Special Insert in this Issue

DLA 50th Anniversary Timeline Post

Also in this issue:

FIFTY YEARS OF

LOGISTICS EXCELLENCE

POSTER

LOGLINES

 issue:

 OF

 EXCELLENCE

POSTER

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2011
DIRECTOR

F

or three years I have been part of

the Defense Logistics Agency team

as we’ve stood on the precipice of

change in the Defense Department. We

have remained flexible, agile and ready to 

support the needs of America’s warfighters as troops surged into Afghanistan, 

preparations began for the drawdown in

Iraq, and the nation was called upon to 

support humanitarian and disaster-relief 

operations in Haiti and Japan.

America continues to be a country

at war, dealing with multiple security 

interests in an increasingly complex global 

economic and political environment. 

Navy Vice Adm. Alan S. Thompson, SC, USN

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

from the

Our customers face the challenges of 

continuing to operate in austere locations 

while reconstituting key assets that have 

been used heavily over the past decade.

DLA has incredible bench strength 

in its talented workforce and seasoned 

leadership team. Uniting these 

components under the “We Are DLA”

banner harnessed the tremendous

capabilities of this great agency for 

the benefit of our armed forces. We 

have worked together, each serving as 

an ambassador to educate customers, 

stakeholders and industry partners 

on the full spectrum of DLA’s logistics 

solutions so they can remain focused on 

the mission and leave the details to us. 

You have served at home, abroad 

and deployed to the battlefield to 

provide service members support

worthy of their sacrifice. And when we 

were challenged by intensifying fiscal 

pressures, you pitched in, examined 

Headquarters, Defense Logistics Agency

Office of Strategic Communications

8725 John J. Kingman Road

Suite 2545

Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6221

703-767-6200

E-mail: loglines@dla.mil

DLA Director

Navy Vice Adm. Alan S. Thompson

DLA Vice Director

Mae E. DeVincentis 

Chief of Staff

Frederick M. Baillie

Director, Strategic Communications

Douglas Ide

Deputy Director, Strategic Communications

Jack Hooper

Loglines Staff

Managing Editor Kathleen T. Rhem

Editor Jacob Boyer

Writer Beth Reece

Writer Jonathan Stack

Writer Sara Moore

Layout/Design Paul Henry Crank

Design Assistant Joy Brunk

Loglines is the authorized publication for the 

Defense Logistics Agency’s workforce of federal 

civilians, active-duty military and Joint Reserve 

Force augmentees at agency activities worldwide 

and industry customers of DLA. Contents of this 

publication are not necessarily the official views of, or 

endorsed by, the U.S. government, the Department 

of Defense or the Defense Logistics Agency.

Loglines is prepared electronically, using desktop 

publishing applications; no commercial typesetting costs are involved. Photos not credited are 

courtesy of agency sources. Submissions and correspondence may be sent to the following address:

LOGLINES

Official Flagship Publication of the Defense Logistics Agency

business procedures and benchmarked 

best practices to get even more value out 

of each taxpayer dollar spent on logistics. 

Intensified focus on warfighter 

support, stewardship excellence and 

workforce development through the 

lens of my yearly Director’s Guidance 

has enabled DLA to continue providing 

world-class logistics solutions that keep 

pace with warfighters’ requirements. The 

recently released Fiscal 2012 Director’s 

Guidance will continue to steer our 

course as DLA encounters what I expect 

will be another chapter of challenges in 

the department’s history.

This will be my last message to you as 

DLA’s director. I am deeply honored to 

have served alongside some of the most 

committed individuals in the Defense 

Department, and I extend my sincere 

appreciation to all DLA team members 

for your dedication, determination and 

willingness to serve warfighters. 

www.facebook.com/

dla.mil

www.twitter.com/

dlamil

www.dla.mil

www.youtube.com/

dodlogisticsagency
Loglines l November - December 2011 1

CONTENTS

System Upgrades 2

Enterprise resource planning continues to change the way DLA does 

business, allowing it to focus more on customers’ needs.

Going Once, Going Twice ... Bought by DLA 4

Reverse auctions foster competition among firms and lead to savings 

on the items warfighters need.

Condition Code “L” 6

Continuous process improvement methods have led to the quicker 

release of nonissuable “litigated” inventories. 

Door to Door Delivery 8

Direct vendor delivery allows inventories to stay low while ensuring 

warfighters get supplies when they need them.

Strong Ties 10

Strategic supplier alliances ensure DLA and its industry partners 

remain aware of each other’s short- and long-term needs.

DLA NewsWire 21

A Conversation with ... 22

Money Matters 28

We are DLA 30

I am DLA Back Cover

DEPARTMENTS

November - December 2011

pg 2

pg 6

pg 32

pg 10

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

BEST PRACTICES

2012 Directors Guidance 14

The 2012 Director’s Guidance establishes DLA’s priorities for the new 

fiscal year, focusing on warfighters, stewardship and the workforce.

Leadership in Action 16

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson’s tenure saw many 

accomplishments during a time of change.

Mission Complete 32

DLA took on many new roles under 2005 Base Realignment and Closure 

recommendations. With those changes complete, the agency will use what 

it learned as it moves forward.
2 www.dla.mil

F

or years, the Defense Logistics 

Agency’s level of operations has 

been on par with commercial 

retailers like Wal-Mart and 

Federal Express, but several years 

ago, the agency realized it had a few 

things to learn from these commercial 

retailers when it came to customerfocused supply chain management. 

For years, commercial retailers have 

used systems, often called enterprise 

resource planning solutions, that give 

vendors and suppliers access to realtime inventory and customer preference 

information that helps them keep their 

shelves stocked. These systems help 

F

or

Agency’s

been

retailers

Federal

ago,

F

 the agency

System Upgrades

Story by Sara Moore

retailers stay customer focused and 

proactive in managing their supply 

chains, explained Air Force Lt. Col. 

Benjiman Davis, deputy program 

executive officer in DLA Information 

Operations. For example, in Wal-Mart’s 

system, purchases made at each store are 

communicated to the company’s central 

system, which in turn communicates 

with vendors and lets them know to 

restock the stores. In this way, Wal-Mart 

uses a “push” system instead of a “pull” 

system, he said. 

“That’s something that DLA has

struggled with,” Davis said. “DLA has

always been focused on wholesale, massive

supply stuff, but the customers have always

wanted individualized treatment.”

After studying industry practices,

DLA started its own push to implement

an ERP in 2002 with the Business

Systems Modernization program. BSM

was designed to lay the foundation

for a good ERP onto which additional

capabilities could be added as time went

on, said Patricia Whitington, Enterprise

Procurement and Enterprise Development

Integration Office program manager 

in the DLA Information Operations 

Program Executive Office. BSM replaced 

the Standard Automated Materiel 

Management and Defense Integrated 

A Sailor gathers a fuel sample in a glass jar during an underway replenishment with the eet replenishment oiler USNS Leroy Grumman in the Atlantic

Ocean. Energy Convergence, a program under DLA’s enterprise resource planning solution, is bringing all of DLA Energy’s business processes into the

Enterprise Buisness System.

Navy Seaman Gregory M. Wilhelmi
Loglines l November - December 2011 3

Subsistence Management systems with 

commercial off-the-shelf software and 

state-of-the-art technologies. 

“The thrust at that time was looking at

ERPs that were out there and also to bring

in the best practices, not only best practices

that we have in the government, but best

practices in the industry,” said Whitington,

who worked on the functional side of BSM

during its early days.

The agency had several goals behind

implementing BSM, one of which was to

develop an agile infrastructure that would

be able to provide better support than

the systems it was replacing, Whitington

said. Those legacy systems were becoming

more expensive to maintain and didn’t use

the same standards across the different

versions, she said.

“It was very difficult to improve as an 

enterprise moving forward if you couldn’t

measure yourself and have standard

business practices and processes,” she said.

Whitington became the program 

manager for BSM in 2005 and served 

in that position until the program was 

completed in 2007 and evolved into the 

Enterprise Business System, which has 

been the agency’s ERP solution since 

then. To keep the system stable during its 

early stages, DLA waited to do a technical 

upgrade until after transitioning to EBS, 

Whitington said. The upgrade allowed 

the team to begin adding capabilities 

to the system, the first of which was 

the enterprise operational accounting 

system, an enhancement that added all 

the accounting functions and business 

areas not covered by BSM. 

Since then, many new programs 

have been added to the ERP and are in 

varying stages of completion, Davis said. 

EProcurement, the agency’s standard 

automated procurement system, has gone

through several preliminary releases 

and was scheduled for its first major 

release in October. Energy Convergence, 

which brings DLA Energy’s business 

processes into EBS, is getting close to 

its first release. Inventory Management 

and Stock Positioning, which supports 

the consumer-level supply, storage and 

distribution responsibilities that were 

assumed as a result of the 2005 Base 

Realignment and Closure legislation, is 

currently being released to the military 

services. The Real Property program, 

which manages DLA’s facilities, is close to 

full deployment. 

The collective goal of all these 

programs is to help DLA become a more 

customer-focused, proactive supply chain 

manager in the model of commercial 

retailers, Davis said.

Whitington agreed, noting that the 

agency has already made significant 

progress toward those goals as EBS 

has been expanded and upgraded. She 

said one of the biggest improvements 

she’s seen is the implementation of 

standardized business processes, which 

gives DLA common metrics to measure 

success across the enterprise. The 

cultural shift has been notable, she said.

“It has also changed us to be very 

customer focused and supplier focused,” 

she said. “Not that we weren’t so much 

supplier focused before, but it really 

devoted a lot to looking at our customers, 

looking at supply planning. I don’t think 

we had a robust system back then. So 

now we’re able to do some things like 

demand collaboration, and we’re able to 

reduce some of our inventory based on 

bringing in an ERP.”

EBS is a long-term solution for DLA,

Whitington said, and as existing programs

are developed and deployed, the agency will

be looking at new programs to add to the

system to expand its capabilities.

“The advantage of an ERP is having a 

basic system and then ... many different 

modules, which you can bring into the 

agency to help improve your business 

and support to the warfighter,” she said. 

“We’ll be looking at new capabilities and 

bringing them in in the future.” 

Soldiers provide security on their way to a canal

project site in Zabul province, Afghanistan.

DLA’s enterprise resource planning solution

is helping the agency become more customer

focused and improve its support to troops

around the world.

