Er winter04 final

L O G I S T I C S O F F I C E R A S S O C I AT I O N Enhancing the military logistics profession since 1982

EXECUTIVE BOARD President Col Art Cameron president@loanational.org Vice President Lt Col Richard Schwing vicepres@loanational.org

The Exceptional Release SPRING 2003

Winter 2004

FEATURES eLog21: Shaping Tomorrow's Air Force Capability... Today

by Lt. Col Glen Marumoto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Treasurer Lt Col Walter "Ike" Isenhour treasurer@loanational.org

Supply Chain Command and Control... A Look into the Future

by Col (ret) John Gunselman, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Information Officer Capt Deb Perry InfoOfficer@loanational.org

Transformation is Key in Maintenance Repair & Overhaul

by Colonel Frank Bruno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Membership Development Capt Stephanie Halcrow membership@loanational.org

Give It Away — Why Not Exchange or Sell It?

by Lt Col (ret) Bob Sherouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Executive Senior Advisor Lt Gen Donald J. Wetekam

DLA’s Transformation, Partnerships Improve Support to the War Fighter

by Allan A. Banghart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Webmaster/Website Capt JD DuVall webmaster@loanational.org www.loanational.org

USAF Serial Number Tracking… Its Time Has Come

by Lt Col Dennis Daley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

THE EXCEPTIONAL RELEASE Editor Col (ret) Kent Mueller editor@loanational.org Assistant Editor Lt Col Lee Levy assteditior@loanational.org

DEPARTMENTS

Executive Director, Marketing/PR ER Managing Editor/Publisher Marta Hannon pr@loanational.org

President's Log(istics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

ER Worldwide Staff Col Mary H. Parker, 39MXG/CC Lt Col Cheryl CA Allen, SAF/AQQM Maj Gene K. Carter, ACSC Student Capt Richard Fletcher, 437 AMX/MOO Capt Paul Pethel, 372 TRS/DO

Conference Scrapbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Graphic Design MMagination, Inc. - Fairfax, VA www.mmagination.com LOA National PO Box 2264 – Arlington, VA 22202 Issue No. 94 - Winter 2004

Editor’s Debrief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 View From The Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Scholarship Winners and Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 CGO Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Chapter Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 On The Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

President’s LOG(istics) Fellow Loggies: Greetings from your new President.

The 2004 Logistics Officer Association Conference is now over and it was, by all measures, a huge success. This was by far the biggest conference to date, with 1420 attendees and 120 vendor booths. The speeches and break out sessions were insightful and right on target. Hats off to Col Carmen Mezzacappa, her Executive Board, and the Blackjack Chapter for putting on a great and memorable conference.

Col Art Cameron

ER: PRESIDENT’S LOG(ISTICS)

I'm honored to serve as your new National LOA president. The new Executive Council, Lt Col Rich Schwing, Lt Col "Ike" Isenhour, Capt Deb Perry, and I have inherited a healthy organization that has experienced exponential growth in the past couple of years. LOA now has over 66 local chapters and over 3,000 members.

My goal during my tenure as LOA president is, as we continue to grow, to ensure we don't lose our focus. Remember, it's all about the troops. Our charter is to work towards training our replacements through professional development and mentoring and sharing of ideas via the Exception Release, emails, and the Annual National Conference. You'll be hearing more from me about this in the future.

Under the Combat Wing Organization we stood up the Maintenance Group and brought all the Wing maintainers back under the umbrella of the Wing's senior maintainer (all goodness!) However, we moved the other half of the Wing's loggies, the LROs, into the new Mission Support Group. Just as when the maintainers were split between the Operations and Logistics Group, it is now vitally important that we have a forum to get all the loggies together; to meet each other, network, and share ideas. LOA fills that niche at both the base level (local chapters) and national level. That said, the local chapters are the key to LOAs success. During my tenure, you'll see an emphasis on local chapter support and ensuring that the chapters have the tools to be effective.

Presently over 70% of eligible maintenance officers are LOA members. This is an amazing level of participation and I want to ensure we maintain our current membership. However, only 30% of eligible LROs are members. I'd like to increase the LRO membership and need local chapter support to do this. As a side note, it was a pleasure to see and talk to the Mission Support Group Commanders that were present at the conference in Las Vegas. I hope to see many more in Atlanta!

The Guard, Reserve and Civilian logisticians are an integral part of our Logistics Officer Association. We added a couple of senior logisticians to our LOA staff to serve as the Reserve and Civilian advisors; Brig Gen Mark Anderson is LOA's new Reserve Advisor and Mr. Ed Koenig is LOA's new Civilian Advisor.

LOA has a very active mentoring program. We presently have over 300 matched mentor/mentees. We plan to really beef up this valuable program; mentoring will become a LOA focus area. Brig Gen Art Morrill has graciously volunteered to head up the mentorship program for LOA. He has some great ideas that you'll hear about shortly. The key to mentorship is a good mentor/mentee relationship (it's a two way street). We are in need of good mentors, so please consider signing up. You'll find it's a rewarding experience that benefits both the mentee and mentor.

Mark your calendars for 10-13 October 2005 and join us in Atlanta for the 2005 LOA Conference hosted by the Middle Georgia chapter. The theme for the conference will be all about Transformation. I expect to see you there.

In closing, I'm excited to take over the reins of this great organization. LOA has evolved into a robust, dynamic organization that provides an excellent service to our membership. I only see our membership support growing. If you have a suggestion on ways to improve LOA, weigh in with me or any of the other National LOA Executive Council members.

–– A R T C A M E R O N 2

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Editor’s Debrief

Transformation…. Activities…growing out of ideas….designed to fundamentally change the way we think about, and do things… focused on "out of the box" fixes…improvements that lead to performance break throughs.

It all sounds good. To get there, however, we have to be willing to really leap past the excuses of the past, embrace change, even "tear down a few icons." To get into the spirit of this revolution, I recommend you read Robert Kriegel's recently reissued best seller, If it ain't broke… Break It!.

In the mean time, ER has a great line up in store for you for some unconventional thinking that will lead to changes being sought by our Air Force.

Brig Gen Art Morrill's perspective is always fresh, and in this case will "push you out of the nest" in your thinking, with his View from up on the

Col (ret) Kent Mueller

Air Staff. The stage having been set, you'll be ready for eLog 21. Lt Col

ER: EDITOR’S DEBRIEF

Glen Marumoto and his team lay out the cosmic objectives of the Air Force's overarching program to achieve integrated information technology, supporting totally new ways in which to achieve and maintain readiness. While we're on the eLog 21 subject, Col (ret) John Gunselman illuminates the vital, issue of supply chain command and control an essential piece in the vision of the future. Col Frank Bruno gets us back to the "here and now" with a great look at innovation and initiative underway in the transformation of Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) at Tinker.

Making transformation a reality in programs that are not just planned, but fielded, Tinker has some lessons for us all in "the way ahead."

Bob Sherouse of GSA provides an interesting look at "exchange sale" of systems and materiel that have been taken out of service…as a source of revenue. It should get you thinking more about the "enterprise" of logistics, and how we can line the cost composition of our activities and overall performance… to transform how we do business! DLA is not to be left behind in transformational programs, as you will find out in Allan Banghart's article describing the fundamental improvements happening at DLA… as they transform their core business model.

Back to the "nuts and bolts" level with Lt Col Dennis Daley's piece on serial number tracking that points to the fact that advances in technology make it feasible to bring a finer view of asset visibility. At the unit level Lt Robert Cox shares his unit's innovation in operating from deployment configured processes… even while at home station… the result being great daily operations… and instant deployability.

As a bonus… the 2004 National Conference scrap book should bring back some great memories for those who attended… and inspire all those who did not to "book early" for LOA Atlanta 05!!

As always…. Thanks to the world wide ER TEAM… and their effort in producing and editing interesting and topical articles. Speaking of our ER Team - I'd like to welcome our newest recruit, Lt Col Lee Levy. Look for the creation of ER "Bureaus" during 2005, both regional and functional. If you're interested in being a part of the ER TEAM contact me or Marta… we're always looking for help in making ER even better! Thanks for all that you do!

––K E N T M U E L L E R

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AND YOUR

ER TEAM

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V/

Nellis m a e T R

Scholarship Winners MASTER SERGEANT PAUL S. RAYMOND is the Chief, Personal Property and Passenger, Traffic Management Flight, assigned to the 374th Logistics Readiness Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan. He recently earned an Associates Degree in Transportation Management graduating with a 4.0 GPA, and is currently attending Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Academy by correspondence.

STAFF SERGEANT KEVIN A. DAVIS is an AC-130H/U, MC130P, and C-130J aircraft Communication Navigation Mission System Instructor, Detachment 7, 373d Training Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida. He has Associates Degree in Avionics Systems Technology from CCAF and has recently completed an Associates Degree in Instructor of Technology and Military Science.

TECHNICAL SERGEANT KENNETH L. NELSON is a Logistics Plans Craftsman assigned to the 7th Logistics Readiness Squadron as NCOIC, Deployment Operations, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

Nelson is pursuing a BS in Criminal Justice with a minor in Logistics and maintains a 3.9 GPA. MASTER SERGEANT SHAUN DERRY is filling a select position on the HQ AETC staff as a command Weapon System Manager. MSgt Derry has two Associates Degrees, one in Logistics and one in Social Services. He is currently completing requirements for a BS in Business Administration from St. Leo's University, and maintains a 3.8 GPA.

TECHNICAL SERGEANT JAMES GRAY is a Logistics Plans Craftsman assigned to the Combat Readiness Flight, 81st Transportation Squadron, 81st Mission Support Group, 81st Training Wing, Keesler AFB, MS. Gray is currently working towards a Business Management degree at St. Leo University.

TECHNICAL SERGEANT JOSEPH M. BORKOWSKI is the NCOIC, A-Shift Fuels Distribution assigned to the 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron, Fuels Management Flight, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. Borkowski is currently pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Business and Organizational Security Management at Webster University. He is scheduled to graduate in May 2005.

A1C JOSHUA A. MARTIN is an Aerospace Maintenance Journeyman assigned to the 62d Maintenance Squadron, McChord AFB Washington. A1C Martin is currently attending school with plans to complete his Associates Degree in Arts and Sciences by the end of the calendar year.

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Thank You, Scholarship Donors

S C H O L A R S H I P B E N E FA C T O R S ( D O N AT I O N S

OF

$1000

OR MORE)

(L-R) Secretary James G. Roche; Mr. Fred Mullis, Pratt & Whitney; Mr. Joe O’Connell, Boeing; Mr. Hector Gavilla, Atti; Ms Diana Francois, Whitney; Bradley and Brown, Inc. Not pictured: Mr. Karl Wenkheimer, EG&G; and Mr. Geary Wallace.

S C H O L A R S H I P PAT R O N S ( D O N AT I O N S

OF

$500

TO

$999)

(L-R) Secretary James G. Roche, Mr. Bob Noble, Northrop Grumman; Mr. Mike Brown, Teradata; Mr. Russ Hall, Booz-Allen-Hamilton; Mr. Kent Owsley, Intergraph; Lt Col Ken McKeller, LOA Alamo Chapter; Mr. Cliff Smith, Lockheed Martin; Mr Steven Powers; Mr Denny Portz. Not pictured: Mr. Steven Farrish.

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GENERAL ZETTLER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD The purpose of the Gen Zettler Lifetime Achievement Award is to recognize members of the Logistics Officer Association who have demonstrated sustained, superior leadership in service to this organization. The nominees for this award must have at least 20 years of service in a logistics-related career and at least 10 years of membership in the LOA. Each LOA Chapter president and LOA Executive Committee member may submit a nominee for this award.

