# Business process analysts provide unparalleled support, training 

/ Published Jan. 3, 2022
RICHMOND, Va., 
The Wasatch Mountain Range in Utah spans an estimated 160 miles from the northern border with Idaho to the central part of the state. Its snowcapped peaks serve as a scenic backdrop for Defense Logistics Agency Aviation at Ogden on Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Let me introduce you to the 10 members of the DLA Aviation at Ogden Business Process Support team. From their collective love of traveling, camping, martial arts, playing cornhole, doting on their grandkids, to riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles, this is, to say the least, a close-knit bunch.

It comes as no surprise that these DLA Aviation employees are inspired to create a thing of beauty in support of the mission they are tasked with including writing, reviewing and ensuring deployment of standard operating procedures used in assisting in resolving DLA supply chain deficiencies and ensuring timely end user support.

These end users are inventory management, customer support, sustainment and material support specialists, customer and material support technicians, expeditors, demand planners and customer service managers. These employees work within the DLA Aviation at Ogden Storage and Distribution, Materiel Management and Planning Divisions.

Supervisory Business Process Analyst Bill Glendening leads the team. He said these SOPs are the tools in the toolbox that outline critical processes and guides for employees through standardized, detailed processes so the job is done accurately every time.

He said every process requires written guidance that ensures compliance and auditability within DLA. To accomplish this task, the team must review higher-level documents that outlines the actions, then build below it the step-by-step instructions that include specific supply system usage, areas of responsibility, target audiences and simplified processes that can be taught within a classroom environment or virtually. Process owners and subject matter experts also review the documents, which are then uploaded to the DLA Issuance website.

Business Process Analyst Michele Whiting said they also conduct in-person, instructor-led training, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, training has been held virtually since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. She said the team didn’t miss a beat, providing more than 1,100 virtual training classes to end users on job-related subjects, helping maintain a mission ready workforce.

These training courses include backorder research, retail demand planning, costs-of-parts activity, DLA Distribution Standard System, Air Force Stock Control and Distribution System and enterprise business solutions.

“COVID only impacted the ability for us to have face-to-face contact with our end users and each other. We actually excelled during COVID and reached more individuals than prior to Covid,” she said.

Stacey Divin, also a business process analyst, said this was an absolute team effort. The team held weekly meetings where they brainstormed new and different ways to interact with end users. 

“Our BPA team has the best working relationship. We feed off each other, and it makes us grow into better analysts. I think the last year-and-a-half within the COVID environment caused many obstacles and hurdles that we as a team had to work through and solve as a team.” Divin said. “We frequently bounced ideas off each other and tried everything we could possibly think of.”

When asked where they see themselves five years from now, each member of the team stated: “We love our jobs, so five years down the road, we still want to be doing what we are doing today!”