One goal of Business Systems Modernization was developing an agile 

infrastructure that would provide better support than what it was replacing.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson
4 www.dla.mil

D

efense Logistics Agency Troop 

Support Deputy Commander 

Richard Ellis is known throughout his organization as the 

father of reverse auctions. As a 

taxpayer, he said, he tries to do things 

smartly to save taxpayers’ money.

One way DLA does this is through 

reverse auctions, a Web-based pricing 

tool that fosters competition between 

contractors to reduce the price the government pays for a particular item. DLA 

Story by Jonathan Stack

began using them in 2009. 

“We have historically saved 20 to 25 

percent for material we buy using reverse 

auctions,” Ellis said. “There have been 

auctions where there’ve been no savings, 

and there’ve been auctions where there 

was a 65 percent savings.”

DLA Troop Support leaders felt

reverse auctions could reduce acquisition

costs to the agency by a substantial

amount, and DLA has saved $3.5 million

to date, said Charles Howerton, a procurement and systems analyst with DLA

Acquisition and program manager for the

reverse auction initiative.

“The overriding consideration and 

reason for using reverse auctions is 

reducing material cost,” Ellis said. “DLA 

is in an environment where operating 

and material costs have to be reduced, 

and the auctions are a way to reduce 

material cost.”

When a DLA primary-level field 

activity receives a contractor’s

Story by Jonathan Stack

Bought by DLA

Going Once, Going Twice ...

D

efense

Support

Richard

out

father

taxpayer,

D
Loglines l November - December 2011 5

proposal, the proposal is loaded into the 

reverse auction tool and a date and time is 

set for the auction, Ellis said. During this 

time, other contractors have the opportunity to offer a lower price for the contract.

With this tool, there is a “quiet time” of 

five minutes. If anybody bids during that 

time, the auction automatically extends for 

another five minutes. That continues until 

nobody bids for five minutes. Auctions 

typically last about 30 minutes.

“[The contractors] can actually see 

the lowest bid, but they don’t know 

who it is,” Ellis said. “They can make an 

informed decision to whether they can go 

lower and still make a profit and if it’s in 

their best interest to reduce their price.”

For example, if two contractors are in 

an auction and the bid is $10 to produce 

a widget, one 

contractor 

can bid $9.95 

for the same 

widget. The other 

knows what its 

operating costs are and 

how much lower it can go, 

Howerton said.

“Reverse auctions don’t fit 

universally,” he said. “[They fit] in certain 

environments where you have a strong 

competitive base.”

Howerton said DLA has to provide 

adequate, simple specifications to contractors in reverse auction situations. 

“If you have a complex item, like a 

nuclear aircraft carrier, reverse auctions 

aren’t a good fit because they’re too 

complex,” Howerton said. “Reverse 

auctions are potentially a good target 

with standard, off-the-shelf items.” 

Ninety-eight percent of what DLA 

Troop Support buys is made up of 

competitive and commercial products, 

so Ellis said he really pushes reverse 

auctions because of the type of material 

bought using the tool. 

Ellis began using the auction tool in 

2001 while he was in the Navy. 

“At the time, no federal agency had 

done this,” he said. “Our very first one 

was for a recovery sequencer for ejection 

seats. We ended up saving about 38 

percent from what we paid historically for 

the item.”

Before he retired from the Navy, Ellis 

came to DLA Troop Support and briefed 

its leaders on how to conduct the auctions 

and the program’s success.

“When I got hired [as a Defense 

Department civilian] and had my in brief 

with the director, I mentioned to him that 

DLA needed to push [reverse auctions]. 

He jumped on it and has been pushing us 

to do it ever since,” Ellis said.

DLA Troop Support manages four 

supply chains – medical, subsistence, 

clothing and textiles, and construction 

equipmentand materials – and has used 

reverse auctions in all of them. 

Some of DLA’s other field activities 

are using the auction tool as well, and 

Howerton and his team are in the process 

of setting up enterprisewide training 

tailored to DLA-specific acquisitions. 

“Other [DLA] activities may now 

find a use for reverse auctions. If so, we 

can increase savings for the enterprise,” 

Howerton said. 

He said it would behoove every contractor wanting to sell items to DLA to be as 

efficient as they can and still make money. 

“Contractors need to get rid of unnecessary actions, activities and processes and 

get as lean as they can,” he said. “DLA buys 

huge quantities of [commodities], so it’s a 

perfect opportunity for business.” 

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF AUCTIONS

Regular auctions have multiple buyers bidding toward one source supplier. 

Reverse auctions use a Web-based pricing tool that fosters competition between 

contractors to reduce the price the government pays for a particular item. By 

requesting an item from multiple suppliers, DLA is able to get those suppliers 

to bid against each other to give DLA the best price for the item.

MAIN

SUPPLIER

BUYER

2

BUYER

3

BUYER

4

BUYER

5

BUYER

6

SUPPLIER

2

SUPPLIER

3

SUPPLIER

4

SUPPLIER

5

SUPPLIER

6

SUPPLIER

1

REGULAR AUCTION

REVERSE AUCTION
6 www.dla.mil

Story by Beth Reece

Photos courtesy DLA Distribution

Condition

CODE “L”

D

efense Logistics Agency

employees are using continuous

process improvement methods

to cut storage costs and improve

customer support.

Supply chain and distribution experts 

began a CPI project in October 2010 to 

address $221 million of nonissuable 

“litigated” inventory that was kept in 

depots primarily because it didn’t meet 

packaging and shipping requirements, 

said Adrienne McGeachy, a DLA Land 

and Maritime employee who is leading 

the project. 

Material is placed in litigation, or 

“condition code L,” for several reasons, 

including missing inspection signatures 

or paperwork, incorrect documents, 

quantity disparities between the invoice 

and the actual shipment, or material that 

is damaged or noncompliant with shelflife requirements. 

Using CPI to analyze and solve the 

problem, McGeachy’s team cleared about 

$150 million of litigated inventory from 

DLA’s depots in 10 months, and it continues to seek solutions that minimize the 

amount of nonissuable material that DLA 

Distribution must store.

“Right now we have about $143 

million worth of litigated inventory. 

That’s a lot better than what we had when 

we started, but it continues to come in,” 

McGeachy said. 

When distribution process workers 

receive items that are unrecognizable 

or improperly packaged, they initiate a 

supply discrepancy report that goes to a 

product specialist, packaging specialist 

or resolution specialist at the appropriate 

supply chain. 

“We spend a lot of time at the depots

doing supply discrepancy reports so

product and acquisition experts who reside

at our supply centers can determine what to

do with this material,” said Christian Lubic,

who manages material accountability and

stock readiness for DLA Distribution.

Representatives from each supply chain

visited depots last fall to identify inventory

that was in litigation simply because it

couldn’t be identified. In six months, they 

made almost $40 million of material

issuable to customers, McGeachy said.

Incorrect packaging accounts for 

about 40 percent of litigated inventory, 

she added.

“The material itself is fine. It’s just 

the packaging or labeling that’s wrong, or 

the supplier sent it to us in commercial 

packaging instead of following military 

specifications.”

Material can be placed in litigation for reasons

including missing inspection signatures or

paperwork, incorrect documents, quantity

disparities between the invoice and the actual

shipment, or material that is damaged or noncompliant with shelf-life requirements.

D

efense

employees

process

to

customer D

Supply
Loglines l November - December 2011 7

The team works closely with vendors,

particularly small businesses that may not

be familiar with DLA’s policies, to educate

them on proper packaging and labeling.

Distribution process workers 

sometimes repackage and re-label Items 

worth less than $250. While this helps 

get material to customers on time, it puts 

undue stress on the depot and sends a 

message to the vendor that the packaging 

was correct, Lubic added.

“The key is to prevent as much of this 

stuff from coming in as possible. That’s a 

win-win for everybody, because when we 

don’t have to put material in litigation, 

vendors get paid quicker, warfighter 

readiness is better, and we don’t have to 

tie up precious storage space,” he said. 

Missing signatures from quality 

assurance representatives is another 

common reason that material is placed 

in litigation status. McGeachy’s team 

discovered the problem was a systems 

glitch that could easily be solved. 

“We discovered that our quality

assurance reps were signing off on the

material as it came in, but the signatures

weren’t making it into the system by

the time the depot went to receipt the

material,” she said.

The team launched a rapid improvement event and cleared $19 million of 

litigated inventory in four months just 

by going back and checking system 

documents. 

Today, material needing signatures 

from quality assurance representatives is 

staged separately for 72 hours. The result

is that 95 percent of the material requiring

What do they do with the extra five? 

The Distribution Standard System won’t 

accept the extra five, so they end up going 

into litigation and can’t be issued to other 

customers.”

The DSS is the information technology

system that DLA’s distribution depots use

to manage functional business processes.

McGeachy attributes much of her 

team’s success to its use a structured CPI 

tool known as DMAIC, which stands for 

define, measure, analyze, improve and 

control. 

Litigated inventory is “everybody’s 

issue,” she added. 

“There are very few positions you 

can have within the supply chain where 

you don’t have some impact on litigated 

inventory, whether you’re a product 

specialist, a procurement specialist or a 

depot worker,” she said. “We all have to 

work together to eliminate it.” 

“When we don’t have to put material in litigation, vendors get paid 

quicker, warghter readiness is better, and we don’t have to tie up 

precious storage space.” 

— Christian Lubic

signatures is now put directly in condition

code A and can be issued immediately to a

customer, McGeachy said.

Contract modifications may also 

cause material to go into litigated status. 

“For example, say we order bolts that 

come in a box of 12. We need five boxes, 

or 60 bolts in total, and that’s what we 

write the contract for. However, the 

contractor sells the item to their other 

customers in boxes of 65 and it’s very 

expensive to repackage them in cartons 

of 12,” McGeachy said.

The contractor will likely ask the 

contracting officer for a waiver to ship 

the bolts in a pack of 65 instead of 12, she 

continued, and the contracting officer 

will probably grant the waiver, especially 

if the item is backordered. 

“What happens then is the depot 

will repackage the item into boxes of 12. 

Well, five boxes of 12 equals 60 bolts. 

A disposition process worker stages material

that is ready for to be sent to a customer.

Litigated inventory that isn’t packaged or

shipped correctly can be held for long periods,

limiting supplies available to warghters.
8 www.dla.mil

T

he Defense Logistics Agency’s 

direct vendor delivery program 

allows customers to get the 

supplies they need delivered 

when they need them, rather than 

forcing them to store bulk quantities in a 

warehouse for possible future use.