Sec Roche and Lt Gen (ret) Zettler present Col (ret) Joanne Flanigan (L) and Col (ret) James Hass with the 2004 General Zettler Lifetime Achievement Award.

Special Thanks to Our Platinum & Gold Sponsors PLATINUM SPONSOR: SAP Public Services GOLD SPONSORS: Advanced Testing Technologies, Inc. Alaska Structures 14

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LOA 2004 National Conference Thank You, Sponsors!

PLATINUM SPONSOR: SAP Public Services GOLD SPONSORS: Advanced Testing Technologies, Inc. Alaska Structures SILVER SPONSORS: Lockheed-Martin Pratt & Whitney Teradata - a division of NCR Computer Sciences Corporation BRONZE SPONSORS: Northrop Grumman Chromalloy Gas Turbine Engines VENDOR RECEPTION SPONSORS: Alaska Structures The Boeing Company Rolls Royce ICE BREAKER SPONSORS: Cisco Systems EG&G Honeywell Aerospace GOLF TOURNAMENT SPONSOR: The Nordam Group IT SPONSORS: Telos Corporation CISCO Itronix HP Micron Static Safe Motion Computing ON LINE REGISTRATION PAGE SPONSOR: Alpha - Omega Change Engineering CONFERENCE BOOKLET SPONSOR: CACI BREAK SPONSORS: Tuesday a.m.: Intergraph Tuesday p.m.: CDO Technologies Wednesday a.m.: Teradata- a division of NCR Wednesday p.m.: Bearing Inspection, Inc.

View from the Top T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O N E S E C O N D

AT A

TIME

During the 2004 Logistics Officer Association (LOA) Conference Lt Gen Donald J. Wetekam (AF/IL) outlined his assessment of the environment in which our Air Force operates.

Importantly, he presented his logistics transformation vision for our Air Force, established our objectives and set our Mach. He also told us the logistics transformation methodology would

Brig Gen Arthur B. Morrill III

be based on lean principles. These principles are discussed in a book that should be a must read for all logisticians: “Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation,” by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones.

Like Gen Wetekam and Messrs. Womack and Jones, we’re all thinking about transformation whether we use the “T” word or not. While we logisticians have always been in the business of making the mission happen, our historic improve-

ER: VIEW

FROM THE

TOP

ment focus has been more on effectiveness and less on transformation—our several organization changes notwithstanding. In fact, we often believed we could only be effective or efficient—not both. That’s why Gen Wetekam said, “Let’s get it out on the table. There’s nothing wrong with efficiency. In fact it ought to [also] be our objective. There is something wrong with waste.” Simply said, our objective should be to remarkably improve our effectiveness and efficiency across the spectrum of logistics activities.

In the government sector, clearly Air Force Materiel Command’s air logistics centers (ALCs) are process engineering more and more of their business using lean and other techniques. Ogden ALC leaned their F-16 Wing Shop process, reducing flow days from 64 to 27 and wait time for delivery to only one day. Oklahoma City ALC reinvented the C/KC135 PDM line, reducing flow days from 427 to 207 and giving back 100 more aircraft to the operational Air Force.

Likewise, Warner-Robins ALC transformed its C-5 PDM line, reducing flow days from 339 to 240. Much of this government transformation depends on private sector partnering, e.g., the Pratt & Whitney - OC-ALC F119 engine line.

These are just our initial successes. What’s really needed, as Gen Wetekam told us, is for all of us to do much more.

Some of that “more” is seeing lean process engineering elsewhere in our Air Force. For example, Air Mobility Command (AMC) is lean engineering their C-5 Isochronal (ISO) Inspection Dock at Dover AFB. Their next steps are to export those benefits to other ISO activities and lean engineer other individual sites (processes). Air Combat Command, Space Command, and Air Education & Training Command are pursuing comparable lean pilot projects, and the private sector is doing the same.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) in Fremont, California.

NUMMI is a joint Toyota-General Motors plant that produces approximately 220,000 Toyota Corollas and Pontiac Vibes and 150,000 Toyota Tacomas annually. Imagine this: A new vehicle rolls off the line every 80 seconds. It‘s an eye-watering operation...not because they’ve got new facilities (they don’t), but because they have as tight a production operation focused on safety, quality and continuous process improvement (Toyota’s priorities) as I’ve seen.

If you can imagine, NUMMI team members assemble parts from around the world. For example, finished/painted truck beds (“decks”) from Mexico are mated to painted trucks assembled in the California NUMMI plant, yet NUMMI only 16

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carries just over an hour of deck inventory at any given time! Talk about “sortie generation” supporting global requirements across international borders to extremely high safety, quality and production standards!

Some may say this is apples to oranges; new manufacturing is different (easier) than maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). Others may say what works in the private sector won’t work in the public sector because the Air Force is different. I say, “Baloney!” Maintenance production is maintenance production. Supply chain management is supply chain management. While some differences exist between the public and private sectors, the differences aren’t significant enough to make a difference.

Consequently, there’s no reason we can’t systemically apply lean methodologies found in the Toyota Production System (TPS) model to all Air Force MRO activities! This is what makes the production management capabilities of eLog21 so promising. Visualize applying eLog21 production management tools to the entirety of the Air Force aircraft maintenance production enterprise—not just to AFMC. Then visualize applying lean methodologies to all our major aircraft maintenance and supply chain processes! Imagine the quantum leap in effectiveness and efficiency that would result!

I was also impressed that Toyota doesn’t let comprehensive institutional transformation (i.e., continuous process improvement) overwhelm them—either as an organization or as individual employ8ees (“team members”). In fact, they view themselves as unsuccessful organizationally and individually if they’re not actively transforming (improving) their production processes every day—literally. In short, they don’t see transforming every process in their plant—a plant larger than a wing and as large as an ALC—as an overwhelming task. A walk around NUMMI’s vehicle assembly production floor makes it apparent how that’s possible.

NUMMI has a company-wide commitment to work at continuous production and supply chain process improvement, one second at a time, focusing on safety, quality and process/production—in that order. Frankly, their one-second approach is pure brilliance. It’s simple…it works…and we ought to adopt it. It takes a big task like continually transforming an entire high-volume automobile production plant (or lean engineering a wing’s entire maintenance production effort) and makes it entirely doable not only from an organizational perspective, but also on an individual basis.

That’s hugely liberating—and effective!

How then should we respond to Gen Wetekam’s challenge to transform more logistics activities using lean techniques in an Air Force enterprise context? Additionally, how can we transform faster, so we continually reduce the cycle time of lean process engineering to achieve more benefits sooner?

To better enable our global AEF capability construct, perhaps we should pursue globalizing selected aircraft maintenance “back shop” repair capabilities (especially avionics, engines, phase and ISO) in lieu of institutionalizing multiple regional orientations. After all, isn’t our objective to better and simultaneously support operations at a variety of locations in the continental United States and in the several operating theaters? We’re coming to that conclusion in the Regional Supply Squadron (RSS) arena as we continue our incremental transformational journey from a wing to a MAJCOM to a theater to a global supply chain perspective, the latter most notably evident as we pursue eLog21, the full service Logistics Support Center (LSC) initiative, etc.

Perhaps we might even think of maintenance production less in terms of organizational, intermediate and depot level maintenance, and more in terms of wing, expeditionary and fleet maintenance. In this construct, wing maintenance could be focused on sortie generation and have only deployable flightline and back shop capabilities, the latter being

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limited. Expeditionary maintenance (e.g., avionics, engines, phase, ISO, etc.) could be focused on daily garrison support and worldwide expeditionary maintenance support. It could be distinct from wing maintenance in that it would be strategic in terms of siting, capabilities, supply chain management and distribution, command structure and customer base. It could also, for example, be in the form of an expeditionary support wing and have under its mantle a global LSC. Fleet maintenance could involve public and private sector MRO partners, and would be found in our air logistics centers and comparable private sector activities.

As we logisticians discuss these and other ideas, we should welcome change. Our obligation is not to get too comfortable with the status quo. The operational environment is not static; we can’t be—because we have to lead turn the enemy…in space, in the air, on the ground, and certainly in the logistics arena. That means we must create our future…not just find ourselves in it. Our ability to transform logistics processes in every area of activity via lean engineering and complementary techniques is only limited by our imagination. As Gen Wetekam said, we must do more not just because we’re good at it, but rather because of compelling Air Force needs in the areas of logistics effectiveness and efficiency. The good news? It’s entirely doable.

We only need to think of ourselves as global providers…and transform ourselves one-second at a time!

––B R I G A D I E R G E N E R A L A R T H U R B . M O R R I L L I I I DIRECTOR

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R E S O U R C E S , D C S / I N S TA L L AT I O N S & L O G I S T I C S ( H Q U S A F / I L P )

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eLog21: Shaping Tomorrow's Air Force Capability... Today Submitted by Lt. Col Glen Marumoto Imagine an Air Force without logistics. Our aircraft would not fly, our Airman would not be deployed, and our munitions would be ineffectual. The Air Force cannot function without logistics and is dependent on it to get us what we need at the exact time we need it. Employing a more intelligent approach to logistics will continue to get us what we need, when we need it, but quicker and at a reduced cost.

The Air Force's response to creating smarter logistics processes and systems is our logistics transformation campaign, Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century (eLog21). The eLog21 Campaign was first introduced at the February 2003 Corona meeting of Air Force senior leaders. USAF/IL is leading the eLog21 Campaign and has put together a comprehensive plan and initiatives to get the Air Force logistics community moving. Lt. Gen. Donald J. Wetekam, Deputy Chief of Staff for Installations and Logistics, stated, "Through our work in eLog21, we will for the first time have a fully integrated enterprise view of our logistic processes. Our enterprise approach links our supply, maintenance, and transportation processes to truly focus our support to an expeditionary force." The eLog21 Campaign is more than a technology implementation; although technology is a critical enabler, eLog21 "is about new ways to conduct business and, more importantly, the way we think about work," said General Wetekam.

Photo: Airmen check the flight control air data system of an F-16 Fighting Falcon at Osan Air Base, Korea. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Bradley C. Church, U.S. Air Force.)

As changes are being driven into our expeditionary operations, Air Force logistics processes and systems are in need of the same changes. We have great people delivering war-winning results, but we cannot continue to support modern warfighters with antiquated processes and systems, some of which date back to the 1940s. While current logistics operations are not broken, sustainment costs are skyrocketing. The Air Force spent over $27.5 Billion in 2003 for logistics. By 2009, this will increase to $30 Billion unless we overhaul current logistics processes and systems are overhauled. The overarching The Logistics Mission is Straightforward: goals of the eLog21 Campaign are to increase ! Get the force to the fight equipment availability by ! Keep the force in the fight 20%, and reduce annual ! Prepare the force for the next fight operations and support cost by 10% ($2.75B) by FY11.

Inspecting an engine on an F-16 Fighting Falcon at a forward-deployed location supporting Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. (USAF photo by Master Sgt. Terry L. Blevins)

COMMERCIAL BEST BUSINESS PRACTICES C A M PA I G N

AND THE ELOG21

The eLog21 Campaign will help enhance collaboration and integration across our logistics chain of activities through the application of commercial best business practices such as Lean, Supply Chain Management, and Enterprise Resource Planning.

At the core of the eLog21 Campaign's business process redesign effort is Lean Management. Lean principles can be traced to Toyota Production Systems which have been applied widely across many industries to improve performance.

