# DLA Distribution Corpus Christi team earns Phyllis C. Campbell Award for Superior Performance

/ Published Sept. 28, 2020
NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa., 
Defense Logistics Agency Distribution Corpus Christi, Texas, made a concerted effort to improve performance in support of their customers and DLA Distribution’s global mission. Their in-depth production reviews and decisive action plans successfully sustained remarkable performance throughout all critical metrics, including all 13 acceptable performance levels. DDCT’s specific achievements improved management and organization objectives, earning the center the DLA Distribution Phyllis C. Campbell Award for Superior Performance 2019.

Remarkably, the center sustained that level of performance despite a full-time employee shortfall of 17% and only a workload decrease of 4% during 2019. DDCT achieved this by conducting well-designed routine self-analysis to mitigate mission distractors, right sized each functional area, shared knowledge at the speed of decisions and established well-defined goals to track progression. Ten employees assigned to the Storage Branch distinguished themselves through their determination and dedication resulting in consistent high performance. They performed over 56,000 picks to fill over 48,000 issue release orders valued at over $3 million and stowed over 61,000 receipts totaling over 511 million units. This incredible feat effectively rotated the entire inventory value during fiscal year 2019, geographically spanning across 10 warehouses and five open storage lots over 207 acres. The six-person Local Delivery Section processed over 16 thousand transportation requests that moved over 68,000 items to 16 internal DDCT locations and 113 discrete delivery points within the Corpus Christi Army Depot while completing over 4,000 disposal orders consisting of over 35,000 units.

The center made significant strides toward operating as a leaner, more efficient distribution center while maintaining or enhancing materiel flow velocity. DDCT developed and executed a 2019 management action plan to establish a comprehensive human capital management program to enhance workforce resiliency, flexibility and morale, and to align the structure and workforce to meet the warfighter demands and growing retail support to the Corpus Christi Army Depot. This plan resulted in an in-depth review of the center’s current manning structure, mission and functions and individual position descriptions against center operational requirements, financial restrictions and engineered standards. This led to three distinct and phased reorganizations that right-sized functional areas with the correct resources based on workload, aligned all cost centers and staffing to meet fiscal year 2019 staffing authorizations, and eliminated redundancies to maximize manpower effort at the point of production. The center set the standard for industrial base support and the process enhancements to retail support to provide predictability and dependability resulted in cost savings of over $4 million to CCAD. 

DDCT sustained an aggressive kitting operation to support the UH-60 Blackhawk recapitalization line within CCAD, consisting of 1600 kits, composed of nearly 500,000 components. This initiative led to an Army working capital funding reduction to CCAD in an estimated $120 million, eliminated $30 million in CCAD excess disposal actions and facilitated in an indirect to direct man-hour conversion opportunity to boost revenue capacity within CCAD. Concurrently, DDCT continued to pilot the Warehouse Management System, an initiative to revolutionize DLA Distribution’s network through a commercial off the shelf system. DDCT continued to host the pilot project, shaping the development to feature storage bin management and optimization, improved movement and tracking of goods, work center personalization, enhanced physical inventory process, extensive planning and monitoring functions, real-time reporting and visualization of metrics, connectivity and interface capabilities to external systems like EBS and service used logistics systems. 

Teams from DLA Headquarters, DLA Distribution Headquarters and DLA Distribution Corpus Christi, Texas, integrated to define system requirements and to develop an execution plan for WMS implementation. DDCT analysts ran complex queries to identify over 1,900 NSNs for the pilot to maximize workload volume for a viable pilot, while mitigating risks to specialized programs and our customers.  A small team of highly talented DDCT members processed 10,222 receipts and issues, executed daily process audits, cleared transactional errors and built storage locations in the WMS to support 2233 locations containing 559,546 units of DLA owned material by the end of 2019.

Most impressive was the dynamic interaction with the DDCT workforce, embracing the challenge and injecting their creativity into deliberate problem-solving technics. They established direct professional relationships with SAP developers and DLA subject matter experts to develop and refine training packages, system updates and standard operating procedures. Throughout the implementation process, the workforce at DLA Distribution Corpus Christi continues to test and provide quality control from an end user’s perspective to ensure this new warehouse management system meets the requirements that DLA expects, and that our Warfighters deserve.

DDCT identified the lack of an automated slotting optimization and planning tool available to DLA Distribution. With no mirror to model, the center successfully secured and initiated DLA’s first slotting software pilot known as “Warehouse Vision.” In just six months of execution, this pilot of slotting software yielded an increase in storage density by 12% for bin and 7% for rack in 2019. As a result of positive findings and feedback, the Distribution Headquarters’ Operations Storage Optimization Team and the U.S. Army Logistics Support Activity are capturing best practices for enterprise roll-out consideration through all of DLA Distribution, DLA Disposition Services and the U.S. Army operated Supply and Storage Activities and Logistics Centers.

In its significant contribution to DLA’s Annual Operating Plan and Strategic Goals, DDCT was indispensable in the execution of a Public Private Partnership with Parker Aerospace, just the second PPP in 2019. The center partnered with CCAD and their local Parker Aerospace team to conduct a value stream exercise of the current off-base logistical and material flow process, and quickly established a concept of operations to integrate the Parker Aerospace mission into the DDCT operational footprint that dramatically reduced material movements, transportation costs and injects distribution core functions into the end to end production requirements that led to cost savings estimated at nearly $200,000 annually. DDCT closely coordinated every local aspect of the partnership with Parker Aerospace and developed contingencies when unexpected obstacles were presented. The resulting PPP directly benefits support of AMCOM, CCAD and DoD rotary wing readiness, and is a confidence-building measure toward a potentially larger partnership with Parker Aerospace at other DLA locations. 

The center’s superior performance across all aspects of operations makes it truly deserving of this award.  From sustained fully successful APLs and top tier climate survey results, to network impacting WMS development, DDCT has displayed excellence in every endeavor. This superior performance has supported improved warfighter readiness across the globe while supporting DLA’s annual operating plan. DDCT is a small distribution center of only 136 federal employees; however, it packs a decisive punch with the capabilities to meet the unique challenges of providing Global Distribution Excellence to warfighters while injecting logistical expertise into their co-located industrial base partner.