Story by Jonathan Stack

“Direct vendor delivery eliminates 

the need for a customer to store large 

amounts of product, which in turn makes 

inventory management more efficient 

and also reduces order and ship times 

and administration,” said Gina Vasquez, 

DLA Troop Support continental U.S. 

prime vendor division chief. 

Customers no longer need warehouses, which are costly to build and 

maintain, particularly when refrigeration 

is required, Vasquez said. The delivery 

program is particularly valuable for units 

ordering food items because customers 

always receive fresh products, reducing 

the risk of spoilage.

“For a DLA Troop Support subsistence

prime vendor, [the program] means

nearly all food items, literally soup to

nuts, are delivered on a regular basis to

our military customers by a specific food 

service distributor,” she said.

A recent example of DLA’s use of 

direct vendor delivery that benefited 

a customer occurred onboard the USS 

Momsen at Naval Station Everett, Wash.

“The ship had a change in orders that 

called for immediate departure, and they 

Army Sgt. Edwin Rodriquez

Door-to-Door

DELIVERY

T

he

direct

allows

supplies

when

forcing

T

 them
Loglines l November - December 2011 9

were given orders to have food on board 

by 4 p.m. or to depart without the food,” 

Vasquez said.

Upon notification, the prime vendor 

took an existing order that would have 

been delivered later in the week and 

expedited it, she said. Employees picked 

up, loaded and delivered more than 250 

cases of food to the ship two hours before 

the deadline with a 100 percent fill rate. 

Direct vendor delivery also benefits 

DLA.

“Rather than managing thousands

of items in a warehouse, DLA manages

dozens of contracts with suppliers,”

Vasquez said. “By measuring performance

metrics such as fill rate, customer 

satisfaction, quality audits and smallbusiness subcontracting, DLA maintains

quality contracts that provide all the

advantages offered by the commercial

food service industry.”

Direct vendor delivery can be used for 

a variety of items besides food. 

“DLA Troop Support also has divisions

for medical, clothing and textiles, and

construction and equipment, each of

which uses the direct vendor delivery

concept where applicable,” Vasquez said. 

DLA Troop Support also uses direct 

vendor delivery for its Ecclesiastical 

Supply Program, supplying military 

religious leaders with items ranging from 

hymnals and rosaries to prayer rugs and 

Hanukkah candles.

“There are approximately 800 

ecclesiastical items, and almost 90 

percent of them are shipped using direct 

vendor delivery,” said Ted Kelly, a DLA 

Troop Support Customer Relationship 

Management Cell supervisor. 

The delivery program cuts down on 

depot costs, damage to products and 

turnaround times to customers, he said. 

“Furniture is made to order and 

won’t be stored in a warehouse with 

the potential of being damaged,” said 

Maryann Bonk-Santos, a customer 

account specialist. “Also, wine [for 

religious severices] won’t sit and 

potentially turn into vinegar.”

Another benefit of direct vendor 

delivery is that customers build relationships with the contractors.

“Customers know the vendor, they 

know what they’re getting and they understand how the vendor works, because 

they’re receiving their religious items 

from the same vendor,” Kelly said. “For 

example, they have the comfort level of 

knowing how the wine is going to come.”

DLA Troop Support has been using 

the delivery program for subsistence and 

other items since the program’s inception 

in 1993.“Prior to that, the government 

was heavily invested in owning and 

running large warehouses and depots 

to stock all kinds of items necessary for 

its military customers,” Vasquez said. 

“With the emergence of the modern food 

service industry, DLA Troop Support 

moved away from the costly inventory 

management business and toward 

satisfying its customers’ requirements 

through competed contracts among 

commercial distributors.”

Direct vendor delivery saves money, 

frees up resources and improves 

customer service, Vasquez said. 

A Navy chaplain leads Sailors and

Marines in prayer on the USS Ronald

Reagan. DLA’s direct vendor delivery

program allows customers to get the

supplies they need delivered when

they need them.

The religious items pictured are

directly shipped to customers using

DLA’s direct vendor delivery program.

DLA Troop Support uses the program

for its Ecclesiastical Supply Program,

supplying military religious leaders

with items ranging from hymnals to

rosaries and prayer rugs.

Personnel at Kandahar Aireld, Afghanistan,

enjoy a meal at the Independence dining

facility. Food is one of the many supply

classes DLA Troop Support supplies through

the agency’s direct vendor delivery program.

DLA Troop Support has been using the

delivery program for subsistence and other

items since its inception in 1993.

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Alexander Tidd Air Force Tech. Sgt. James Mossman
10 www.dla.mil

Story by Beth Reece

T

he Defense Logistics Agency’s 

take on building a successful 

partnership with suppliers 

is much like TV psychologist 

Dr. Phil’s formula for a 

loving relationship: keep the lines of 

communication open, be understanding 

and learn to meet one another’s needs. 

But where couples might rely on 

therapy or counseling to keep their 

relationships healthy, DLA uses long-term 

partnering agreements called strategic supplier alliances to measure and strengthen 

its key relationships. 

“These alliances give our relationships 

with equipment manufacturers more 

structure so we can easily take on new 

initiatives together and work on improving 

certain performance metrics,” said Tim 

Stark, who manages DLA’s Supplier 

Relationship Management Program. 

The agency has SSAs with 27 suppliers, 

like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, that 

provide major hardware for the aviation, 

land and maritime supply chains. Nineteen 

of those alliances belong to suppliers that 

have contracts with DLA Aviation and 

account for at least half the money DLA 

Story by Beth Reece

Strong Ties spends for aviation parts and equipment, 

said Cathy Contreras, SRM team lead for 

DLA Aviation.

“While it’s important to have positive 

relationships with all of our suppliers, 

I think there are certain key suppliers 

that we really need to work closely with 

because so much of taxpayers’ money is 

going to them,” she said.

Each alliance is facilitated by a supplier 

relationship manager and governed by 

an executive committee made up of top 

officials from DLA and the supplier. The 

committee meets at the start of each year to 

review progress made during the previous 

year and create goals that are tackled by 

improvement teams. 

Goals are tailored to each supplier, 

but typically highlight issues important to 

the entire DLA enterprise, Contreras said.

“One of the major things that all of our 

supply chains were concerned with during 

DLA Land and Maritime’s strategic supplier alliance with BAE Systems helps ensure repair parts like those required for this Caiman Mine Resistant 

Ambush Protected vehicle are available when warghters need them.

Army Spc. Anita VanderMolen

T

he Defense Logistics Agency’s 

take on building a successful 

partnership with suppliers 

is much like TV psychologist 

Dr. Phil’s formula for a T

loving relationship: keep the lines of 
Loglines l November - December 2011 11

this past year, for example, was achieving 

material price reductions, so we incorporated that into the goals in all of our alliances,” 

she said. 

Other goals are based on vendor score 

cards that track performance in such areas 

as production lead time, administrative 

lead time, on-time delivery and percent of 

obligations on long-term contracts. 

“These score cards help our suppliers 

understand how we measure key metrics 

that are important to us and to our 

customers,” said Linda Kelly, SRM team 

lead for DLA Land and Maritime.

Suppliers receive their score cards 

every month and often use the information 

to drive spontaneous process changes or 

improvements, she said.

When one supplier recognized a drop 

in its on-time delivery metrics even though 

it was shipping orders as scheduled, its 

staff investigated why, Kelly said. In many 

cases, the material had arrived at a DLA 

warehouse on time but was placed on 

litigation status because it was improperly 

packaged. This affected the supplier’s 

metrics because litigated material doesn’t 

get receipted until the problem is solved. 

“Our suppliers are paying more 

attention to details that they didn’t realize 

were important before they started 

receiving the score cards,” Kelly added.

The collaborative atmosphere that SSAs 

help foster has also led to quicker responses 

to warfighters’ emergency requests, said 

Maggie Mickey, who manages DLA Land 

and Maritime’s alliance with BAE Systems. 

“Because we already have the 

communication and partnership set up, 

the lines of communication are so much 

more open that when we do have a critical 

need, it’s easier for us to call them and 

say, ‘We know your lead time on this item 

is 10 weeks, but we need it tomorrow,’” 

she said. “In almost every case the 

supplier will work with us.”

In May, program managers for the 

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle 

discovered that a gap in the armor plates 

on BAE’s Caiman MRAP left passengers 

vulnerable to newer improvised explosive 

devices being used in Afghanistan, Mickey 

said. When two Soldiers were reported 

killed because of the gap in armor 

protection, defense officials demanded 

additional armor plates be ordered to 

cover the gap. 

DLA already had orders in place for 

the additional armor, but Mickey said the 

need to expedite those orders was obvious.

“I made the call to BAE to let them 

know what was going on, gave them some 

history, and told them about the loss 

of lives,” she said. “They immediately 

scoured all of their suppliers and came up 

with ... armor they could use to produce 

some of the panels needed.”

The supplier expedited deliveries by 

as much as 90 days, Kelly added.

“In this case our alliance literally saved 

lives,” she said. “We don’t have a crystal ball 

that tells us when situations like this will 

arise. That’s why it’s so important for us to 

have these alliances in place.”

Army customers who urgently needed 

parts for grounded aircraft also benefited 

from supplier alliances recently. The parts 

needed weren’t kept in stock due to low 

demand, Contreras said, and the supplier required well over a year to produce 

them. 

“We knew the service really needed 

the parts, so through our alliance with 

Cherie Cullen

Plant workers work on a Lockheed Martin Joint 

Strike Fighter aircraft at a production facility in 

Fort Worth, Texas. 

“The more you 

understand each 

other’s needs, the more 

efciency you can 

create in your process.”

— Cathy Contreras
12 www.dla.mil

An F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft conducts a test ight over the Chesapeake Bay 

near Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. DLA Aviation has a strategic supplier alliance with 

Lockheed Martin to provide hardware for military aircraft.

the supplier we were able to call the right 

people and find a solution,” she said. 

The supplier located several commercial 

derivatives of what the Army needed, made 

some changes for quality, then tested them. 

Within six weeks, the customers received 

most of the parts needed.

Aviation officials expect these alliances 

to help eliminate potential shortages of 

raw materials, such as yttrium, a rare 

metal needed to build military equipment 

ranging from aircraft to weapon systems. 