Lean concepts are focused on improving all our processes, from shop floor to processes such as Human Resources. Lean identifies the waste or non-value added activities and the necessary steps to eliminate those activities. Lean focuses not just on reducing waste found in inventory but reducing all of the classic forms of waste: over production, inventory, motion, defects, transportation, over processing, and waiting time. Lean also goes beyond waste to look at how to decrease cycle times and improve flow. By improving processes, our resources (equipment run time, floor space, personnel) are freed to perform value added activities such as maintaining more capabilities that are organic. Lean is also not a one-time effort. One of its primary principles is continuous improvement. As many advocates of Lean already know, continuous passes through a process yield measurable improvements each time. The Air Force has already experienced several successes by applying Lean principles at our Air Logistics Centers: ! The F-16 wing shop's workflow days at the Ogden ALC have been reduced from 64 to 27 days, and on-time delivery has improved by 67 percent. ! The C-5 Galaxy depot maintenance at the Warner Robins ALC has been cut from 339 days to the low 200s. ! Workers at the Oklahoma City ALC have cut KC-135 flow days from more than 400 days to about 200.

Removing a GBU-12 laser-guided bomb from an F-16 Fighting Falcon at a forward-deployed base supporting Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. (USAF photo by Master Sgt. Terry L. Blevins)

The eLog21 Campaign will center our logistical structure on the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM). Using SCM best practices, philosophies, and techniques, we will enhance the support provided to the warfighter by improving weapon systems availability and reducing costs in our logistics supply chain. SCM is a commercial technique that focuses on "the management of EXCEPTIONAL RELEASE

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internal logistics functions and relationships between the enterprise and its customers and suppliers." SCM focuses on three main entities: the supplier, the enterprise, and the customer. By applying SCM techniques, we can be more proactive and accurately plan for logistical needs. Our logisticians will have universal access to consistent, near real-time information and total visibility across the integrated supply chain, which facilitates demand planning, parts ordering, and parts availability.

Ultimately, we can manage our supply chain as a single entity, not just as individual components. According to General Wetekam, "Reforming our supply processes is absolutely crucial‌ to building strategic sourcing agreements with our key suppliers and management by commodity grouping.

There's potentially a great savings there, and it will allow us to significantly reduce our cycle times."

schedule a particular part for one location and from one source. With the implementation of the eLog21 Campaign, they will have an enterprise view of a particular part's availability and will be responsible for planning across all depots, bases, field level shops, and deployed forces, as well as sourcing from multiple suppliers (both organic and non-organic).

Shifting from a functional to a cross-functional approach to work will require the logistics workforce to apply competencies such as planning and inventory management; maintenance and repair; distribution; and strategic sourcing with an enterprisewide view for the first time. He or she will be empowered to make decisions that affect the entire supply chain, and will need to learn new competencies to view the supply chain as a whole.

Training for the logistics workforce will be targeted to execute this new approach to work. Preparing and equipping the logistics workforce with the Finally, Enterprise Resource Planning knowledge required to operate in the (ERP) is a commercial technology solunew logistics environment is a key comtion that brings manufacturing, finanponent of the eLog21 Campaign. As a cials, distributions, and other business Inspecting an inlet ring for a C-130 Hercules aircraft. starting point, education on the comfunctions together. The end result is (USAF photo by Tech. Sgt. Caryn Gardenhire) mercial business practices being applied the integration and reduction of inforwithin the eLog21 Campaign is needed. mation systems. The Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) is the eLog21 Campaign's ERP These business practices encompass the competencies that system. ECSS is the enabling technology required to support the will be critical in the future logistics environment. logistics business process improvements being driven by the Overall, eLog21 is about our people. The most critical aspect eLog21 Campaign. ECSS consists of modules that will provide will be our ability to draw on the ideas and vigor of the thouuniversal, near real-time information for planning and schedulsands of logisticians that keep our Air Force functioning every ing, and total asset visibility across the enterprise. ECSS will day. This transformation effort requires everyone's commitempower logisticians to accomplish tasks quicker and more deciment -- from senior leaders and commanders to NCOs and sively through access to a complete view of the supply chain.

Airmen on the flight line, to our dedicated civilians at the depots. The eLog21 Campaign has the support of Secretary TRANSFORMING THE LOGISTICS WORKFORCE Roche and Chief of Staff General Jumper. They, however, Through best business practices of Lean, SCM and ERP, there cannot do this alone. Everyone's dedication and leadership is will be an increased collaboration between employees across needed to make the eLog21 Campaign a success. the logistics supply chain. The Air Force will centralize data using common databases and the logistics workforce will man- Lt. Col Glen Marumoto, HQ USAF/ILID, Deputy Chief, age and perform work through horizontally focused processes. Transformation Management Division. Special thanks to Business processes will flow across functions and/or business Ms. Teresa Arcona and Ms. Marina McClelland, areas rather than in silos, thereby achieving a dramatic shift in how we approach work - from a functional to a cross-func- BearingPoint for their contributions. K tional. For example, in today's world, logisticians plan and 22

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Supply Chain Command and Control...

A Look into the Future

Submitted by: Col (ret) John Gunselman Have you ever read the Logistics Enterprise Architecture that is currently guiding all logistics transformational efforts?

The wish list is long, but in a nutshell, here is where we are taking Air Force Logistics under the umbrella of Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century (eLog21) In a nutshell logistics will be : ! Customer Focused – The Air Force logistics enterprise will be managed as a single enterprise to meet the enterprise-wide goal of meeting warfighter requirements. ! Goal Driven – A single end-to-end focus on customer support will be codified using performance driven execution across the logistics enterprise and tied directly to Air Force mission goals. Management by responsibility, accountability, and authority rather than through oversight will be adopted. ! Network Centric – The Air Force logistics structure will be redefined to become network centric with dynamic C3I and instant feedback permitting rapid supply chain reconfiguration when planning factors change. ! Mission Focused – Operational planning will direct those processes that prepare, transport, sustain and reconstitute forces that are at the core of the Air Force logistics mission. To allow the Air Force to focus on what it does best, those functions, organizations, or processes that do not support the Air Force logistics mission will be eliminated or outsourced. The strengths of other organizations – public or private – will be fully integrated into Air Force logistics processes creating strategic partnerships wherever possible.

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To enable the future state, we will be fielding an Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system that will gather all execution transactions, combine them with operational factors and goals, balance resources with requirements, and published balanced demand, supply, and distribution plans for execution. Our supply chain process will be driven by operational requirements that are derived from Operational Plans and Training plans.

The APS module will conduct demand planning for the enterprise based on passed usage projected into the future. To insure the demand forecast is as accurate as possible, it will be collaborated with field activities to identify any operational factors such as changes in flying schedule, unit rotations, or facility availability, or maintenance observations that could have an impact on the forecasted demand. Once the collaboration is completed, the constraints are applied with the results being a constrained supply plan. From this constrained supply plan comes a repair plan, and a procurement plan based on available capacity and parts availability.

Let’s cover the modules pictorially to ensure a better understanding of how the APS will be enable supply chain command and control. The APS receives all demand input via execution system demands (SBSS, D035, CAMS, G081), and it will receive its operational input (flying hours by location, numbers of aircraft by location, and unit moves) via the theater operational control centers. From these factors, a central demand plan is produced centrally for all Air Force requirements for first level of indentured items. These are items that are major assemblies, for which a repair and overhaul process would be developed. These are also the items for which we would track independent demands that are influenced by operational factors.

After the central demand plan is produced, the draft plan is sent back to the operational commands via the RSS for collaboration. The commands will be instructed to identify any factors that would influence the forecasted demand, either up or down, and report this back to the central demand planner. Once reported back, the recommended changes would be reviewed by engineering and material planning personnel to vali-

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date the need to replan the demand plan.

After collaboration, the demand plan is published. It then becomes constrained by the supply plan that applies the available resources to the plan to check for feasibility. Where not feasible, it will attempt to replan. If not successful, the constraints will be identified for mitigation.

AND

CONTROL

The repair plan attempts to use the capacity that is available across all repair centers, both depot, intermediate and CIRF. It will produce a central repair plan by location, and the supply plan will insure that parts are available at the repair locations to support the time phased production schedule.

E R : S U P P LY C H A I N C O M M A N D

Finally parts have to be positioned and moved. While the supply plan identifies where the usage of the parts will occur, the distribution plan will optimize storage locations and transportation routs and modes. This job has been given to US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) who has been designated as the end to end distribution provider for the DoD. We are working the integration of Air Force supply chain planning with the TRANSCOM distribution planning function.

To summarize, we will be fielding an integrated decision support tool to enable the command and control of the Air Force logistics system. This tightly integrated system will base its supply chain decisions on the planning factors contained in operational plans and training plans to acquire the resources to support AEF operations. During the year of execution real world operational input from Operational Support Centers will be communicated to the APS. The APS will then identify rapidly any actions required to replan the logistics chain to support AEF or contingency operations.

Col (ret) John Gunselman is the Advanced Planning and Scheduling Program Manager for HQ AF/ILI. Additionally he manages the Product Data Management pathfinder program that is totally revamping the AF Bills of Material process. He retired from active duty in 2000; he was the Chief of the Supply and Fuels Policy and Procedures Division. K 26

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By Colonel Frank Bruno

T R A N S F O R M AT I O N On the surface, “Transformation” may appear to be another in a long list of change initiatives (e.g. “Quality” and “Back to Basics”) the Air Force has embraced in its recent past. While those and other movements had many merits, they did not fundamentally change our operations. By and large, they required us to shift our methods and tools for understanding our mission but failed to address the fundamental nature of our mission and our warfighting paradigms. Transformation does.

The Global War on Terrorism and the radically different nature of our adversaries, drive our fighting force to change and adapt to this new environment, hence the advent of “Transformation”.

Secretary Rumsfeld and our most senior leadership are focused on transforming the entire force into one with unprecedented flexibility and the capability to deliver overwhelming firepower at a moment’s notice with unmatched global reach. To enable and support these capabilities, the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC) undertook the task of metamorphosizing its 28

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business processes and industrial base to match the ever increasing fluidity of the warfighter’s needs. In this article, I will give you an overview of the origins of our transformation journey, where we are today, and detail our vision of what we’ll look like when we have fully transformed our depot operations.

BACKGROUND The OC-ALC industrial complex is the largest ALC in the Air Force: 44 facilities, 6 million square feet of industrial floor space, with 14,000 civilians and military personnel assigned. By any standard, OC-ALC is a truly huge operation. Over the past two years, OC-ALC has done exceptionally well at meeting our customers’ requirements and, in many cases, exceeding those demands. We’ve made enormous strides in our forecasting ability and shop processes enabling us to produce aircraft and engines on time and on cost. However, there’s a lot of brute force involved in our daily operations. With our current floor layout, some parts travel several miles during the repair process. For

example, we process approximately 60 F100 external nozzle segments per month. Those 60 assets travel just over 115 miles during the refurbishment process. Imagine driving a forklift at five miles per hour from Philadelphia, PA, to Yonkers, NY, just to wash, sandblast, and paint sixty 15-pound nozzle segments!

This is just one example of the wasted time, energy, and money we manage on a daily basis due to antiquated processes and the age of our facilities and equipment. Secretary Roche, General Jumper, and other senior Air Force leaders are keenly aware of the pressing need to recapitalize our depots and in FY02 they approved $150M for AFMC Transformation.

