# You Can’t Spell Aviation without a “V”

/ Published March 12, 2021
RICHMOND, VA, 
Not long after returning from a rotational assignment with the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, D.C., in January 2020, Floyd Moore was named director of Defense Logistics Agency Aviation’s Engineering Directorate. Once in this new role, he said the goal was simple.

“It was my desire and commitment to enhance and motivate an already talented workforce,” he said.

He said the overarching directorate mission is being the principal advisor to the command on all-things engineering related in support of the warfighter and DLA Aviation.

“It’s our vision to be recognized across the DLA enterprise as the technical authority on aviation-related matters,” he said. 

Moore said six programs/divisions fall under the directorate umbrella:
      - Product data management.
      - Engineering and technology.
      - Engineering support.
      - Management of hazardous material information and programs to include green products.
      - Industrial plant equipment services.
      - Management of ozone depleting substances.

Moore said when he first came to the directorate, he met with employees, asking them to provide candid and honest feedback concerning some of the challenges/concerns they had. 

Moving forward into 2021, Moore found, through these conversations, these entities faced some challenges, specifically; right sizing to reflect increased workload and accelerated completion requirements, implementing automated capacity expansion to make-up for resource shortfalls and garnering trust and recognition for the contributions made by employees.

Moore said he also discovered that most employees believed those who work outside of Engineering don’t fully understand the impact the directorate has on the overall mission of DLA.

In order to change this perception, they had to come together and create an identify and articulate the directorate’s role. 

“I wanted each employee to have an opportunity to provide input,” he said.  

They came up with a slogan contest, receiving roughly 50. They eventually selected “You Can’t Spell Aviation without a V” as the winner. V is what engineering is often referred to within DLA Aviation. 

“The meaning of the slogan is very simple. The contributions made by every employee within “V” has a direct impact on the overall mission of DLA Aviation and without it, the aviation mission will be impacted,” Moore said. 

Dan Oros is the chief of the Hazardous Information Program. His more than 40 employees are responsible for providing information on the transportation and safe handling of hazardous materials, along with pollution prevention.

He said his people, taking the new slogan to heart, focused on several process improvement initiatives to better support and protect the warfighters and ensure regulatory compliance and satisfying customer needs. 

These initiatives include robotic process automation, an emerging technology that allows “automation bots” within the application portfolio to interpret and act upon existing applications for processing transactions, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.

“The use of RPA bots frees up time for our technical personnel, mainly chemists and chemical engineers, to address more complex tasks,” he said.

Oros estimates RPA will save approximately 4,000 man-hours per year and will allow them to process data and provide critical safety and health information more efficiently.

He said other initiatives include a safety data sheet smart connect application, which allows product manufacturers to transmit the information contained in their SDS, directly into the Hazardous Materials Information Resource System and a SDS screening tool, which was developed, tested and fielded in-house to determine if a SDS is compliant with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Hazardous Communications Standards.