“It’s really critical that we work 

together over the next couple of years to 

make sure we’re clear on what materials 

we need across the Department of 

Defense,” Contreras said. “We may need to 

do things a little differently than we have in 

the past to make sure our suppliers are able 

to acquire these materials.”

DLA has made its own share of 

changes to ensure supplier alliances are 

beneficial to both sides. Aviation supply 

experts at DLA rely on national stock 

numbers to identify parts, for example, 

but many of its suppliers refer to items by 

part numbers instead. To save suppliers 

the extra steps needed to match NIINs 

and part numbers, Contreras said, DLA 

Aviation officials began including part 

numbers in the orders and information 

they sent to suppliers. The result: less 

administrative lead time.

“The more you understand each 

other’s needs, the more efficiency you can 

create in your processes,” she said.

Another component of DLA’s 

Supplier Relationship Management 

program is the supply chain alliance. 

Unlike SSAs, which are with major 

equipment manufacturers that are the 

only source for parts for large weapon 

systems, such as Lockheed Martin with 

the Joint Strike Fighter, SCAs are with 

manufacturers that provide a substantial 

amount of smaller subassemblies. One 

example is Rockwell Collins, which 

supplies modular displays for helmets 

used by fighter jet pilots. 

SCAs are signed off on by supply chain 

commanders rather than the DLA director 

and have a less rigid structure, Stark said. 

But they also afford supply chain officials 

more flexibility to create alliances they 

deem important. 

DLA has SCAs with 23 vendors in 

the medical, land, maritime, energy, and 

clothing and textile supply chains. SSAs 

and SCAs both lead to relationships in 

which officials at DLA and the suppliers 

know exactly who to call when urgent 

needs or problems surface. While that’s 

particularly crucial for DLA employees 

dealing with suppliers that are made up of 

multiple companies in several locations, 

Stark said, suppliers are always eager to 

have an open door to the agency.

“We are always looking for ways to 

increase communication with our industry partners, and these alliances offer a 

structure in which that can happen on a 

regular basis,” he continued.

DLA established its first formal alliance 

in 1999 with Honeywell. At the time, DLA 

was shifting from managing supplies to 

managing suppliers. The greatest outcome 

in Mickey’s view is that employees at DLA 

and the manufacturers recognize that 

each side plays a major role in meeting 

warfighters’ needs. 

“We’ve been able to map out suppliers’ 

processes with ours to see the total picture, 

and that makes both of our processes 

better in the long run,” she said. 

Air Force Staff Sgt. Cliff Hatch tightens 

screws on a helmet-mounted cueing system 

for Air Force Lt. Col. David Berg. The helmet 

is supplied by Rockwell Collins, which has a 

strategic supplier alliance with DLA Aviation. 

Air Force Senior Airman Ciara Wymbs

Navy photo courtesy Lockheed Martin Corp.
Loglines l November - December 2011 13

customers’ readiness and sustainment

levels to working with industrial activities.

“The Director’s Guidance keeps the

agency focused on initiatives that matter

most to our customers: supporting the

warfighter at the least possible cost,” said 

Army Brig. Gen. Lynn Collyar, DLA Logistics 

Operations director. “Our country faces

increased security concerns and is doing so

with constrained resources.” 

The first of seven Warfighter Support 

initiatives is supporting operational

requirements, force drawdown and 

equipment reset of forces in Southwest Asia. 

“Some of our hardest work remains 

to be done,” said Army Col. Michael 

Bird, the commander of DLA Central. 

Providing logistics in a landlocked 

country is a daily battle, he added.

Support in Afghanistan will 

include optimized use of the Northern 

Distribution Network to deliver supplies, 

continued spare-parts support for critical 

weapons systems, and expanded property 

2012 Director’s

Guidance

D

efense Logistics Agency 

employees will spend the next 

year celebrating 50 years of 

successful logistics support to 

America’s military. They’ll also 

continue working to improve that support 

under the fiscal 2012 Director’s Guidance 

released in October. 

The new guidance includes 16 

initiatives designed to steer employees’ 

efforts in three focus areas: Warfighter 

Support, Stewardship Excellence and 

Workforce Development. Its opening 

paragraphs forecast fiscal 2012 as a tough 

Story by Beth Reece

year for DLA and its customers. 

“We are a country at war, dealing 

with multiple security interests 

worldwide in an evolving and 

increasingly complex economic and 

political environment. Our customers 

face numerous issues related to these 

factors, including emerging resource 

restraints and the need to reconstitute 

key assets that were heavily used over the 

past decade,” according the guidance. 

Meeting warfighters’ logistical needs 

remains DLA’s top priority in fiscal 

2012. That task ranges from supporting 

D

efense

employees will spend the next 

year celebrating 50 years of 

successful

America’s D

continue working

Supporting warghters in Afghanistan remains

the number one initiative under the scal 2012

Director’s Guidance.

Air Force Senior Airman Nathanael Callon
14 www.dla.mil

disposal services. In Iraq, DLA will help 

ensure uninterrupted support for such 

commodities as food and fuel for the State 

Department, which assumed leadership of 

the U.S. presence there in October. 

“Like the customers we support, it’s 

critical that we zero in on activities that

lead to mission accomplishment and logistics efficiencies,” Collyar said. “That’s why 

initiatives like creating a more efficient 

storage and distribution network ... are 

part of this year’s guidance.”

The agency will also work with military

industrial sites that perform repairs and

maintenance on major equipment and

weapon systems to plan the return, reset 

and redistribution of equipment belonging 

to units redeploying from Afghanistan.

Other Warfighter Support initiatives 

include efforts to support the Defense

Department in developing policy on the

use of alternative fuel, as well as acquisition 

support for the 40,000 barrels of biofuel 

the Navy will need in 2012 for the Navy 

Green Fleet, a group of ships capable of 

sailing on alternative fuel.

DLA Strategic Materials will also 

continue to move away from traditional 

stockpiling to better meet DoD’s raw 

material needs. Strategic material experts 

will complete a rare earth study to identify

critical items that warrant strategic

inventory support and develop strategies to

prevent shortages of those materials.

“We will also do more outreach 

with the services to see what their 

requirements are, as well as research the 

global market for strategic materials,” 

said Ronnie Favors, administrator of 

DLA Strategic Materials.

Under Stewardship Excellence, DLA 

will strive to protect taxpayer resources 

without sacrificing support to warfighters. 

Acquisition professionals at DLA’s

primary-level field activities will continue 

working toward price reductions by putting 

high-demand items on long-term contracts

and expanding the use of reverse auctions, 

which reduce material costs by increasing 

supplier competition.

To further improve acquisition

practices throughout DLA, experts will 

conduct a comprehensive analysis of recent

audit findings to address deficiencies in 

priority order, and implement training to 

improve acquisition practices.

The agency will also work to establish a 

more efficient and effective supply support 

network by capitalizing on synergies 

between DLA’s disposal, distribution and 

strategic material storage processes and

facilities. In one example, DLA is partnering 

with U.S. Transportation Command and 

the military services to implement Strategic 

Network Optimization. This will optimize

the number, location and function of 

distribution and disposition facilities, in 

turn reducing operating costs and providing

agility to support customers during

peacetime and contingency operations.

“The SNO program is moving the 

Defense Department ... toward the next 

evolution in the global supply, distribution, disposition and transportation 

network,” said Lynne Allen, DLA SNO 

program manager.

Officials throughout the agency 

will also identify risks in such areas as 

cyber security, procurement fraud and 

counterfeit parts. Periodic reviews will be 

used to pinpoint potential problems and 

establish prevention methods. 

In the area of counterfeit parts, 

officials are creating training to educate 

all DLA employees on how to identify 

a counterfeit part and what to do if 

they find one, said Stephen Rodock, a 

technical and quality analyst for DLA 

Logistics Operations. Other preventive

Acquisition professionals at DLA’s primary-level eld activities will work

toward price reductions by putting high-demand items on long-term

contracts and expanding the use of reverse auctions.

Acquisition support for alternative fuel used in aircraft and ships is a DLA priority.

 Air Force Airman 1st Class Laura Goodgame
Loglines l November - December 2011 15

WARFIGHTER SUPPORT

w Support operational requirements and force 

drawdown/equipment reset processes in the 

Southwest Asia theater.

w Improve DLA’s support performance at service 

industrial sites and prepare to meet additional 

equipment reset-driven requirements.

w Engage with customers and external stakeholders 

to drive additional DLA support improvements 

worldwide.

w Provide a portfolio of best-value product support 

strategies.

w Support the Department of Defense’s operational 

energy strategy to enhance warfighter agility.

w Enhance DLA’s strategic materials program to 

meet emerging support requirements.

w Continue partnerships with the military services’ engineering support activities 

to enhance weapons systems support processes. 

STEWARDSHIP EXCELLENCE

w Implement comprehensive cost analysis 

capabilities that help drive improved resource 

utilization for major internal DLA cost drivers.

w Achieve significant price reductions across DLA’s 

material and services acquisitions. 

w Implement a more efficient and effective 

global supply support network for storage and 

distribution across all material classes of supply.

w Implement DLA-driven post-Base Realignment 

and Closure support efficiencies at the service’s 

industrial sites.

w Identify and implement improved acquisition 

execution practices across all DLA supply chains.

w Implement information technology enhancements to facilitate improved 

customer support and process efficiency.

w Mitigate significant known or potential risks 

to mission accomplishment and efficiency.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

w Assess and improve hiring and selection 

policies and practices to ensure a diverse, 

high-performing workforce.

w Improve DLA’s organizational and individual performance management practices.

2012 Director’s

Guidance Initiatives

steps will include additional sample testing

from high-risk suppliers and the use of

DNA marking, by which manufacturers 

embed information in materials to identify 

them as original parts.

Workforce Development initiatives 

are designed to help DLA employees

improve their skills and reach their full

potential as they support DLA’s mission.

The first initiative is to assess and improve 

hiring and selection policies to ensure

a diverse, high-performing workforce. 

Human resource officials will enhance 

training for hiring managers and selecting

officials, and use targeted recruitment to 

increase the diversity of applicants.

“DLA is reviewing its staffing process 

to reinforce the agency’s goal of growing

a diverse, high-performing workforce,” 

said Brad Bunn, DLA Human Resources 

director. “During these austere times, it has 

become even more critical to effectively and 

fairly evaluate and assess candidates so that

we select the best and brightest with the 

capabilities and diversity of experience to 

support mission success.”