Note the word “transformation” in their funds approval. We weren’t commissioned to just OC-ALC 135 dock before renovation. (Photo Courtesy of OC-ALC) add some lights, paint the floors, and buy a few new tool kits. We were charged with changing welding activities are in one corner of the building. It turns the way a depot operates at its most fundamental levels so that out that the basic design and layout of our production capawe are able to execute our mission on time, at cost (or below), bilities reduced our productivity by facilitating inefficiencies and be able to adopt additional workloads while continuing to such as excessive travel and wait times as assets flowed deliver combat capability. That’s a tall order, but the changing through repair processes. The full inventory of inefficiencies nature of Air Force operations demands we succeed. brought to light during our initial production process evaluation conducted by Standard Aero is outside the scope of this CURRENT ACTIVITIES article, but many of our bread and butter activities were idenOur first step was to understand who in the private sector and tified as strong candidates for lean process improvements. academia arenas were leaders in lean organizational transformation. After an exhaustive research effort, we benchmarked With study in hand and lessons learned from our benchmarkand consulted with a group of top notch corporations and ing efforts, we defined our mission: “Transform OC-ALC universities spanning the breadth of lean thought and prac- Depot Maintenance in the world’s finest maintenance, repair, tice. From industry, the list includes General Electric, Rolls and overhaul facility utilizing lean, cellular methodologies and Royce, Boeing (St. Louis/San Antonio), Warner Robins Air leverage partnerships to support the warfighter.” To effect our Logistics Center, Nordam, United Airlines (Indianapolis), transformation and realize our goals we are utilizing two priStandard Aero, Smith Industries, Caterpillar, PEMCO, Pratt mary tools. First, we are in the process of putting on contract & Whitney, and Northrop-Grumman. We approached leaders a firm that will facilitate and guide our lean process improvein supply chain research from higher education to include: ments and factory redesign. Second we are mobilizing our MIT, Harvard, Georgia Tech, the University of Tennessee, home-grown Oklahoma know-how to educate the workforce on lean, cellular methodologies and to implement the fundaand the University of Oklahoma. mental changes to our production processes and facilities.

Next, we commissioned Standard Aero Corporation to study our production floor processes to clearly define our starting The Contractor: After sifting through many potential candipoint and provide a vector for our transformation efforts. We dates, we narrowed the field to two contenders: IBM Corp. and discovered that our fundamental concept of operations was Battelle International. These two companies are the best at the source of bottlenecks in our production processes, effec- what they do and they’ve formed teams with other companies tively, we were working against ourselves. Presently, our pro- who have strengths in various competency areas. They are duction floor and outlying buildings are arranged in accor- presently involved in a “Fly-Off” competition. Both were dance with the “process village” organizational concept awarded $500,000 and have six months to analyze our operawhere like functions all reside in the same area, e.g. all

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M A I N T E N A N C E R E PA I R IN

KEY IS

E R : T R A N S O F M R AT I O N

tions and develop proposals for an Overarching ALC-wide MRO Transformation Plan and an F100 Engine Business Unit Plan. At the conclusion of the Fly-Off, the proposals will be evaluated based on the bidder’s approach, methodology, management plan, and past performance in MRO lean/cellular operations. We will then award a potential 10year, $500 million effort to the winner.

Home-grown Talent: We made it a top priority to have our people involved with every step of this transformation and be the guiding force behind it. Our first move in mobilizing our people was creating two system program-like offices to coordinate our activities, one in our Plans and OC-ALC 135 Dock after Renovation. (Photo Courtesy OC-ALC) Programs directorate (XP-T) led by Ms. Jerri Hulme to manage the overarching that’s provided to date 553 of our front line people hands on ALC plan and one in our Maintenance Directorate (MA-T) experience with executing lean events. The example of the led by Lt. Col. Lee Levy to manage the complex mainteF100 exhaust nozzle segments was one of the problems that nance enterprise. Over the next 10 years, these program class discovered and solved. Those students leave class excitoffices will oversee the contractor’s execution of the comed about Lean and become advocates of the entire transforprehensive and strategic methodology developed during the mation effort. During our benchmarking initiative, we invitFly-Off. This approach makes OC-ALC unique in its impleed several leading institutions from academia and industry to mentation of MRO transformation. This center has adopted share their knowledge with us. Over 1200 of our people have an enterprise perspective that considers the complete impact Boeing Lean training and we have sent 57 of our best and on all AFMC functional areas when making strategic decibrightest to the University of Tennessee for a week long, insions providing optimized product support, as well as targetdepth, enterprise level Lean course. The objective of all this ed long-term investments in our organic depot infrastructure, training is to ingrain Lean into our organizational culture equipment, and human capital. Enterprise management and speed our transition. The results of our efforts so far are shifts the focus of decision-making from a functional, proextremely promising. gram-centric view to an enterprise-wide perspective, avoiding sub-optimization of any one area and promoting a consistent weapon systems improvement view. We have turned F U T U R E S T A T E inward and started educating our personnel on Lean Figure 1 gives you an idea of where we are today with our methodologies to get buy-in and ensure a smooth transition. process flows. The diagram depicts current process flow for To date, we’ve trained approximately 8,200 or nearly 60% of repair of the F100 engine. The hub of activity is in the the ALC’s workforce on a wide variety of process improve- lower center and the arrows show various shops within the ment and lean supply chain topics. For example, we have a main (Bldg. 3001) and outlying buildings that F100 comcadre of 63 certified Six Sigma Green Belts, 173 White ponents flow through during the repair process. This furBelts, and 31 Black Belts. We have trained 25 aircraft divi- ther demonstrates the level of inefficiency in our daily sion members on value stream mapping and put nearly 6,000 operations created by our “process village” configuration. of our production floor employees through our rigorous The time is ripe for sweeping change.

“5S+1” industrial hygiene training program. Colonel Jim Diehl and his Engine Division created an in-house program 30

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Figure 2 outlines the future state of this depot in a lean,

cellular configuration where all of our product areas are organized into cells. Each of these cells will be nearly self sustaining…when possible; each cell will possess all the required support equipment/machinery for their specific repair process. The cells will also work on a “pull” concept where parts arrive on the line when they’re needed.

It may seem as if we’re building in a great deal of redundancy and cost into our operations by duplicating equipment in each product cell. Actually, the result of this redundancy will be realized, longFig. 1: F100 Repair Process term production efficiencies and financial savings.

Our production lines will see an across-the-board 35% increase in throughput, slashing F-15/16, B-1, KC-135, and B-52 engine Turn Around Time (TAT) by 71%, from an average of 97 days down to 30. We will also see an overall 25% decrease in Fig. 2: Future State Lean Processes Cost per Unit Output…a huge cost avoidance because material costs constitute 64% of our $2.2B annual maintenance spend. Our commodities TAT will the fundamental nature of the way we prosecute warfare drop 50% and our Output per Man Day will jump 25%. has changed. It has changed in ways that demand dramatThese cost avoidances will enable us to repatriate work- ically more fluid and efficient methods of meeting the load that’s currently contracted to civilian industry. We warfighter support expectations levied upon us. We at OCexpect to build in capacity that will allow us to capture ALC are meeting that challenge head on with an initiative over $89M worth of additional workload through repatri- that will change the face of military logistics for the foreation and partnerships with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney. seeable future. We look forward with great anticipation to Our projections indicate that we will see an appreciable the next chapter in our evolution just over the horizon. return on investment on our transformation efforts in a Colonel Frank Bruno is the Director of Maintenance, scant 3.2 years!

Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force A skeptical eye would note that the above figures are mere estimates and ask on what is our confidence based. Our confidence comes from the dramatic results that we are already realizing from our efforts. Our Constant Speed Drive demonstration cell reduced flow days from 58 to 30 days, cut their backorders by an amazing 81% (217 to 130), and increased monthly production by 83 units. Our C/KC-135 demonstration cell cut their flow days in half from a high of 413 to currently 207 while shrinking needed floor space by 25% and boosting the on-time delivery rate by 48%. Those are dramatic improvements and we are just getting started.

CONCLUSION The bottom line to our changes and innovations is to provide affordable, on time, and war winning support to the warfighter. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article,

Base, OK. As Director, he manages the largest directorate at the center with over 8,800 military and civilian personnel assigned. The Maintenance Directorate (MA) provides programmed depot maintenance on the C/KC-135, B-1B, B-52 and E-3 aircraft, expanded phase maintenance on the Navy E-6 aircraft and maintenance, repair and overhaul of F100, F101, F108, F110, F119 and TF33 engines for the United States Air Force, United States Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, United States Navy and Foreign Military Sales. Additionally, he is responsible for the maintenance, repair and overhaul of a myriad of Air Force and Navy airborne accessory components and the development and sustainment of a diverse portfolio of operational flight programs, test program sets, automatic test equipment, and industrial automation software. K

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Give It Away? Why Not Exchange or Sell It! Submitted by Lt Col (ret) Bob Sherouse With today’s budget realities, including scarce funding for new aircraft, parts, and systems, why not consider selling or exchanging your “old” aircraft, engines, parts and support equipment and use the proceeds or exchange credit to acquire replacement property? In 2003 for example, DoD and Federal Agencies recovered over $34M from the Exchange or Sale of aircraft. The average investment recovery was approximately $500K per aircraft. That’s correct, over $34M was recovered AND reinvested in “new” replacement aircraft, engines, parts, and support equipment. Have you considered how this could impact your acquisition planning?

Can this program help you? Consider the Navy’s sale of 24 Sikorsky CH-53D helicopters and use of the Exchange Sale proceeds to buy V-22 Tilt-Rotor aircraft. Or the Air Force’s 2001 initiative to Exchange Sale four C-22 aircraft and reinvest the sales proceeds toward replacement aircraft. Did an Army initiative to Exchange Sale 29 aircraft (C-12s, U21s, C-21s, RC-12s and BN-2Ts) allow them to acquire newer, more reliable and better replacement aircraft on a faster acquisition timeline? Did the Exchange Sale program enable the Department of Justice to acquire more reliable aircraft after they sold their DC-9, Cessna A185F and a Saberliner? It is easy to see the Exchange Sale program is beneficial under the right circumstances.

The Exchange or Sale statutory authority is not new. In fact, this authority has existed for over 50 years and is contained in Section 503 of Title 40, United States Code, under which executive agencies (including DoD), when acquiring replacement property, may exchange or sell similar items and may apply the exchange allowance or proceeds of sale in whole or part payment for the property acquired. The regulations on Exchange/Sale are contained in the Federal

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Management Regulation (FMR) at Part 102-39 (41 CFR 102-39). Keep in mind the FMR treats aircraft as prohibited “items� and any initiative to sell aircraft requires a case-by-case justification to GSA and a GSA waiver. Waiver requests are generally simple, one page justifications. Assuming all necessary information is provided in accordance with the FMR, GSA can generally process a waiver request in less than a month.

Also, keep in mind that the General Services Administration has international sales and marketing experience and is ready, willing and able to assist you in the Exchange Sale of your aviation assets.

If you have an aviation specific Exchange Sale question, please call or email Bob Sherouse at (202) 208-0521 or Robert.Sherouse@gsa.gov.

General non-aviation Exchange Sale questions and inquiries should be addressed to (202) 501-3448 Http://www.gsa.gov/personalpropertypolicy.

