# Commander holds Town Hall in Richmond

/ Published July 21, 2016
RICHMOND, VA, 
Defense Logistics Agency Aviation Commander Air Force Brig. Gen. Allan Day addressed a packed house at the Frank B. Lotts Conference Center during his town hall July 15 on Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia. 

Day began the hour-and-a-half-long session telling the crowd about his five weeks away from center attending CAPSTONE, a joint service professional military education course for newly promoted Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps generals and Navy admirals.

He talked about how he has a much greater understanding to how vital the DLA Aviation mission is to supporting today’s warfighter.  

“I came back with a new sense of urgency for readiness. If we don’t have this urgency, we are going to fail as a nation,” said Day.

Day recognized several employees for their outstanding work in support of the nation’s warfighters: Marian Hunter, weapons systems support manager in DLA Aviation Customer Operations Directorate’s Mapping Division, received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award; Daniel Stanko, supply systems analyst and Dorothy Hart, inventory manager, both in DLA Aviation Business Process Support Directorate, received Superior Civilian Service Awards.

He also recognized DSCR as the winner of the 2016 Commander in Chief’s Award for Installation Excellence.

The general went over the DLA Culture Survey results. He said there was a 76 percent response rate and more than 4,200 comments within DLA Aviation. The survey showed improvement in 11 of the 12 areas of focus. Day said organizational level reports are due to arrive any day now.

“Seventy-six percent shared their opinion. After reading some of the comments, you’re telling me that you like it here, but we’ve also got some areas we can improve upon,” he said.

Aviation supply chain material availability, backorders, and tactical procurement were part of the key metrics presentation. In the area of material availability, steady improvements are being made. As of April, it’s at 89.2 percent. Day said the goal is to reach 90 percent.

“Right now, 90 percent is our ceiling. This year, I want to make that number the floor.” he said, explaining as we continue to strive for retail supply excellence, material availability will increase.

In the area of supply chain backorders, Aviation hit a record low in November 2015 with 90,844.

“This is a big deal. We got down to our lowest level ever, but the numbers are starting to creep back up,” said Day.

He said backorders are up 7.2 percent since January.

Day then gave an update on DLA Installation Support at Richmond’s efforts in obtaining “Star” status through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program, an initiative that encourages private industry and federal agencies to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses through hazard prevention and control, worksite analysis, training; and cooperation between management and workers.

OSHA inspectors will be on center this month for a pre-visit and for an assessment the third week in September. Day said he expects to hear back from OSHA before the end of November as to whether or not we will be awarded a star.

After a safety challenge that got the Lotts crowd and outlying Aviation activities involved, David Gibson, site director, DLA Installation Support at Richmond, gave an update on Phase I of the new Operations Center. He said the project, which is scheduled to be complete by 2018, is a few months ahead of schedule. He also said the goal is to put up 15 pieces of steel per day.

Gibson also laid out plans for the groundbreaking of the new $30 million Virginia National Guard State Headquarters facility scheduled to be built on center. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for mid-August.