To improve management practices, 

refresher training on all aspects of the

performance management process will be 

available for supervisors. Human resource 

officials will also review rewards and 

recognition policies to ensure the alignment

of organizational performance, individual 

achievement and employee recognition.

“As resources become tighter and 

the demand grows for greater efficiency 

without impact to our effectiveness, 

ensuring we have robust, rigorous 

performance management practices across

the agency is imperative,” Bunn said.

The status of these initiatives 

will be tracked monthly by the DLA 

Executive Board, which is made up of 

the agency’s most senior leaders, said 

Phyllisa Goldenberg, director of DLA 

Strategic Plans and Policy. Her team 

ensures initiatives included in the 

annual Director’s Guidance are aligned 

with strategies set forth by the Defense 

Department and are designed to improve 

the entire DLA enterprise. 

Marine Corps Sgt. Ricardo A. Gomez

Marine Corps Sgt. Ricardo A. Gomez

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Jacob D. Moore Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Jacob D. Moore
16 www.dla.mil

Most Fortune 100 CEOs 

operate in a high-pressure 

environment. But for Navy 

Vice Adm. Alan Thompson, the 

products and services his team 

provides can literally mean the difference 

between life and death for warfighters. 

As director of the nation’s only combat 

logistics support agency, Thompson has for 

three years led America’s largest military 

logistics enterprise, serving some of the 

most demanding customers at far-flung 

locations across the globe. 

Military service members rely on the 

Story and Photos by Heather Athey

Defense Logistics Agency for subsistence, 

fuel and spare-parts support, for 

distribution and warehousing services, 

and logistics information and documentservices products. If the agency were 

ranked on Forbes Magazine’s annual list 

of America’s largest companies, it would 

land above FedEx, Coca-Cola and Disney 

in terms of annual sales. 

Thompson logs long hours. Most days, 

his staff says, he spends 12 hours in the office before heading home to answer emails 

and tend to additional matters. Nearly 40 

percent of the time he is on the road, meeting with senior defense officials, customers 

and industry stakeholders, working to 

translate warfighters needs into reality. 

Those he leads describe him as a 

steady, inspiring leader. The agency’s 

senior leaders credit him with unifying 

the DLA team in support of both 

warfighters’ and taxpayers’ needs. His 

bosses in the Defense Department say 

Thompson has pushed DLA forward as a 

critical combat enabler.

During his tenure, DLA’s operations 

tempo has surged to keep pace with 

the change over from Operation Iraqi 

Freedom to Operation New Dawn, and 

realignment of focus to supporting the responsible drawdown of troops and material while sustaining warfighters rotating 

through Iraq. The DLA team stretched to 

accommodate the tidal wave of requirements generated by the buildup of more 

than 50,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, 

and its members volunteered to deploy 

alongside warfighters to ensure they were 

adequately sustained on the battlefield. 

While the nation’s warfighters were 

consumed with contingency operations 

in Southwest Asia, America also joined 

its NATO allies in conducting Operation 

Leadership

in Action

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson 

gets a tour of the DLA Disposition eld site 

at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, from 

then-site manager Chris Harris in May.

Most Fortune 100 CEOs 

operate in a high-pressure 

environment. But for Navy 

Vice Adm. Alan Thompson, the 

products and services his team 

provides can literally mean the difference 

M
Loglines l November - December 2011 17

Odyssey Dawn in Libya and sprang to 

the aid of earthquake-stricken Haiti and 

tsunami-ravaged Japan. All the while, DLA 

was there.

 When he hands over DLA’s reins to 

his successor Nov. 18, Thompson will 

pass on a team of battle-tested veterans, united in their focus on providing 

outstanding warfighter support. He will 

also close the book on a 35-year military 

career that saw him serve at the highest 

levels in Navy and joint logistics.

CHARTING A COURSE

Upon taking the helm at DLA in 

November 2008, Thompson quickly set to 

work outlining his roadmap for providing 

world-class combat logistics support – his 

2008 Director’s Guidance – a document 

that has been revised and re-released each 

fiscal year to supply the DLA team with 

near-term goals that fit under the agency’s 

broader Strategic Plan.

From the start of his tour, Thompson 

focused the agency team on the three key 

strategic elements of Warfighter Support, 

Stewardship Excellence and Workforce 

Development, said DLA Vice Director Mae 

DeVincentis.

In a letter to the workforce announcing the fiscal 2012 Director’s Guidance, 

Thompson wrote that under those three 

enduring focus areas are 16 major initiatives 

permeated by a central theme that DLA 

must be highly effective and efficient in 

everything it does.

“In addition to doing the basic 

daily work of DLA – supporting America’s 

warfighters around the clock, around the 

globe – we will rapidly move out on these 

Director’s Guidance initiatives to prepare 

DLA to best support our armed forces and 

DoD in the years ahead,” he wrote. “Leaner 

budgetary times are at hand and we must 

do more than our part to squeeze cost out of 

DoD logistics.” 

Intensified focus on these key areas has 

enabled DLA to continue providing worldclass logistics solutions that keep pace with 

warfighters’ requirements, Thompson said. 

“The annual Director’s Guidance 

process clarified and focused our strategic 

initiatives. It also informed our stakeholders 

of our intentions and assured them that 

we were focused on their key interests,” 

DeVincentis said. “In the long term these 

ventures enhanced DLA’s capabilities, 

credibility and reputation, both regarding 

our current vital support roles and also 

when stakeholders consider the potential 

for DLA to take on added responsibilities on 

their behalf.” 

Thompson’s overriding intent has 

always been to do what is best for warfighters and taxpayers, she said. 

“He championed numerous initiatives, 

and established strong links with the entire 

logistics support community and with 

DoD’s warfighting and maintenance commanders worldwide,” DeVincentis said.

One such initiative – We are DLA – 

aimed to unite the nearly 27,000 DLA 

team members serving in 48 states and 

28 countries, and create a single-agency 

environment for both the 

workforce and customers . 

Rolled out in July 2010, 

officials said the initiative 

would help DLA build a 

greater sense of community 

among its global workforce 

and let customers know exactly “who” DLA is and how 

it can meet their needs.

“The We Are DLA effort 

has made DLA’s broad 

enterprisewide capabilities 

much more apparent to 

our customers and all our 

stakeholders and enabled 

us to pursue additional ways to meet their 

needs,” DeVincentis said.

UNITING EFFORTS

In the Pacific area of operations, the 

world’s largest operating theater where 

distance is routinely measured in days of 

travel versus hours, DLA’s team members 

and customers praise the synergy created 

through We Are DLA.

“Defense Logistics Agency field activities in the Pacific are working together to 

create a single touch point for warfighters in 

the U.S. Pacific Command operating area,” 

said Army Col. Joe Arnold, DLA Pacific 

commander. 

The team is also working to colocate 

DLA’s business components to provide 

further advantages to warfighters, he said.

Physical proximity to other field activity 

team members reminds the DLA Pacific 

players of the full reach of the agency’s 

capabilities, Thompson said.

“Now that the organizations are starting 

to colocate, customers are getting a better 

representation of the full range of the 

agency’s support,” he said. “It’s important 

we work together as one integrated team 

because the customer really sees us all as 

one DLA team.”

This team orientation was critical during 

DLA Pacific’s participation in Operation 

Tomodachi, the joint response to this 

spring’s disaster in Japan, when an 8.9 

magnitude earthquake spawned a tsunami 

and ensuing nuclear crisis, officials said. 

DLA’s Pacific team 

shifted to 24/7 operations 

and provided planners and 

customer support to Joint 

Support Force – Japan, 

while making use of existing prime vendor relationships to increase supplies of 

food and bottled water. 

 “Supporting Operation 

Tomodachi was an acid test 

of the DLA organization in 

the Pacific and its people,” 

said DLA Energy Pacific 

Commander Navy Capt. 

Kevin Henderson. “The 

organizations came together as a team, got 

a battle rhythm going, and everyone got the 

information flowing to ensure customers got 

what they needed.”

Operation Tomodachi also represented 

the success possible when DLA leans 

forward to assume some of the logistics 

missions traditionally performed by the 

military services, officials said.

“During Operation Tomodachi and 

the follow-on support mission, we’d have 

been in a crack if DLA team members 

hadn’t stepped forward with us. We have 

been able to relieve ourselves of some of 

“He championed 

numerous initiatives, and 

established strong links 

with the entire logistics 

support community and 

with DoD’s warghting 

and maintenance 

commanders worldwide.”

— Mae DeVincentis
18 www.dla.mil

the historical logistics mission because of 

DLA support and that has enabled us to 

be more efficient,” said Larry Johnson, 

deputy commander of Marine Forces 

Pacific Logistics Operations. 

“I have seen the trust relationship build 

with DLA to where we’re coming to your 

folks and asking what more they can take 

on,” Johnson said.

While much of the world’s focus has 

been on Southwest and Central Asia over 

the past 10 years, Thompson said, the 

Pacific theater is only going to become 

more important as forces draw down in 

Iraq and Afghanistan.

“DLA is a global enterprise and many 

people discuss the U.S. Central Command 

operating area in Southwest and Central 

Asia when referring to contingency 

operations, but as we’re drawing down in 

Iraq and beginning to do so in Afghanistan, 

we’re continuing to look at the entire world 

and USPACOM is going to become more 

visible in the coming years,” he said.

CHANGING FOCUS

In the near term, Thompson said, DLA 

must remain flexible to keep pace with the 

changing needs of warfighters in Kuwait, 

Iraq and Afghanistan. 

“We’re at a tipping point in the 

Defense Department, where we’re in active 

negotiations with the government of Iraq 

to determine what the final U.S. military 

presence will be there and the addition 

of State Department personnel who will 

assume duties in Iraq as well,” he said. 

These changes, in addition to the U.S. 

Central Command mandate to increase the 

volume of cargo entering Afghanistan via 

the Northern Distribution Network, are 

driving DLA’s workload in Southwest Asia, 

Thompson said.

“Nearly 80 percent of the cargo volume 

moved via the NDN has been DLA material,” 

he said. “This has been a tremendous 

undertaking for us, and we’re working with 

our partners in the military services and at 

U.S. Transportation Command to reduce the 

shipping times and prices for getting cargo 

through the NDN.”

Prepositioning thoughtfully 

considered inventories at DLA’s forward 

distribution centers has been one way the 

agency is working to simplify the process 

for getting supplies to warfighters in Iraq 

and Afghanistan, Thompson said. DLA has 

also stood up distribution, disposal and 

helium transfer sites in the country. 