Lt Col (ret) Bob Sherouse is currently employed with the General Services Administration as an Aviation Policy Analyst and has responsibility for Acquisition, Use & Disposal of Federal aviation assets. He served over 20 years as an aircraft maintenance officer and commanded both the Aircraft Generation Squadron and the Logistics Support Squadron at Andrews AFB. Bob retired in 2002, after a four year Joint Services Officer (JSO) tour with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). K

The Navy applied funds from the exchange of 24 Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallions towards the purchase of V-22 Osprey Tilt Rotor Aircraft. (Photo: DoD Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Richard J. Brunson and Petty Officer 1st Class Mike Jones, U.S. Navy) EXCEPTIONAL RELEASE

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DLA’S TRANSFORMATION, PARTNERSHIPS IMPROVE SUPPORT TO THE WAR FIGHTER Submitted by Mr. Allan Banghart America’s Defense Logistics Agency is a $29B enterprise, managing more than 90% of the U.S. military’s repair parts and 100% of its food, fuel, medical, clothing and textile, and construction and barrier materiel. DLA has eclipsed records for mission effectiveness and achieved the lowest cost structure in the agency’s history, but that’s not enough. DLA is forging ahead with a transformational program that will fundamentally alter its core business model, supporting processes and systems architecture, as well as the professional skills and culture of its 2 2 , 0 0 0 employee work force.

The final label is placed on a package before being shipped from DDSP. (Photo Courtesy of DLA)

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In September 2003, DLA began an increased partnership with the Air Force, the other services and

To access the large storage area, called the "High Rise" in DLA's largest distribution center, the Defense Distribution Depot, Susquehanna, Pa., employees work from cranes, secured inside by harnesses. (Photo Courtsey of DLA)

Department of Defense agencies to tackle long-standing challenges in logistical support. The initiatives that have emerged from the Distribution Process Owner (U.S. Transportation Command) effort have already started to pay benefits for military forces both at home and abroad.

For instance, military customers are seeing faster, more efficient handling of air cargo shipments because of teamwork between DLA and the Air Mobility Command (AMC). Representatives from DLA’s Defense Distribution Center (DDC) and AMC met throughout 2004 as part of the ongoing distribution process owner partnership between TRANSCOM and DLA to improve support to the war fighter.

Early successes included a significant increase in “pure pallets” constructed from DDC depots and AMC aerial ports. Pure pallets are built for a single customer or an authorized group of customers and require much less handling for quicker delivery.

In addition to those initiatives between DLA and the military services, the DLA has embarked on an ambitious plan of self-transformation to provide the best possible logistical support for troops. DLA’s transformation strategy, begun in the late 1990s to capitalize on private sector practices, is well into the execution phase, supported by programs and initiatives that span the entire range of logistics functions – customer relations, demand and supply planning, supplier relations, materiel positioning and hand-off to the customer or one of DLA’s transportation service providers.

Additionally, each of DLA’s transformational initiatives comes with a firm savings commitment that will further reduce the agency’s cost structure. DLA is returning over $2 billion from its out-year budgets to the military services to accelerate the department’s funding realignment from infrastructure to force structure.

DLA’s transformation is a key piece of the sweeping changes taking place to deliver an extended system of logistics systems that performs the complex web of functions in a tightly integrated and seamless fashion. To accomplish this, DLA will transform its core business model in three ways.

First, DLA is becoming far more customer driven. DLA has been a world class, transaction-based organization, processing an average of 45,000 customer requisitions and 8,200-plus contracting actions daily. While always responsive to customers’ high-priority requirements, DLA often based customers’ future needs on historical sales patterns. Today DLA collaborates with its customers to fully understand their logistics planning, management and execution cycles in order to project future requirements. These future needs serve as the basis to negotiate and establish firmly agreed upon levels of service for the customers.

Second, DLA is becoming a more influential supply chain manager. The old DLA typically interfaced with its suppliers at arms length and transaction based. By the mid-1990s, DLA had established Prime Vendor arrangements for commodities such as food and clothing and was working on longer term contracts for select repair parts. However, the agency’s supply

To speed delivery through the transportation pipelines to the final customer, whenever possible workers at the DDSP build "pure pallets," designed to be shipped to a single customer or an authorized group of customers. Pure pallets are not broken down as they enter the theater of operations, ensuring quicker delivery and improving intransit visibility to the final delivery point. (Photo Courtesy of DLA)

chain management was still focused mainly on processing its 8,200 plus daily contracting actions.

Becoming a more complete supply chain manager means that DLA is now managing, integrating and, where appropriate, leading those supply chains critical to its ability to deliver the requirements and commitments created by a customer-driven business model.

Third, DLA is tearing down barriers to defense-wide logistics process optimization and the seamless integration of all functions associated with materiel availability. This is being done with logistics organizations across DoD who are also removing internal barriers to seamless operations and forging true partnerships across the spectrum of supply and delivery chains.

The ultimate goal of the partnership with TRANSCOM, the Air Force and other military services and DoD agencies, as mentioned earlier, is to synchronize all supply chain processes so that as material moves through various distribution and transportation points there are no delays and the material flows through the “pipeline” seamlessly. These improvements give DLA customers more information, further in advance, allowing them to plan workloads and to keep materiel flowing.

Supply items enter DDSP through the receiving department. For 2004 DLA will receive or issue nearly 27 million lines. (Photo Courtsey of DLA)

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A key contributor to DLA’s transformation will be organizational re-alignment. In the past, DLA operated as a traditional holding company, where semi-autonomous activities reported to a centralized headquarters staff. The agency has taken the strategic steps to establish a single, tightly integrated organization where DLA is, and is perceived to be, one enterprise.

These dramatic changes at DLA’s core business model level and in its basic organizational structure and culture have created challenges normally associated with transformation.

E R : D L A’ S T R A N S F O R M A T I O N

This is part of the more than five miles of track that moves product throughout DDSP. All the

The literature on Enterprise Resource Planning carts, and the products on them, remain visible to the DDSP staff throughout the journey via initiatives and related transformational efforts the information technology backbone, the Distribution Standard System. DSS is both a wareshows that about 70% fail. Achieving real, sweep- house management and transportation management system. (Photo Courtesy of DLA) ing change means executing a large, very complex web of initiatives which can target the heart of the existing organization and processes. At the same time there is Fourth, these basic business model and process changes little or no room for slippage in support of the day-to-day require DLA to alter its organizational structure, because a mission. Transformation becomes a lot like swapping out misaligned organization can contribute to failure. engines on a multi-engine military aircraft, one at a time, Fifth, DLA has provided its employees the personal supwhile the plane is in flight. DLA has to keep its business port, professional skills and tools necessary to be fully suc“in flight” and change its business model all at the same cessful in the new environment. This means effective traintime in order to remain a world class organization. To do ing, strong support before and after new technology releasthis, DLA is changing its attributes in the following broades, constant communication, a robust mentoring program, ly defined dimensions. and new career management and leadership development.

First, DLA is re-engineering its processes to best business DLA has 10 major programs and initiatives underway to practices, regardless of whether those are found in the deliver the range and depth of change that add up to commercial or the public sector. DLA has found that some transformation. Five of those are the key pillars of DLA’s defense business practices really are best practices in the transformation. world of military logistics. The challenge is to dispassionately assess legacy processes against commercial best prac- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) delivers the tices to determine which is truly best. processes, skilled professionals and Information Second, modern organizations’ processes are embedded in their systems applications. So, DLA is transforming its aging Information Technology systems applications and hardware.

Third, DLA has changed the way it manages its business information. Leading business indicators are replacing lagging indicators as new key performance indicators, metrics, reports and information flows are established throughout the enterprise.

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Technology (IT) tools necessary to understand customers’ future requirements and deliver specific levels of support.

DLA’s CRM capability is being deployed in many forms, including DLA-customer collaborative planning, formal customer partnerships and performance-based agreements.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), DLA’s primary Supply Chain Management initiative, has two well-established thrusts — Strategic Materiel Sourcing (SMS) and Strategic Supplier Alliances. The SMS program creates long-term contracts for approximately 500,000 items (of a

total 5.2 million) that DLA manages and considers essential to its success. SMS gives customers assured materiel availability at competitive prices, and eliminates the need for new contracts every time a routine re-supply action is required. A number of long-term contracts are already in place.

The Strategic Supplier Alliance (SSA) program creates strategic-level partnering relationships with the agency’s top sole source suppliers – those who are the only manufacturers of parts critical to DLA and its customers. Similar to SMS, SSA arrangements provide customers with improved materiel availability at less expense. More than half of these alliances are now in place.

Business Systems Modernization (BSM), DLA’s commercialoff-the-shelf-based Enterprise Resource Planning program, is delivering the re-engineered materiel planning, order fulfillment, procurement and financial management processes at the heart of DLA’s new business model. The first release of this incremental program was July 31, 2002. All of DLA’s 5.2 million line items and the personnel who manage them are on track to be operating exclusively in BSM by September 2006.

Distribution Planning Management System (DPMS), the fourth key pillar, optimizes the physical management of DLA materiel based on the knowledge of customers, suppliers and materiel embedded in the CRM, SRM and BSM programs.

DPMS ensures the most effective stock materiel positioning across DLA’s 25 worldwide warehousing complexes to minimize customer wait time and cost.

Aside from these key programs, other transformational programs include: ! Strategic Distribution, a collaborative arrangement between the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the military services, the U.S Transportation Command and DLA to ensure critical DLA-managed materiel is pre-positioned overseas, in the theater of operations, using relatively inexpensive surface lift to improve wait time, reduce total logistics costs and the alleviate the burden on scarce and costly air-lift resources. ! Executive Agent, a collaborative initiative between the services and DLA to ensure end-to-end supply chain oversight for troop support commodities managed by DLA — subsistence, medical, clothing/textiles and ener-

gy — to bring all members of the supply chain together for seamless management from the manufacturer to the point of ultimate consumption. ! National Inventory Management Strategy (NIMS), will eliminate redundant ownership, handling and stocking of DLA-managed materiel. NIMS offers military services the opportunity to reduce or eliminate their investment in DLA materiel and the associated personnel, systems, warehousing and overhead costs. NIMS pilots are underway with all four services. ! Integrated Data Environment (IDE), an IT solution to ensure that all the DLA transformational programs operate as a single, tightly integrated portfolio of applications and that DLA customers, regardless of their hardware and software, can communicate effortlessly with DLA. DLA has successfully piloted the IDE concept with the U.S. Marine Corps. ! Fuels Automated Systems (FAS), a COTS-based fuels Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), delivering best business practices to the management of a commodity that generates over $5B in sales annually. FAS is in fullscale deployment today and will be folded into the BSM program in the future.

Viewed from an end-to-end supply chain perspective, DLA’s transformation initiatives address every major function within the agency’s mission area, from America’s industrial base to the ultimate user. From a financial perspective, DLA has over $1B invested in its transformational initiatives.

DLA’s transformation is a major challenge with enormous payoff. Without a doubt, the agency will always be transforming and modernizing. But when DLA has achieved the major objectives described here, the agency will be far better positioned to meet the continually evolving, critical logistics support needs of our armed forces worldwide.

Mr. Allan Banghart, Senior Executive Service, is the director of Enterprise Transformation for DLA, headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va. He has 30-plus years experience as both a government civilian and Navy officer in defense logistics and logistics systems commands. K

USAF Serial Number Tracking…

Its Time Has Come Submitted by Lt Col Dennis Daley Serial Number Tracking (SNT) transformation is at our finger tips. Not the futuristic technological leap often associated with a Star Wars-like transformation. Rather, SNT initiatives that when integrated with proven corresponding changes in maintenance practices will revolutionize maintenance from the flightline to the depots. This is a transformation blue-collar style.

