Industrial Hardware team works with DLA Distribution to tackle suspended stock.
 By John Dwyer III
  DLA Troop Support and DLA Distribution employees work together to position packing kits for vehicle-mounted speakers for shipment from DLA Distribution in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. The team works together — DLA Troop Support in identifying issues and resolutions, DLA Distribution in shipping the items — to get previously “suspended stock” on the move.




DLA Troop Support and DLA Distribution employees work together to position packing kits for vehicle-mounted speakers for shipment from DLA Distribution in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.
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            DLA Troop Support and DLA Distribution employees work together to position packing kits for vehicle-mounted speakers for shipment from DLA Distribution in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. The team works together — DLA Troop Support in identifying issues and resolutions, DLA Distribution in shipping the items — to get previously “suspended stock” on the move.

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                    VIRIN: 181101-D-YE683-022













Defense Logistics Agency Distribution hubs — an issue that directly affects warfighter readiness — José Pereira assembled a specialized Industrial Hardware team to hit the road and get to work.As chief of DLA Troop Support’s Industrial Hardware Division, Pereira leads a team of quality assurance, technical and engineering specialists. They’re responsible for IH items such as nuts, bolts, seals and other repair parts needed to maintain weapons systems.Addressing suspended stock — items with labeling, packaging and other discrepancies found during shipment — requires a certain skillset he knew his team could put to use.**Special Skills**Pereira recalled it was “eye opening” to see the amount of suspended stock at DLA Distribution Centers in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, and San Joaquin, California. These items can’t go on their way to fill customer orders until the problems with them are resolved.Pereira knew that although DLA Distribution center workers have a solid grasp of packing and labeling requirements, clearing suspended stock requires additional specialized training and experience, which his staff could use to help. So he coordinated with the two main DLA Distribution hubs to arrange for his folks to provide hands-on assistance.“On the tech/quality side, everyone [at IH] has experience, whether it’s military, quality assurance or a technical degree like engineering,” making them the best resource for the job, said Shaun Strain, an IH quality assurance specialist who traveled to the DLA Distribution center at New Cumberland to assist in August.With their broad range of specialized skills, Strain said he and his counterparts can identify discrepancies in labeling, packaging and requirements listed in item specifications and drawings. They use detailed measurements, special markings and other methods to determine whether there truly is a material issue or if an easier fix could avoid sending the item back to a vendor and prevent additional delay for the customer.“We can look at it as product specialists, relabel it if the material is good and get it out,” Strain said.He said that while his traveling team of quality specialists are a linchpin in the process, it takes a team to get the job done. Specialists like Strain can identify why an item has become suspended stock, but most corrective actions have to be coordinated with other experts.**Mathew Parayll from Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, helps the team by inspecting a vehicle equipment mount. Moving the suspended stock takes a full complement of subject-matter experts working together.




Mathew Parayll from Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, helps the team by inspecting a vehicle equipment mount. Moving the suspended stock takes a full complement of subject-matter experts working together.
        180919-D-WD427-5818
            Mathew Parayll from Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, helps the team by inspecting a vehicle equipment mount. Moving the suspended stock takes a full complement of subject-matter experts working together.

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                    VIRIN: 181101-D-YE683-023

















Coordinated Solutions**The quality assurance team is guided by a prioritized list from DLA Distribution identifying the highest value and oldest suspended stock.Once the team identifies the errors, a DLA Troop Support resolution specialist on the IH team changes the way the item is coded in DLA’s systems. DLA Distribution can then move the items out to the customer or back to a vendor to be corrected.Coordination with DLA Troop Support is vital, Strain said. The quality team serves as the hands-on assessors. But the resolution specialists are the ones changing the way the item’s condition is coded in DLA’s systems. They make sure the automated systems between DLA Troop Support and DLA Distribution are updated, clearing the path for the items to ship discrepancy-free.“Now the distribution center knows what they need to do, items get relabeled and they get out the door within the next day or so,” Strain said. “Because we’re all there working together, getting it all figured out and fixed.”Not all items can be corrected on-site, Strain added. For those that can’t, the total cost of DLA correcting the discrepancy can’t outweigh a threshold value set by DLA Distribution. That threshold is related to the cost of sending the products back to the vendor, to ensure good stewardship of taxpayers’ money. There are certain exceptions for priority orders, though.According to Strain, items with current back orders that can be handled on-site are corrected to expedite movement. The cost differential is then accounted for through post-award contracting officers at DLA Troop Support.The post-award team makes the process work on the backend. Whether it’s an on-the-spot correction or the materiel has to go back to the vendor, the post-award team provides the IH team contract guidance and communicates with the vendor.As the experts in what the contracts specify for labeling, packaging and specification requirements, the post-award team communicates with vendors and coordinates adjustments to contracts when needed. Their guidance is important to how the IH team addresses the issues it finds, Strain said.**Materiel Back on the Move**By clearing the suspended stock at the DLA Distribution centers, the team not only speeds up delivery of materiel, it also clears customer back orders and prevents a bigger problem.Members of DLA Troop Support’s suspended stock “Tiger Team” pose for a photo in Philadelphia. From left: Hissein Galmai, Alicia Wolford, Stuart Williams, Gary Morris, William Cody and Ronald Griffith participated in a team effort to identify and correct suspended stock at DLA Distribution centers so they could be shipped to customers or back to vendors to be addressed.




Members of DLA Troop Support’s “Tiger Team” participated in a team effort to identify and correct suspended stock at DLA Distribution centers. From left: Hissein Galmai, Alicia Wolford, Stuart Williams, Gary Morris, William Cody and Ronald Griffith
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            Members of DLA Troop Support’s suspended stock “Tiger Team” pose for a photo in Philadelphia. From left: Hissein Galmai, Alicia Wolford, Stuart Williams, Gary Morris, William Cody and Ronald Griffith participated in a team effort to identify and correct suspended stock at DLA Distribution centers so they could be shipped to customers or back to vendors to be addressed.

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                    VIRIN: 181101-D-YE683-024

















Strain noted that if an order is put in while there’s still suspended stock, “then we’re going to have another back order. So let’s get it cleared before it gets to that point.”In addition to helping customers get the materiel they need, the team identifies and corrects issues tied to “bad actors” trying to defraud the government by supplying nonconforming parts that don’t meet customer specifications — known as Commercial and Government Entity compromise. Coordinating with DLA Headquarters and the team at DLA Troop Support, quality specialists at DLA Distribution have identified some CAGE-compromised items and helped resolve them to get the right items to the customer, Strain said.The team, part of an enterprise effort led by DLA’s Technical and Quality Assurance Division Stock Readiness program managers Jennifer Smith and George Berkery, has made an impact. Smith noted the IH team’s work has helped DLA Troop Support reduce $22 million of suspended stock across over 3,000 back-ordered lines.The work involved to clear suspended stock and make that kind of impact takes a team. And thanks to the skills of IH’s quality, resolution and post-award employees, the team is getting the job done.