DLA Distribution Depot Kandahar, 

Afghanistan, stood up more than a year 

ago to help reduce warfighters’ reliance on 

strategic airlift for resupply of critical items, 

officials said. 

“The analysis to determine what items 

we were going to stock at DDKA was all 

about the items we were flying in over and 

over,” Thompson said. “And we knew we 

couldn’t make the depot too large, so the 

analysis folks were looking at a small universe of inventory that would have the greatest impact on strategic airlift requirements.”

Locating disposal facilities at strategic 

points in Afghanistan has also relieved some 

of the burdens on warfighters at the outer 

reaches of the U.S. military presence there, 

officials said.

Kandahar has three expeditionary 

disposal teams staffed with qualified 

disposal experts who make site visits out to 

forward operating bases to help warfighters prepare to send unserviceable items 

to the disposition site, known as DLA 

Disposition Kandahar. Team members 

can help identify and categorize items and 

fill out disposal paperwork, said Air Force 

Capt. Theresa Hernandez, former officer in 

charge of the activity.

“We bring along a scrap contractor on 

the site visits who can immediately remove 

scrap so it never even has to be trucked to 

the disposal yard,” she said. “When we go 

out to the forward operating bases, some 

are ready to turn in their unserviceable 

equipment, and it’s separated and categorized. Some FOBs just aren’t sure what to 

do, so it’s nice that we can help relieve that 

burden.” 

A relatively new organization in 

northern Afghanistan, the DLA Distribution 

Theater Consolidation and Shipping Point, 

is providing a joint, centralized capability 

for controlling troop-support commodities 

such as clothing and individual equipment, 

packaged petroleum products, construction 

material and repair parts in country.

Officials said the TCSP will improve 

theater distribution for U.S. and coalition 

forces by reducing cargo congestion and 

helping to establish a foundation for future 

controlled and expeditious redistribution 

and retrograde plans.

Created in response to a request by 

U.S. Forces–Afghanistan that DLA deploy a 

TCSP into Combined Joint Operating AreaAfghanistan, the team reached its initial 

operating capability target in May, less than 

two months after the request was approved 

by then Defense Secretary Robert Gates, 

officials said. 

Full operating capacity is expected to be 

reached this month and the site is slated to 

“As we’re drawing down in Iraq and beginning to do so in Afghanistan, 

we’re continuing to look at the entire world,and USPACOM is going to 

become more visible.” 

— Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson 

rides in a Blackhawk helicopter bound for 

the agency’s Theater Consolidation and 

Shipping Point in northern Afghanistan.
Loglines l November - December 2011 19

transfer to contract operation late this year.

“For many months we watched 

challenges occur as the force number rose 

and the operations tempo increased, and 

we saw the need for much more material,” 

Thompson said. “To bring this to life, 

it’s going to be huge from the standpoint 

of better controlling the flow of needed 

material throughout Afghanistan.”

The public believes the ramp up in 

Afghanistan began in December 2009 with 

30,000 additional troops, but the truth 

is 20,000 troops actually started moving 

into Afghanistan in February 2009, said 

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics 

and Materiel Readiness Alan Estevez.

“Afghanistan is a land-locked country. 

It’s hard to get to, and putting those people 

on the ground and sustaining them would 

not have been possible without DLA,” he 

said. “We consume fuel, both for weapons 

and to do basic work, and construction 

materials for building out base support – 

requirements DLA responded to on fairly 

short notice and put on the ground to make 

those forces combat effective.”

Feeding the troops is another core DLA 

competency, Estevez said. 

“I’ve been there multiple times, and 

the food is pretty good in Afghanistan. 

We’re taking care of our Soldiers, Sailors, 

Airmen and Marines, and that’s a credit 

to DLA,” he said. 

The work DLA has done to provision 

for and sustain the fleet of Mine Resistant 

Ambush Protected vehicles has also been 

outstanding, with readiness rates better 

than 90 percent, Estevez said. 

Agency officials said DLA’s MRAP support has reached nearly $1.7 billion in sales 

with 22 contracts supporting the MRAP 

fleet, and $624.7 million worth of MRAP 

parts are positioned in DLA depots around 

the world, $128.7 million of which are for 

the MRAP’s all-terrain variant.

Thompson said MRAP provisioning 

and sustainment is unique because the 

vehicles were fielded as quickly as possible, 

and that reduced timeline was compounded 

because five different manufacturers built 

various versions of the MRAP. 

DLA’s MRAP Surge Team works in 

various locations in Afghanistan providing 

direct support to units employing MRAPs in 

Operation Enduring Freedom and is staying 

engaged as Army and Marine 

Corps teams refurbish and 

standardize their MRAP fleets, 

he said.

“I visited the MRAP 

sustainment facilities at 

Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, 

and at Kandahar Air Field, 

Afghanistan, in May, and our 

customers are pleased with 

DLA’s level of engagement and 

support,” Thompson said. “DLA’s warfighter support representatives on the ground 

provide crucial reach-back capability to the 

larger DLA logistics force.”

In Iraq, DLA’s focus is changing from 

supporting combat troops to sustaining 

the forces in country as they draw down. 

Team members are also planning for the 

transition from a DoD-led mission there to 

a Department of State-led operation.

“Working with the State Department 

isn’t a normal DLA mission, but the agency 

is standing up to the challenge as State 

leads a diplomatic mission to sustain the 

gains made in Iraq,” Estevez said. “DLA is 

working closely with State, giving them the 

capabilities they require on the ground in 

Iraq for food, fuel and disposition support. 

This is outside the bounds of what’s been 

charted before, and it’s a testament to DLA’s 

leadership that the agency has been able to 

do this quite seamlessly.”

LOOKING BACK, LEANING FORWARD

Any organization takes its key from its 

leader, and Thompson has done an outstanding job leading DLA’s team members, 

responding to the needs of warfighters 

out on point and to the needs of taxpayers 

back home, while managing a budget that 

is going to get tougher in the coming years, 

Estevez said.

“For the last decade, the emphasis 

was on the effectiveness of support, getting material to warfighters in the U.S. 

Central Command operating area quickly,” 

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson 

discusses the types of map products the 

agency provides with DLA political advisor 

Willard Smith during a September visit to 

DLA Distribution Mapping in Honolulu.

DLA provisioning for Mine 

Resistant Ambush Protected 

vehicles, including the all-terrain 

variant, has consistently enabled 

readiness rates of higher than 90 

percent for the vehicle eet.
20 www.dla.mil

Thompson said. “But now and into the 

future, being cost effective with our support 

has become equally important.” 

Looking ahead, Thompson said 

DLA is positioned to take on even more, 

despite the surge in business and disposal 

volume driven by the plus-up of forces in 

Afghanistan and the responsible drawdown in Iraq. 

“DLA was formed to be a consolidator 

of similar logistics support functions 

and capabilities, an efficiency creator. If 

you study our history, it’s been a steady 

succession of these consolidations of 

function from the four military services into 

DLA,” he said. 

 Once DLA takes on a new mission, 

it typically applies standard processes, 

modernizes information technology and 

invests in facilities, in addition to spending 

time on developing the workforce. 

“We have this fixed cost element at 

DLA, but there is also this variable cost 

piece, which is much smaller,” Thompson 

said. “We can add greatly to the volume of 

our business with only modest additional 

resources required. We have more 

capabilities to leverage moving forward. 

“What we create, in the end, is a more 

efficient future enterprise,” Thompson said, 

citing the example of a Navy warehouse in 

which operations were conducted by nearly 

1,300 workers before transitioning to 

DLA. Once a part of the agency, warehouse 

operations there were able to be successfully conducted by just 300 team members, 

he explained, noting that the streamlining 

was accomplished without adverse impact 

on employees. 

Providing the full spectrum of DLA’s 

logistics support to warfighters is a joint 

effort, and the admiral said his team is 

heavily engaged with the agency’s partners 

in the Defense Department and industry to 

stabilize costs.

 “If you look at the prices for what we’re 

purchasing – in DLA’s 10,000 contract 

actions a day – there’s been a steady march 

upward,” he said. “But [business models 

show] there’s an expectation that prices 

should go down over time. We’re going to 

be working on that intensively, and this 

will connect nicely with the efforts to bring 

down costs for the entire department.” 

“Resource stewardship has been one of 

DLA’s foremost focus areas under Admiral 

Thompson’s leadership,” DeVincentis said. 

“Knowing that budgetary pressures exist 

across DoD, he ensured we constrained 

our cost recovery rate and kept the cost 

of DLA support several percentage points 

below the department’s annual inflation 

projections.”

Thompson has placed special 

emphasis on negotiating reduced prices 

paid to commercial sector providers, and 

DLA has saved nearly $300 million in 

fiscal 2011 alone from this developing 

initiative, she said. 

“He has driven us to pursue additional, 

significant cost-saving options, including 

under the department’s efficiency reviews 

to identify cross-department inventory, 

warehousing and logistics information 

systems management savings,” 

DeVincentis said. 

When DLA is successful at generating 

savings, Thompson said, the outcome is 

generally realized because of close collaboration between the agency and the military 

services, to which the dollars saved are 

usually returned. 

 The DLA Headquarters and field 

leadership team is fully supportive of these 

efforts in all aspects of their budget planning and day to day execution, ranging from 

basic internal factors like administrative 

costs up to their largest customer support 

cost-drivers, DeVincentis said. 

“As a result, I believe we are well positioned to help all our stakeholders deal with 

the financial challenges ahead,” she said.

LEAVING A LEGACY

“It’s an exciting time at DLA and 

in DoD,” Thompson said. “This is an 

era where we return to big ideas. We’re 

still trying to execute these changes in 

an environment very focused on the 

warfighting that’s still going on, but we 

can’t take our eye off [the goal].”

DeVincentis said Thompson constantly 

stresses bringing together the collective 

talents of the agency’s leadership team. 

“As a result, I see his DLA legacy as 

a combat logistics support agency that is 

capable, responsive, respected, cost-conscious and ready to sustain military forces 

wherever they serve,” she said.

DLA’s team members have stepped 

forward to meet each challenge presented 

during his tenure, Thompson said.

“I am deeply honored to have served 

alongside some of the most committed 

individuals in the Defense Department,” he 

said. “I extend my sincere appreciation to 

all DLA team members for their dedication, 

determination and willingness to serve 

warfighters.” 