In reality, SNT technology has existed for years. For almost a Specialist troubleshooting KC-10 pneumatics problem would benefit from fleetwide Bad Actor Program. (Photo Courtesy of Travis AFB) decade, private industry tracked commodities with total asset visibility. Wal-Mart and FedEx transformed distribution and warehousing business practices using automated asset tracking technologies. Likewise, most airlines employ serial number tracking of aircraft components and sub-components. In short, SNT is the foundation of today’s supply chain management explosion resulting in major cost efficiencies in private industry.

The time is right for blue-suit SNT. Three emerging Air Force technologies—SNT serialized tracking, unique item identification (UID) and flightline wireless LAN networks—are currently emerging that will make cradle-to-grave component management a reality. The trick is to develop a strategy that integrates these three technologies and then marries them with the repair and reliability management programs. Independently, each will enhance our maintenance practices; however, together they provide a huge synergy making SNT even more powerful.

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WIRELESS

S N T A S T H E F O U N D A T I O N . The Air Force is applying full power in developing an operational SNT program. HQ AFMC developed a roadmap merging UID and SNT technologies. AF/IL tasked AFMC as the development lead of the SNT and UID technology with Mr. Grover Dunn (AF/IL) and Mr. Ed Koenig (HQ AFMC/LG) as the designated champions and Col Loraine Simard (AFMC/LGY) and Mr Tom Dills (AF/IL) as chairpersons. The roadmap calls for SNT pathfinder testing in 2004-2006 timeframe. Likewise, new-buy components and depot LRUs will begin UID part marking in 2005 followed by event tracking in 2006.

As the AF SNT/UID OPR, HQ AFMC’s Supply and Engineering Requirements Division drives the program execution guidance, requirement definition, project acquisition and policy requirements, while coordinating activities with many user com-

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munities. The SNT team developed a long-term SNT Troubleshooting will be greatly enhanced. SNT provides the roadmap that will result in a USAF-wide serialized mainte- flightline troubleshooter immediate access to archived component data histories. The time savings nance data collection system. Air in troubleshooting would improve Combat Command (ACC) is curdeparture reliabilities, reduce mainterently field testing Ogden Air nance man-hours and significantly Logistics Center’s (OO-ALC) reduce the costly transfer of perfectly Defense Repair Information good LRUs into the supply system that Logistics System (DRILS). This were removed in error. Furthermore, a web-based SNT database links OOfull cycle SNT program would provide ALC repairs and field maintainers much sought after feedback to the base at Shaw AFB’s Component Repair level technician on their initial field Squadron’s avionics section. Initial The Serial UID will be clearly visible on all parts. (USAF photo diagnosis. reports are very positive. courtesy of Travis AFB) There are huge dividends for an agile SNT program fleetwide. From a supply chain management perspective, the total visibility spares consumption and service life provides information the supply chain manager can use to tailor the provisioning (inventory and distribution) system. SNT offers more than improvement as an overnight delivery system.

By utilizing SNT capabilities, item managers will benefit by tracking warranty usages on items as the items are returned to the Air Logistics Centers (ALCs) for repair. Until now, the item managers relied on communication with contractors to identify assets under warranty. The implementation of an organic ALC capability to serially identify warranty assets gives the AF a much needed means of effectively controlling forecasted repair budgets by eliminating organic warranty repairs.

The maintenance reliability program manager would benefit as well from serialized tracking. The inability to track detailed service and reliability histories fleetwide has long been a stumbling block in achieving a fleetwide reliability program.

Although Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF) does exist in legacy maintenance databases, the data is often suspect due to data gaps in repair histories. The reliability program manager could improve the service life and mission capability of our aging aircraft fleets with a real-time MTBF option that would automatically update component failure modes.

Bottom line: as the Air Force applies a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) approach to its aging aircraft fleets, the archived repair information from an SNT program would be invaluable.

In addition, the airman maintainer at the “tip-of-the-wrench” should also benefit greatly from an operational SNT program.

UID REMOVES THE ACHILLES HEEL O F D A T A E N T R Y . The Unique Item Identification (UID) Program will enable automated data collection using machine readable serial numbered plates. HQ AFMC recently initiated a UID test program at Travis AFB, which will use C-5 avionics components as a test base. Automating data entry with the use of bar code scanners “fat-finger” manual data entry will be eliminated. This will overcome a major source of resistance to SNT programs. Base and depot level maintainers have long complained of the cumbersome methods required to perform manual data entry on each serially tracked component. In addition to the extra time required, there is an increased possibility for an error in manual data entry. A single inputted digit on a 10-digit serial number could disconnect an entry from its corrected component archived data forever. Make no mistake about it, manual data entry is a major barrier to SNT serialized tracking. UID will fix it.

W I R E L E S S N E T W O R K S … T H E S N T E N A B L E R S . Wireless laptops or other hand-held devices using radio frequency Local Area Networks (LAN) complete the circle. Wireless technology provides the conduit connecting the technician to the power of the SNT database literally at their finger tips whether they’re an expediter in a blue Metro with a radio between their legs and a laptop at their side or a technician in an isolated repair shop surrounded by elaborate test equipment. Information is now available to the technician troubleshooting on the line. Just imagine a crewchief logging into his Integrated Electronic Technical Manual to record his “time” or check on the delivery of an anticipated spare part.

The effect is the same…powerful!

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ER: USAF SERIAL NUMBER TRACKING

I T ’ S A L L A B O U T S Y N E R G Y . We should merge the three budding technologies into a single initiative consisting of a SNT network; automated UID data entry and wireless LAN devices for the flightline and shop floor user. An integrated plan would provide a synergistic payoff where each technology would magnify the effectiveness of the other. The emphasis is clearly on the supply chain inventory and distribution systems. AFMC is integrating the SNT and UID programs very well, but there appears to be less emphasis on the wireless LAN and hand-held devices at the working level. WLAN and hand-helds should be formally integrated with the SNT and UID initiatives.

However, with a totally integrated beddown, we should alter our operating practices to align with the new technologies for maximum effect.

Successful transformation requires more than a serialized maintenance data collection database. The key is integrating the SNT, UID and working level wireless technologies with changes in organization and maintenance practices to optimize serialized tracking. Corresponding changes in management structures and practices will achieve the full operational effectiveness of emerging technologies.

Military history has a lesson on employing new technology. During the interwar years, Germany successfully modified their doctrine for blitzkrieg (lightning warfare) despite France and England possessing superior technology. The success of the German blitzkriegs in 1939 and 1940 was more about organizational and doctrine advancements than technology.

How does that history lesson relate to SNT? For successful transformation, maintenance managers must match the SNT technology advances with corresponding changes in management practices and structures linking repair organizations at all locations—depots, flightlines, en routes, vendors and backshops. Fielding a SNT database without altering our business and maintenance practices would not maximize the full potential of SNT, UID or wireless technology. The ideal end state would have all repair locations—worldwide—linked via wireless networks into a single centralized network providing comprehensive maintenance data collection for all users.

SNT data is currently being leveraged by the following reli40

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ability programs: F-16 F l e x i b l e Sustainment Program; AMC-AFMC C-5 Functional S y s t e m s Integrity The ultimate goal of Bad Actor-SNT program is to give Program; and SMSgt Reich the tools to improve hydraulic troubleshootBad Actor ing on his C-5s. (Photo Courtesy of Travis AFB) Programs. The F-16 Flexible Sustainment Program (Falcon Flex) is structured to analyze repair data (high cost-drivers, service-life issues, failure mode analysis, etc.) and then implement reliability improvements. Obviously, serialized tracking data collection system such as DRILS is a perfect fit with the supply chain management structure of Falcon Flex. DRILS provides the data and Falcon Flex serves as the venue for fleet decision-making.

Likewise, the joint AMC-AFMC C-5 Functional Systems Integrity Program (FSIP) is another example of a reliability program that could expand SNT capabilities. FSIP’s primary goals are operational reliability and system and subsystem sustainment. It differs from Falcon Flex in that it is less focused on supply chain and more on fleetwide reliability issues. The ultimate FSIP goal is to convert from a fly-to-fail maintenance philosophy to a RCM approach.

FSIP is centered on an organic SNT database derived from REMIS and GO81 links that will accurately track MTBF, service life component trends, electronic historical records (AFTO 95s), special inspections, Quality Reports (PDQRs) and other relevant reliability data. Although the SNT database does provide full serialized tracking, it is not at the same technology level as DRILS. However, it is operational and will require little if any developmental cost. More importantly, it provides an existing organizational structure to the use of SNT, UID and wireless networks. When the Air Force eventually funds a modern SNT database, the lessons learned within the C-5 community from FSIP and its organic SNT program could be invaluable.

The long-standing Bad Actor Programs (TO 00-35D-54) developed at many bases could also provide the management structure to developing SNT technologies. Typically, Avionics Flight Chiefs led avionics-based Bad Actor Programs that focused primarily on avionics LRUs. Unfortunately, without a fleetwide maintenance data collection network, individual bases were limited to only local data entry and retrieval for repairs done at their specific bases. Repair history stopped at the front gate. The capability of existing Bad Actor Programs would increase exponentially with the merger of serialized tracking and Bad Actor Programs offering fleetwide tracking. The troubleshooting technician would have a complete history of all repairs: CNDs, RETOKs, repeats, functional checks and inspections completed at all repair location. The take-away is clear. Existing reliability programs such as Falcon Flex, FSIP and Bad Actor offer a management format to enhance the SNT-UID technology.

B E D D O W N S T R AT E G Y AFMC is pressing ahead with a structured SNT-UID roadmap with emphasis on asset tracking for supply chain management purposes. But, SNT-UID offers more than supply inventory and distribution….much more. Linking legacy management programs with the SNT-UID beddown would enhance the repair and reliability segments for two reasons. First, as often is the case, funding often causes development programs to slip to the right. If so, the Air Force may delay fielding of an SNT-UID program until after 2010. If so, current programs like the C-5 FSIP or DRILS could offer some form of repair history for Bad Actor Programs as a stop gap.

Secondly, when the SNT-UID technologies are fielded the lessons learned using Bad Actor Programs with FSIP or DRILS database as trackers would assist in the beddown of more advanced SNT-UID Programs in the future. For example, current Bad Actor Programs review CND, repeats, aborts and systemic bad actor parts but are limited to local databases. Simply using the C-5 FSIP database or the test-bed DRILS will provide fleetwide tracking, albeit manually inputted. Fleetwide management practices would be refined until a more comprehensive SNT-UID program is fielded Air Force wide.

Although the beddown plan successfully links SNT and UID to the benefit of supply asset management, three initiatives could increase focus on the repair and maintenance sector while supplementing the supply asset management piece. First, the roadmap should link emerging flightline wireless network technologies. Mounted laptops in expediter trucks or crewchiefs with hand-held Tough Books (laptops) would magnify the impact of the SNTUID revolution. Although several wireless efforts exist, planners should incorporate them into the overall SNTUID beddown strategy. Secondly, merging the reliability and asset management programs (FSIP, Falcon Flex, etc,) would provide a broad-based application of the SNT-UID technology. The ability of SNT to track repairs worldwide will significantly increase the capabilities for fleetwide reliability initiatives. Finally, maintenance planners should link the traditional Bad Actor Programs at the base level with the fielding of SNT programs. Like fleet reliability programs, the Bad Actor Program will supplement SNT. Instead of Bad Actor Programs reviewing only local repair histories at each base, SNT technology will provide visibility for base and depot weapons system managers of fleetwide bad actor metrics (CND, repeats, bad actor LRUs, RETOK, functional check rates, etc.).

