment training equipment, and we’re getting out of field-level reset. We’re getting back to what are considered more traditional missions.

We have to shift from a deliberate deployment of units based on the ARFORGEN cycle to no-notice deployment using our LRC power projection platforms, which is a big shift.

Probably the biggest change we’ll see are the surging workloads at the LRCs as the Army implements its brigade combat team reorganizations. Some brigades will go away, others will move to other installations. This will affect LRCs at locations throughout CONUS. For 12 years, we’ve been concentrating on an Army at war, deployed to locations outside the United States. That was hard work. Now we have to step back and take a long look at what’s happening at home, and adjust not only to deployed forces but to what’s going on at the installation level, and to the Army strategy at large. Fortunately, we already have the brigades and LRCs at home that will make that adjustment.

Q: What does ASC do to educate and grow the next generation of logisticians and ensure they have both the experience and the education to be successful?

A: ASC leadership is paying particular attention to the development of all of its employees, with particular emphasis on logistician training.

What we need to do is talk about this topic from three perspectives: leader development, technical and mission.

As far as leader development is concerned, we must make sure our senior and aspiring leaders are provided the opportunities for training. Our leadership provides the strategic vision for our command. We must make sure that they are prepared to lead their workforce to accomplish that vision.

In the second area, technical, what has happened is that legacy sustainment systems are being retired as we move towards a central logistics enterprise. So, within wholesale record keeping, we are now using the Logistics Management Program, or LMP, which, 18 | MLF 8.6 | U.S. Army Sustainment Command

when completely implemented, will connect wholesale and retail logistics like never before. We have to retrain our workforce on how to use those processes.

The Decision Support Tool, or DST, is very similar. This system provides ASC with visibility of equipment so we can provide distribution and redistribution recommendations to Department of the Army. We have to get more people trained on that system across the Army.

We also have to organize based on the mission, and decide which of those missions are constant and which we can call special projects. Examples of special projects could be Department of State support, the establishment of a new program, or the European Activity Set. By rotating personnel through these programs, we can provide cross-training and keep the workforce engaged.

We can also provide workforce development by making sure our employees meet certification requirements, in order to better understand and perform their jobs.

One issue in workforce development right now is the number of people who are reaching retirement age. Because of the resource environment we find ourselves in, which results in workforce downsizing, we are facing significant challenges in developing a trained and ready workforce. To develop the workforce of the future, we must ensure that we are getting the right people in the right jobs, recognize the young talent that we have, give them challenging assignments, and develop them into the organizational and technical leaders of the future.

Q: Any closing thoughts?

A: As we take a look at ASC in the future, we are concentrating on four focus areas: 1. We need to look at ASC development. We will continue to work with the Forces Command and Army to identify and mitigate logistics gaps. We need to look at mitigation strategies to close those gaps in our force structure.

2. Where should we take LOGCAP in the future? Do we take it in a regionally aligned capability? What does the next generation of LOGCAP look like?

3. What does materiel management in the future look like?

What is the direction of materiel management? We need to refine, in partnership with the Army and the major command, what it will be in the future.

4. Can we expand the capabilities of service contracting programs such as EAGLE, in terms of a strategic sourcing initiative for Army service acquisitions? Can we employ strategic sourcing like we did for EAGLE, to continue to create efficiencies, draw down contractual oversight requirements, and in the end, save the Army not only considerable money, but to be able to be more efficient in our mission to sustain Army and joint forces in support of combatant commanders?

As we answer these questions, we can see the directions ASC will take in the future. We do know that ASC will be here as the operational arm of AMC, taking on the big logistics integration and synchronization tasks and providing readiness and sustainment capabilities to combatant commanders. O www.MLF-kmi.com