“This is an era where we return to big ideas. We’re still trying to execute 

these changes in an environment very focused on the warghting that’s 

still going on.” 

— Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson 

surveys outdoor storage space at DLA 

Disposition Services in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 

in September.
DLA NewsWire DLA Strategic Communications 

Loglines l November - December 2011 21

As the world prepared for the coming 

flu season, Defense Logistics Agency 

Distribution delivered influenza vaccine 

to warfighters around the world.

The year’s first shipments of the vaccine 

departed DLA Distribution Susquehanna, 

Pa., in early August for issue to military 

facilities that administer the vaccine, said 

Birkley Wical, DLA Distribution stock 

readiness specialist. 

“DLA Distribution and DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna, Pa., work 

diligently year-round to ensure our 

warfighters receive these critical 

inoculations, because we understand that 

A Navy medic injects a Sailor with the u

vaccine during an open medical call aboard

the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis. This

year’s rst shipments of u vaccine departed

DLA Distribution Susquehanna, Pa., in early

August for issue to the military facilities that

will administer the vaccines. 

A memorial scholarship fund in honor of 

former Defense Logistics Agency Energy 

Commander Navy Rear Adm. Kurt Kunkel 

has been established by the Navy Supply 

Corps Foundation.

Kunkel passed away Sept. 28, leaving 

behind his wife and two daughters. He 

was 51.

Employees who wish to show 

support to the family are being asked 

Navy Supply Corps Foundation Creates

Scholarship in Kunkel’s Honor

to contribute to the fund rather than 

sending flowers or other gifts.

“For those of you who wish to 

express your sympathies, the Kunkel 

family requests that in lieu of flowers 

you consider donating to Rear Admiral 

Kunkel’s scholarship,” DLA Energy Chief 

of Staff Navy Capt. Charles Race said in 

an email to employees. 

The memorial scholarship fund 

it is imperative to keep our heroes healthy 

so they can perform at their best on 

behalf of our nation,” he said. 

As the primary shipper of influenza 

vaccine for the military services DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna, has issued 

more than 10 million doses in the past 

five years, with nearly 3 million of those 

issued last year alone, Wical said. 

Although flu season begins to peak in 

November and continues through April, 

DLA Distribution Susquehanna begins 

stocking and shipping the vaccine in the 

summer to ensure every service member 

receives the vaccine early to prevent outbreaks, he said.

The process begins at DLA Troop 

Support, where the vaccine is ordered 

and shipped directly from the vendor. 

Once those orders are received at DLA 

Distribution Susquehanna, they are issued 

upon receipt of materiel release orders. 

According to Wical, shipping the 

vaccine comes with some challenges. 

“Maintaining cold-chain protocols 

is vital to the shipment process and 

preserving the integrity of the vaccine,” 

Wical said. “If the temperature rises 

or falls outside 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, 

the product could be rendered 

unserviceable.” 

To avoid potentially compromising 

shipments, specialized packaging and 

digital temperature-monitoring devices 

ensure quality during transport of the 

vaccines to the end user, Wical said. 

“Temperatures are gauged in 

15-minute increments within the shipping 

containers and, ultimately, those readings 

are supplied back to DLA Troop Support 

for monitoring,” he said.

DLA Distribution Susquehanna, is the 

only U.S. Pharmacopeia-compliant cold 

storage facility within DLA Distribution, 

Wical said. The organization also stores 

and distributes antiviral pharmaceuticals 

and ancillary kits throughout the year.

— Emily Tsambiras

DLA Distribution

provides college tuition assistance for the 

minor children of supply corps officers 

who die while on active duty.

Donations can be made online at 

https://www.usnscf.com/index.

aspx or mailed to the Navy Supply 

Corps Foundation, P.O. Box 6228, 

Athens, GA, 30604.

According to its website, the Navy 

Supply Corps Foundation is a non-profit 

philanthropic and social organization 

whose members include every person 

who has ever served as an officer in the 

U.S. Navy Supply Corps. 

— Beth Reece

DLA Distribution Arms Warfighters Against Flu Season
22 www.dla.mil

A Conversation with . . .

at our inventory control points and led

to centralized cataloging of essentially

all nationally stock numbered items at

what is now DLA Logistics Information

Service at Battle Creek, Mich. As I

liked to say back then, these changes

took DLA out of the wholesaler’s seat

in the balcony and put us on the front

lines, providing support from factory to

foxhole.

To enhance our performance in

this new role, we also capitalized on

emerging technology that enabled

direct electronic exchange of information and use of just-in-time inventory

practices that were revolutionizing

supply chain management in the

private sector. We aggressively pursued

the use of related techniques such as

prime vendor support of the medical

and subsistence commodities that

brought great improvements in product

availability and quality while dramatically lowering distribution costs. This

initiative was honored

as a Ford Foundation

Innovations in American

Government award winner

in 1995. We also applied

innovative techniques to

other areas, such as spare

parts management, through

long-term contracts and

other ways to “buy response

vice inventory” and received

special recognition from

the secretary of defense

for our readiness support

and inventory reduction

achievements.

Because of our customers’

budget constraints and an increase in

DLA’s personnel costs resulting from

the DMRD functional transfers, we

were constantly challenged to find ways 

to reduce our cost recovery rate, which

we trimmed by about a third during

this period. At the same time, we had

to develop new ways to deal with the

lessons of the first Gulf War, so that we 

could provide more responsive support,

along with enough asset visibility

information to enable our service

customers to see that our just-in-time

support could be trusted and they did

not have to overorder inventories on a

just-in-case basis. 

We also realigned DLA’s overall

organizational structure to enable us

to succeed in the areas I just described

and to meet the challenges of the Base

Realignment and Closure commissions

of both 1993 and 1995 by revising

our inventory control point and

distribution alignments. 

What were some of DLA’s

major accomplishments

during your time as

director?

Straw: I want to spend

some time on this question.

We faced many emerging

challenges while I was at

DLA from summer 1992

until fall 1996. I feel our

biggest accomplishment

was in not shrinking from

these challenges, but instead

capitalizing on them as

new opportunities to serve

the department and its

warfighters and help save taxpayer 

dollars. And I think what happened

during my tour reflects DLA’s frequent 

transformation and role expansion

over its entire history. This includes

some significant changes that were 

starting back then, and over the

last 20-plus years have made DLA

an absolutely indispensable part of

worldwide supply support to the

warfighters and wrench turners. 

First, we needed to successfully

integrate major added responsibilities

that came our way via the Defense

Management Review Decisions in

the early ‘90s. The DMRDs realigned

the services’ primary supply support

distribution centers to DLA, which

put us squarely in the midst of direct

retail supply support at major bases

in the continental U.S. and eventually

overseas. The DMRDs also greatly

expanded DLA’s role as inventory

manager for consumable spare parts

Two Retired DLA Directors Take a Look Back at Their Experience and Service to the Defense Logistics Agency Defense Logistics Agency Photos

Navy Vice Adm. 

Edward Straw

1992 - 1996

Army Lt. Gen. 

Tom Glisson

1997 - 2001

Vice Adm. Edward Straw and 
23

DLA Strategic Communications 

Loglines l September - October 2011

Above all, our success in meeting 

these challenges gained the full support 

of key stakeholders like our major 

service customers and both the Joint 

Chiefs of Staff and the acquisition, 

technology and logistics staffs, without 

whose support DLA would have been 

seriously downsized. 

I know I’ve taken a lot of time here, 

but to me this was the heart of what 

mattered for DLA during the time I was 

at the agency. 

Glisson: Perhaps the one I am 

most proud of was the performance of 

the DLA workforce during the Bosnia 

war. The tireless efforts of DLA Europe 

in response to the huge surge of U.S. 

and NATO forces in the theater of 

operations was extraordinary, resulting 

in receipt of a Joint Meritorious Unit 

Award in 1999 for work performed on 

operations Joint Guardian, Noble Anvil 

and Sustain Hope. This was a great 

example of the capability, personal 

sacrifice and untiring superior support 

that DLA continues to provide around 

the clock, around the globe regardless 

of the circumstances. Our use of DLA 

contingency support teams, customer 

representatives and liaison officers 

emerged as common doctrine for our 

increased global support role. The work 

these individuals did, in tandem with 

the DLA subordinate organizations, in 

providing unprecedented support was 

phenomenal. DLA had become an integral, valued and sought-after part of the 

warfighter team! DLA was no longer a 

distant logistics provider. We were now 

forward in the battle area working side 

by side with the warfighters. 

Secondly, the decision and initial 

work in 1998 to begin modernization 

of our logistics and business systems 

with a commercial, off-the-shelf 

enterprise resource planning solution 

approach was huge. The Business 

Systems Modernization program work 

led by Rear Adm. Bob Chamberlin, 

Rear Adm. Ray Archer, Frank Lotts, 

George Allen, Mae DeVincentis, Dave 

Falvey, Jim Kimberly, Jim Katzaman 

and many others was intended 

to radically transform how DLA 

performed its mission. BSM involved 

the reengineering of operational 

functions and the simultaneous 

development of a robust information 

technology platform that would enable 

and support the operational changes 

to improve customer service, provide 

best-value solutions, replace legacy 

systems, reengineer processes, and 

provide training experience. 

By focusing on the four main 

functions of order fulfillment, 

procurement, financial management 

and planning, DLA transitioned 

from being a reactive, item-oriented 

agency to being a proactive, customerfocused agency far more capable 

of providing the type of logistical 

support required for a fast-paced, 

21st century warfighting and global 

environment. While it has certainly 

been a long and tough journey at 

times, the program has continued to 

evolve and mature and remains one 

of the few ERP success stories in the 

Defense Department. The success of 

this bold initiative was a key enabler 

as DLA surged to meet the operational 

requirements for Iraq, Afghanistan and 

other humanitarian and contingency 

operations around the world. It was 

one of our biggest and most important 

changes in the history of DLA.

Third, the development in 1998, 

in partnership with the Defense 

Information Systems Agency, of the 

DoD Emall and the whole explosion 

of e-commerce that followed was 

particularly significant. Scottie Knott 

led the initial work and did such a 

fantastic job with her Joint Electric 

Commerce Program Office team. The 

program created a one-stop electronic 

marketplace where users could search, 

locate, compare and order materiel with 

near real-time visibility into public and 

private sector inventory levels and lead 

times. It was the first major entry into 

the paperless environment that has 

become so commonplace today and 

fueled the rapid growth of e-commerce.