In conclusion, the SNT initiative focuses on providing serialized item management and propagating strategic asset management best practices. The integration of SNT, UID and wireless technologies linked with existing reliability programs will transform our maintenance practices.

However, the beddown should be three-pronged: supply chain management for asset tracking of supply and distribution; repair and reliability for fleet health; and portable wireless technology to empower the technician on the flightline or in the shops. A seamless link between all facets of repair from depot to flightline will provide efficiencies not yet realized. Serialized tracking doesn’t possess the glamour of most “gee-whiz” transformation initiatives, but don’t tell that to our maintainers. To them, a real-time database with a complete history of a particular component is big-time transformation…blue-collar style!

Lt Col Dennis Daley is currently the Deputy Maintenance Group Commander at the 60th Air Mobility Wing, Travis AFB, CA. K EXCEPTIONAL RELEASE

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CGO Corner BEST BUSINESS PRACTICES AND LOGISTICS F U T U R E : T R A N S F O R M AT I O N A N D T H E C G O .

OF THE

By Capt Bethany Keller and Lt Jared Eros

"Never underestimate the power of inertia to hold you hostage to where you used to be."

––Michael L. Tushman, Ph.D. Professor Harvard Business School

Capt Bethany Keller

How many times have you heard the old adage that the only constant in today's Air Force is change? Probably enough that you didn't want to hear it again, but many great things are happening in our Air Force and logistics community as a result of change that will affect our lives as CGO's, and most times it will be our ability to adapt to these changes that will determine our success as officers.

ER: CGO CORNER

Even those that have been in the Air Force a few short years have seen numerous changes that

1Lt Jared Eros

have been instituted thanks to a little help from our friends in the private sector. We've seen paper-based operations become more scarce, slowly being phased out by electronic programs such as the AF Portal, LeaveWeb, and MyPay. Some installations now have the ability to file all travel documents (vouchers, orders, etc.) electronically, significantly minimizing trips to finance and the MPF. Volume technical orders, regulations, and instructions continue to turn the way of the bit and byte, with old and new volumes and updates slowly being made available for online viewing.

The Air Force has also seen changes in the contracting processes in major weapons systems. Most forms can now be routed electronically, saving numerous man hours and millions of dollars in paper costs a year. GSA has become an online forum where goods can be purchased via IMPAC card at the click of the mouse. Furthermore, DoD has expanded the use of electronic catalogs and electronic "shopping malls" to put buying decisions into the hands of the people who need the products. While all these have best business practices have greatly transformed the way we do business, transformation is not just about the technology that fuels it.

"There is a lot of talk about transformation out there today …It is not just all about technology; it is about relationships. It is about the commitment of our people to do things in new and different ways."

––CSAF GEN John Jumper Relationships are the heart and soul of our supply chain, and many new ideas and processes are on the horizon for our logistics community. Logistics architecture will be redefined. Deployed station activities and the AEF construct and mindset will be the norm rather than the exception. The natural state of business in the Air Force is the AEF, and we'll move from a mostly garrison force to a defined, refined, organized, agile expeditionary force. Joint Vision 2020- Focused Logistics provides the vision as "the right personnel, equipment, and support in the right place at the right time and the right quantity across the full range of military operations." AEF is at the center of this vision.

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Availability and cost centricity are also paramount to logistics transformation and numerous processes are in development, utilizing benchmarks from the private sector that will bring us into the future. LEAN logistics and a just-in-time, rather than just-in-case, supply chain will revolutionize the Air Force, saving valuable man hours and shipping time. Additionally, LEAN Logistics will provide "real-time" total asset visibility via RFID into its equipment, supplies, and spare parts from a warehouse in the U.S. to a foxhole in a distant theater. Like other AF processes mentioned above, our logistics system will continue apply the latest advances in information technology to completely remove paper based transactions from the supply chain. Reachback, or the ability of our troops to deploy with little support equipment and manpower, will be increased as our logistics support continues to become more effective and efficient. Finally, the "best business practices" such as prime single support integrator, long-term business relationships, use of commercial standards, and performance-based agreements between suppliers and warfighters will continue to provide the logistics community with long-term continuous improvements.

How will these changes affect us as CGO's? They may just change the entire way we view logistics today. We will have to start seeing the "big picture" realizing that life outside the front gates of our respective bases does exist and that even the smallest inputs at any level have the capability of possibly affecting the entire Air Force supply chain, not just those we work with directly. We'll begin to see the need to change and shift priorities, and recognize that what may be good for the "business" (unit level) may not necessarily be good for the "enterprise" (AF-level). Collaboration with our supply chains will be more important than ever, and shifting requirements may be the best means of helping your supply chain help you. Real-time visibility of assets will aid in that process, giving us the tools to make these invaluable supply chain decisions. Imagine going online, ordering the parts you need, and being able to track them and know exactly when and where they will arrive; and if the part is not available, knowing exactly when it will be. Instead of shifting from one priority to the next, we'll be continuously reshaping and improving the same priority, and hire, train, provide incentives, and promote based on these improvements.

As the logistics community continues to evolve on almost a daily basis, lessons learned from both the public and private sector will play a vital role in tomorrow's logistics successes. The shift from limited real-time management, loosely integrated islands of capability, and a tactically focused system to a network centric, strategically focused collaborative effort could be difficult. CGO's should look forward to this transformation and lead the way for constant improvement and expansion.

SOURCE

DOCUMENTS:

Adopting Best Business Practices, Defense Reform Initiative, www.defenselink.mil Transforming America's Military: Getting There: Focused Logistics, Paul M. Needham, www.au.af.mil AF Logistics Transformation eLog21, Mr. Grover Dunn, HQ USAF, www.loanational.org/beale/events A very special thanks to Lt Col Glen Marumoto, AF/ILID, for his contributions to this article and continued mentorship.

The CGO Corner is written by Capt Bethany Keller, the Maintenance Training Flight Commander for the 31 MOS, Aviano AB and Lt Jared Eros, the Curriculum Flight Commander at the 9th Munitions Squadron, Beale AFB, CA. Next issue's "Corner" theme: Acquisition Logistics Shapes Readiness. All comments or contributions should be submitted to CGOCorner@LOANational.org NLT 1 Jan 2005. K

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Chapter Updates ALAMO CHAPTER - RANDOLPH AFB, TX

E R : C H A P T E R U P D AT E S

Submitted by Lt Col Kenneth McKellar This is my last update, as Major Tim Pettit will be taking over as President of the Alamo Chapter, effective, 15 October 2004. I am honored to have served the Alamo Chapter for the last 12 months, as President. In the last year we have grown to 108 members, firmly established a strong Awards and Scholarship program, and have increased corpo- Many of the 43 Alamo Chapter's conference attendee's rode to Las Vegas in rate and civil service involvement in LOA at the local and style, thanks to Little Rock AFB's chapter for the C-130 airlift. national levels. We could not have been successful without the outstanding support received from the following people: Brig Gen (Sel) Stephen Schmidt, Senior Advisor; Mr Geary Wallace, Mr. Denny Portz, Retiree Advisor, Capt Sam Ulmer, West-Vice President until his PCS, Ms Olga Perez, West Vice President through October 15th 2004, Ms. Debby Tharp, Corporate Board Member, Ms Joanne Beyer, Secretary, Capt Elene Cole, Treasurer, Maj Keith Kenyon, Awards and Scholarships, Capt Wade Cornelius, Golf Tournament Committee Chair, Lt Col Deb Elliot, Civil Service Focus Group.

Maj Pettit receives Saunders Award.

I waited until last to mention these two other board members. Maj Pat Ballard and Maj Tim Pettit, have both been irreplaceable as they orchestrated the bid to host the 2006 National conference in San Antonio! Tim Pettit was honored at this year's conference with the MG Saunders Award! Thank you all so very much for a wonderful year and because of your involvement and participation, we were chosen as the 2004 LTG Donald J. Wetekam Award Recipients, as most outstanding organization, (large chapter). Finally I ask all Alamo Chapter members to stand strongly behind the new board and its president, as I know you will!

There is much to do between now and October 2006, and we have just begun!

CROSSROADS CHAPTER - TINKER AFB, OK Submitted by Capt George Unsinger The Crossroads Chapter has maintained its customary busy pace and is looking to close out the year the same way!

Our annual golf tournament was a great success. We had a full course and with this tournament a new Crossroads tradition was begun. All of our proceeds were donated to Tinker's food pantry and future proceeds from such events will also go to local charities. In June, we hosted 30 Razorback Chapter members from Little Rock on a professional tour of the depot and LOA camaraderie, followed by a similar visit from Minot AFB in August.

We expanded our scholarship program this year by awarding three scholarships totaling $1,200 to base personnel. SrA Heidi Chesser was the overall winner, receiving $500 with Mr. Chad Burks and Mr. Wendell Graham our 2nd and 3rd place finishers capturing $400 and $300 respectively. Submissions for our competition were also significantly higher than past years.

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In August, we co-chaired a luncheon with the local Federally Employed Women chapter to send off the center's Executive Director, Mr. Robert Connor to his new duties as the AFMC Executive Director at Wright-Patterson AFB. Of course, Team Tinker was in full-force at Las Vegas with 38 people attending the National Conference! We would like to pass along our THANKS and JOB WELL DONE to the Blackjack Chapter and everyone involved for such a successful event.

GOLDEN GATE CHAPTER - TRAVIS AFB, CA Submitted by Maj John Nelson Travis logisticians continue to capitalize on opportunities for professional growth and fellowship. We strive to keep logisticians from the Air Mobility Operations Group, the Maintenance Group, and the Mission Support Group "pluggedin" by rotating host responsibilities for the meetings among the squadrons.

In June, Lt Col Glen Marumoto of the Innovation and Transformation Division at AF/IL briefed the Golden Gate Chapter on eLog21. His presentation provided special emphasis on the evolution of resourcing, procurement, transporting, and stocking of commodities. Capt Vladimir Urbancek took the lead in July in organizing the first of two "LEAN-oriented" tours. Twelve logisticians traveled to NUMMI, a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors in Fremont, CA. We wrapped up a busy summer with a meeting featuring Mr. Edward Koenig, Deputy Director of Supply Management at HQ AFMC. Mr. Koenig expounded upon eLog21 and the new organizational structure of the Air Logistics Centers at a luncheon sandwiched between his tours of the Maintenance and Mission Support Groups. While at Air Staff, Mr. Koenig was one of the major players in improving aircraft spares availability, which set up Travis AFB to "Kick the Cann" for our C-5s.

This fall, we hosted a breakfast with the local AF Cadet Officer Mentor Action Program chapter featuring retired Brigadier General Steven Roser. Gen Roser's anecdotes and advice from his career in the air mobility community, joint staff, and as a 3-time Wing Commander kept a diverse crowd of Colonels through Senior Airman, and civil servants, riveted to his words. Finally, 2Lt Joe Keillor organized a chapter visit to the United Air Lines Repair Facility at San Francisco International Airport in October. This tour was our second with a heavy focus on "LEAN" principles. The United tours drew very enthusiastic comments about how they reengineered their processes in their hydraulic and engine centers, and have kept pace with their IT systems through user-friendly modules.

The Golden Gate Chapter's future events will continue to explore the entire spectrum of logistics, and we'll continue to take advantage of guest speakers as they transit through the "Gateway to the Pacific."

HEART OF DIXIE CHAPTER - MAXWELL AFB, AL Submitted by Lt Col Steven Purtle Our leadership team is constantly surveying the landscape for opportunities to grow the local membership and expand our sphere of influence. Each year, Air Command and Staff College (ACSC) brings approximately 50 logistics officers to Maxwell AFB, providing an excellent opportunity to personally welcome and encourage participation in LOA at the local an national level.

This year the Heart of Dixie Chapter took advantage of ACSC's mass in-processing day to contact loggie students. More than two dozen folks expressed enthusiastic interest in joining the Heart of Dixie chapter during their tenure at Air Command and Staff College. We are hopeful that we use their talent and drive to make a great chapter even better!

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HIGH FLIGHT CHAPTER - BEALE AFB, CA Submitted by 1st Lt Jared Eros From real world taskings to preparing for the 9 RW ORI, we've hardly found the time to breathe. Nevertheless, it's been another busy quarter for the High Flight Chapter. We presented the $600 in scholarship checks to our deserving recipients at our July meeting.

In August, five members of the chapter were sponsored by the 9 MXG to head down to Palmdale, California. The first stop was at the RQ-4A main production line where two aircraft were in multiple stages of construction. We immediately noticed the clean "6S" environment that overwhelmed the facility. The next day began with a tour of the Lockheed-Martin U-2 Depot repair center. We covered each stage of the plant's tear-down and rebuild process to include the back line function.

E R : C H A P T E R U P D AT E

It was very interesting to see the aircraft in so many varying degrees of repair and it brought to light the work load that comes with a depot input. We were able to visit multiple stations of the production cycle for the F-22 and were briefed on some of the technology utilized on a vast majority of the industrial process. It was very interesting to see the delicate blend of old technology and new, cost saving advancements for the same aircraft production line.

We also took advantage of the time and resources available and coordinated a tour of the OD&E facility for the CV22 at Edwards AFB. We were fortunate enough to see their pre-launch sequence. We were able to "score" an internal, very detailed, escorted tour through the AF "Special Ops" version of the aircraft.

TUSKEGEE EXPEDITIONARY CHAPTER - BALAD AB, IRAQ The Combat Wing Organization is at work in a true combat environment. The opportunity to exercise leadership and draw on every ounce of maintenance and logistics savvy in your tool kit is here and these professionals are breaking down barriers everyday.

Maintainers and LROs from every corner of our Air Force are performing nothing short of miracles here at Balad AB. They have reclaimed Hardened Aircraft Shelters for fighter operations, built their own revetments and roads in the munitions storage area, led convoys throughout the country, and handled airlift, cargo, and POL for both the Air Force and the Army. The mission is dynamic, and they are at the leading edge.

The Tuskegee Chapter is focused on familiarizing officers with the diverse mission areas in the wing and professional development while deployed to this one of a kind opportunity. K 46

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Charter Members: L to R top: Maj Heather Buono, 1Lt Dan Kane, Maj Dean Blake, Lt Col Tim Moore, Maj Tom Miller L to R bottom: 1Lt Tammie LeBlanc, Capt Joe Sablatura, Capt Tim Burke, Capt Lindsay Droz, Maj Grant Izzi, Capt Steve Haynes, Lt Col Greg Hoffman Not Pictured: Col Teresa Dicks, Col Tom Yanni, Col Eric Pohland, Maj Jim Ward, Capt Madalyn Marlatt, Capt Rob Neal, Capt Bob St John, 1Lt Rob Cox, 1Lt Tim Hughes

On the Move LT COL THOMAS FITCH WRITES: Graduated from Air War College 1 Jun 2004 and have arrived at Hickam AFB for my new job as HQ PACAF/LGW Deputy. Looking forward to being back in the AMMO world.

LT COL MIKE ARCENEAUX WRITES: It was a blazing 2 years at Seymour Johnson, but I have now moved to the ACC staff as the Chief of the Maintenance Policy Branch.

CAPT HALL SEBREN WRITES: Just moved from Sheppard to Hill for LCBP. It was good to see everyone at the Conference in Vegas!

LT COL MONTY DEIHL WRITES: After a great 20 months at Sheppard educating flying squadron commanders on how/why we maintain aircraft, I'm now at ICAF. My new e-mail is deihlm@ndu.edu

CAPT JEFFEREY HUNTER WRITES: After an exhausting yet insightful three years of flight testing ICBMs at Vandenberg AFB, I've recently moved to Tinker AFB and am in the Logistics Career Broadening Program. I'll miss working with the top-notch munitions and missile maintainers of the 576th Flight Test Squadron but it's great to hear the sound of aircraft engines again.

LT COL JEFF BROCK WRITES: Recently arrived at the Pentagon, assigned to the Joint Staff J-4. I'm working the Chairman's munitions and prepositioned equipment issues. Just left Hill AFB after two great years commanding the 649th Munitions Squadron.

Looking forward to working again in the joint arena.

1LT TOM FIORDELISI WRITES: Saying "Goodbye" to Pope AFB and the HERC, and off to a new adventure as a ROTC instructor at Kent State University. As I approach 17yrs in service (all associated w/ acft maint), I now take on a completely new endeavor.

Having lived in base housing / dormitories for 13yrs of the 17, Jenn and I hesitantly approach this civilian sector living, and living 4-hours from Wright-Pat has its own challenges. Although, having not been woken up by a late night engine run has its advantages too. I've dropped off the global email address book so drop me a line "TFiordel@kent.edu." I expect the next three years to fly by and I'll be back with "Loggies" once again. So long and keep in contact, "Alrighty Then!"

MAJ MAX STITZER WRITES: Just left Naval Air Station Fort Worth, TX, after 5 glorious years serving first as the 301 MXS/CC and later the 301 AMXS/CC at the Reserve F-16 unit there. Now assigned as the Deputy Commander for Maintenance at the 513th Air Control Group, the Reserve AWACS "associate" unit at Tinker AFB, OK.

LT COL JOSEPH M SEUFZER WRITES: Command, Ellsworth, Black Hills, Badlands, etc. Life can't get much better than this. Osan was a blast, but it's great to be back in the good ol' USA. How do you spell AEF? Where is it located?

1LT JERRY FRANKLIN WRITES: Recently PCSd from Travis AFB CA, to Eglin AFB FL. Assigned to the 33d Fighter Wing as asst AMU OIC. LT COL ERIC LORRAINE WRITES: Departed RAF Mildenhall in July 04 after 2 great years as the 100 AMXS commander. Moving on to be the deputy group commander for the 49th Maintenance Group at Holloman AFB. LT COL (RET) LORI YOUNGS WRITES: It's been a great career, but it's time to bring it to a close.

Thanks for all the great mentoring and friendships--it will be missed. ...motorhoming into the sunset.

LT COL LEE CURTIS WRITES: Recently had my change of command from 9 AMXS at Beale on 6 Aug where I passed the flag to Lt Col (sel) Jeff Meserve.

Had plenty of rest between assignments, driving from CA to OK for an RNLTD on 10 Aug. Just signed in at Tinker where I'll be the 552 MXG/CD, working for Col Nancy Frye.

MAJ KEN BAILEY WRITES: I finished my tour with CENTCOM J4 in the Joint Munitions Office in May--what a whirlwind that was. I proudly took command of the 5th Munitions Squadron at Minot AFB, ND, on 25 June. Big thrill for me because this is the squadron where I started out as a 2nd Lieutenant 13 years ago!

EXCEPTIONAL RELEASE

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MAJ STEVEN DUTSCHMANN WRITES: Completed my Air Staff tour as the Chief of Battlelab Integration. Now the 57 CMS MOO at Nellis.

Force Academy in Colorado. It is challenging yet rewarding leading over 100 cadets and making them outstanding officers for our Air Force. And it sure is beautiful out here!

LT COL JIM EILERS WRITES: Konichiwa from Japan! On 23 Jul I relinquished command of the 35th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Misawa. There was no need to pack up our household goods as I was reassigned as the Deputy Commander of the Mission Support Group... so I will be at the "tip of the spear" awhile longer.

Be sure to look me up if you ever get this way!

COL (RET) JIM MAHER WRITES: Relocated from Simpsonville, SC to Albuquerque, NM in Aug 04. Retained same job as Director of Military Programs and New Business Integration for Honeywell's Greer Engines Systems & Services facility in Greer, SC but will now work from home office. No change in e-mail.

New business phones are 505.898.6741 office/fax, 864.542.4351 mobile. New address is 7829 Primrose Dr. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87120. Expect to move again in March 05. This time across town in Albuquerque to the house we built while stationed at Kirtland '83-'87.

Hopefully we will settle down for a while.

ER: ON THE MOVE

COL STEVE WILSON WRITES: Aloha! I've just moved into my new job as Assistant Director of Logistics, HQ PACAF. My two years as the 35 MXG/CC, Misawa AB, Japan, were fast-paced, but fun. When you're in Honolulu, on business or pleasure, stop by for a visit. Mahalo!

LT COL JAMES "RANDY" WITTER WRITES: Just completed my tour at Edwards as the AMXS/CC and am now stationed at the Pentagon in HQ USAF/ILPR, Combat Support Div, as the Support Equipment and Vehicles Branch Chief (Dollars "R" Us). I never cared to see how hotdogs were made either. Cheers.

LT COL TIMOTHY K. MOORE WRITES: I recently left McConnell AFB and am just settling in to my new job at the Air Force Inspection Agency at Kirtland AFB. I'll be working on the Acquisition and Logistics Eagle Look Team.

LT COL CLETE KNAUB WRITES: On 9 July 2004 I handed command of the 28 AMXS over to the next guy. That ended 49 straight months of command.

My first command was the 5 MXS at Minot. Wow, what a great ride it was, pulling back-to-back commands. I PCSed to the 28 BW/XP shop here at Ellsworth AFB, SD. Cheers.

CAPT NATHAN MCLEOD-HUGHES WRITES: I have recently completed my glorious 1 year assignment in Kunsan AB, ROK, as the management and Systems Flight Commander for the 8th LRS. I am currently stationed in RAF Mildenhall as the Air Freight OIC, and lovin' every minute of it here.

MAJ STEVE MARTINEZ WRITES: Left the AFLMA at Gunter just over a year ago to become the Commander, Cadet Squadron 31, at the U.S. Air

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MAJ TIM NESLEY WRITES: Leaving the WR-ALC and heading to the land of the morning calm at Osan AB to become a Black Cat with the U-2s. I will be the Sq Mx Officer. Be careful when looking up, we are looking for a Kodak moment. The ALC has been a great and learning tour....seeing a part of logistics you never see in the trenches. But I am looking forward to being on Airplanes again; kicking some tires and launching them into the wild blue.

MAJ LAURIE CONRAD WRITES: I arrived at ACSC in Jul 04...having a great time. I'll keep you posted on the next assignment once they start flowing down.

COL SEAN CASSIDY WRITES: In late June 2004, I took command of the Air Force Logistics Management Agency, Maxwell-Gunter AFB AL. Then, on Sept 1st, I pinned on Colonel. Finally, the Maxwell Chapter has asked me to be their senior advisor. If you ever stop visit the officer PME hub, stop by for a visit.

COL RICK JONES WRITES: Hi to all - just left an incredibly rewarding assignment as the 8th Maintenance Group Commander, Kunsan. The Wolfpack is a unique and wonderful place, and the best assignment of my career! We've now been sent on a hardship tour to Hickam where I am the PACAF Director of Maintenance Engineering (LGM) - and loving life. Great job, great place - come and visit. Great to see everyone at the LOA conference. Aloha! K

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