Fourth, we developed the 

Distribution Standard System still in 

use today. This allowed us to collapse 

five separate legacy systems into a 

single system to better manage our 

global receipt, storage and distribution 

business. It provided us both asset 

and distribution visibility into all of 

our distribution sites, incorporated 

the first large uses of radio frequency 

identification tags and other technology, 

and provided enhanced shelf life and 

inventory reconciliation. This new 

capability gave us the ability to better 

optimize our distribution sites and 

close unneeded capacity, improving our 

customer order ship and response times.

We reorganized the DLA staff into 

the J-staff configuration that exists today. 

It gave us a much better alignment with 

the warfighting community we were 

supporting. We merged Defense Industrial 

Support Center and Defense Supply Center 

Philadelphia into a single organization 

focused on troop support items. We 

oversaw the transfer of full energy 

d Lt. Gen. Tom Glisson
24 www.dla.mil

A Conversation with . . .

management and the establishment of

the Defense Energy Support Center in

1998. That gave DLA a primary role in

total energy management and support.

The establishment of the Defense

Contract Management Agency in May

2000 in recognition of their expanded

role in the oversight of defense contracts

was another important change. Lastly,

we established [what is now the Joint

Reserve Force] in 1998. Under the

leadership and guidance of Maj. Gen.

Joe Thompson, this organization

flourished and became the primary 

support force for our forward presence

units and sites around the globe,

maximizing the talents and capabilities

of our reservists.

What were some of the biggest

challenges you faced? 

Glisson: Y2K seemed huge at the

time but was planned and prepared

for so well by our workforce that it

became a nonevent. The other main

challenges came from a rapidly

changing operational environment and

defense reform initiatives. DLA was

fast becoming an integral part of the

warfighting team, located well forward 

on the battlefield and responsible for 

larger and larger roles in the new joint

logistics programs. Managing supply

chains, modernizing our business

systems, and introducing new strategic

sourcing and distribution methods

became key. And even while we

were reorganizing and reengineering

ourselves, we were able to reduce our

workforce size by 45 percent, which

was the smallest DLA had been since

1963. We found smart ways to do more

with less. We also took on a lion’s share

of the new Defense Reform Initiative

Directives, leading the way for a number

of DoD efforts to become more efficient 

and effective. The numerous Hammer

Awards and other recognitions received

by DLA speak volumes about the

superb performance of our workforce in

achieving the expected results.

Straw: One reason why I spent a lot

of time answering your first question is 

I felt it would lay the framework for this

and most of the rest of the questions you

planned to ask me. With respect to specific challenges, clearly we had to meet 

our expanded responsibilities from the

DMRDs. We had to develop and execute

sound Base Realignment and Closure

proposals. We had to prove we could

do both of these while constraining the

changes in total costs of our material and

services well below allowable inflation 

adjustments. And it was vital that we

focus some select teams on seeking out

and implementing the best practices of

both the private and public sectors.

But doing this was not just the

result of trying to emphasize a series of

somewhat independent challenges. We

faced an overarching challenge, which

was to prove DLA was a vital contributor to force readiness and cost containment. Frankly, large support organizations like DLA face that challenge on

every director’s watch. In my case, I

arrived about a year after the end of the

first Gulf War, at a time of likely significant retrenchment in DoD. At the same

time, as I noted earlier, DLA needed

to take on new roles via the DMRDs

and prepare to restructure under the

upcoming BRACs. So perhaps our biggest challenge initially was to restructure the headquarters organization. We

had a broad collection of individual,

stovepiped communities like acquisition, tech data, inventory management,

etc., which had served DLA well up until

then, but we needed to streamline and

integrate our headquartes to meet our

evolving responsibilities that required

greater collaboration among our functional elements. And just as we started

this process we found ourselves in a

brand-new role supporting humanitarian relief in South Florida due to

Hurricane Andrew. 

Ultimately, execution of the

DMRDs and development of the BRAC

1993 and 1995 proposals, both at the

same time DoD and our customers

were demanding improved support and

dramatic cost reductions, proved to be

the greatest challenges of my tenure.

Did you see the agency experience

any growing pains during your

tenure as things changed naturally

with time? 

Straw: Absolutely. What I just

described demonstrated what had long

been a theme at DLA and remains

so today: the challenge of moving

major strategic changes forward while

simultaneously meeting new types of

immediate support requirements. For

another example, and as I mentioned

earlier, we had to take on a DMRDdriven major expansion of warehousing

while also finding a way to combine 

all the different related information

technology underpinning into a

standardized distribution system. That

alone was a tough battle that was not

completed until after my watch. At the

same time, we had to deal with high

expectations from the department, the

entire administration and Congress

for increased attention to a variety

of techniques that would streamline

performance based on finite strategic 

objectives, and significantly improve 

metrics tied to achieving real results

and not just measuring effort. Beyond

DMRD, BRAC and a few others I’ve

mentioned, I won’t recite the litany of

additional acronyms associated with

all this. Suffice to say it all added up to 

growing pains that I believe the agency

handled quite well, both at the time and

in resolving other challenges thereafter.

Glisson: Absolutely. As the agency

pursued an aggressive business process

reengineering and acquisition reform

process, it began introducing best

commercial practices and integrating

emerging technologies. It changed from

being a manager of items to a manager
Loglines l November - December 2011 25

DLA Strategic Communications

of supply chains and enterprise services,

using long-term corporate contracts

and a greater reliance on commercial

markets. Strategic partnerships with

industry and the military services

were initiated. And the DLA workforce

underwent significant training to 

meet the challenges of these changes.

As they had done throughout the

agency’s history, however, they rose to

the occasion and made the transition

without fanfare or problems, emerging

even better prepared for their new roles.

What is your perspective on DLA’s

history leading up to your tenure? 

Straw: Every leader brings his own

perspective. As your current director,

[Navy] Vice Adm. [Alan] Thompson,

often says, DLA was started as a

consolidator of wholesale and often

remotely provided supply support

inventory and distribution management

functions. The goal was to do that

as well as the various independent

service providers had done, but do it

more efficiently. I think DLA was quite 

successful in this role for many years,

adding missions in property reuse and

disposal, fuel management and more. 

But the early ‘90s changed the ballgame.

When I relieved [Air Force] Lt. Gen.

[Charles] McCausland, I inherited

an effective DLA that was meeting its

established mission requirements. This

said, every director has faced challenges

from the services to do it faster and

cheaper. These traditional service

requests for improvement – coupled

with the cost additive DMRD challenges

of expanded distribution and inventory

missions and the growing requirement

for enhanced forward logistics support

– required us to implement the new

technology-enabled supply chain

processes taking hold in the private

sector. Therefore, from my perspective,

never before had DLA been asked to

be so consistently nimble, innovative

and deeply enmeshed with the services

and combatant commands. We were

entering the world of direct retaillevel support. Thus the environment

made it both possible and necessary

to make some major changes to our

organizational alignments and policies.

Glisson: I am a firm believer that 

DLA today is built on the sacrifices, 

deeds and hard work of those who

preceded us. Those early plank-holder

employees built the base structure and

paved the way for those who followed.

Each generation of employees since has

added its own improvements, achievements and initiatives to making it a better agency. We owe these people a huge

debt of gratitude for what they did and

gave us. They left us a wonderful heritage and legacy to be proud of and build

upon. That is why I made a concerted

effort to embrace that history in the DLA

Headquarters Complex and established

the McNamara Gallery. Our DNA for

excellence, professionalism and spirit to

support the warfighter resides therein. 

Fifty years ago, when Lt. Gen. Andrew

McNamara activated the Defense Supply

Agency, who would have guessed that

we would have enjoyed so much success

and growth? They did! That early vision 

has started a journey that continues

today and will do so in the future. The

real strength of DLA has always been

and will always be its magnificent 

workforce. It is important we continue

to capture, celebrate and record their

history for future generations.

What was the relationship between

headquarters and the field activities 

like when you were the director? 

Glisson: While I would like to think

it was good, I suspect it was probably

the same as it has always been between

any HQ and its field activities. [There is] 

always natural tension between the two.

But with shared visions and goals and a

single-minded approach to finding ways 

to better support warfighters , there were 

no major problems. I always felt like I

was blessed to have a superb leadership

team that worked together very well to

ensure DLA met its responsibilities. My

deputy, sergeant major, [members of the

Senior Executive Service], and general

and flag officers were simply outstanding 

and worked very well together as a team.

Straw: Let’s face reality: The

relations between headquarters

and its field components are always 

somewhat tense, even at their best. The

headquarters sets policy and processes,

seeks to properly resource the agency,

monitors performance, and deals directly

with a lot of influential stakeholders 

with varying and not always consistent

interests. Field activities, some of them

major commands themselves, carry

out daily operations, directly face their

mission-focused customers, and often

have some great ideas about how to

improve DLA’s operational approaches

and related policy. Sometimes

headquarters must challenge the field 

and sometimes the field must educate 

headquarters. It’s a tough dynamic at any

time, and when I became director it was

compounded by all the emerging issues

like DMRDs, BRAC and others, plus the

overall pressure to reduce the cost to our

customers, many of whom – unfairly as

it turned out – still saw DLA as overhead

and not a true partner in their efforts.

That’s a principal reason that I

believe our restructuring of the headquarters and refining of its relations 

with the field was so important: Given 

what lay ahead, we could not afford any

fragmented guidance from headquarters

during a time of so much change.

What do you think were the most

significant changes DLA went 

through during your tenure? 

Glisson: I’ve already discussed

many of these earlier. I want to

emphasize a few others. The role and

expectations of DLA changed. The
26 www.dla.mil

A Conversation with . . .

agency emerged as a national provider

and supply chain manager with the

continued transfer of consumable

items to DLA from the military

services. Eighty-three percent of all

consumable requisitions, 90 percent

of all repair parts, 100 percent of all

packaged petroleum and bulk fuel,

and virtually all of the military clothing

were being filled through DLA, along 

with food and medical supplies. Our

ability to quickly and seamlessly

transition support from peacetime to

wartime had grown significantly.

The establishment of DLA

lead centers and weapon systems

support provided better enterprise

management of our commodities and

allowed our customers to interact with

a single organization for their support

needs. With the adoption of better

strategic sourcing methods, we moved

to more of a supply chain approach,

moving from reliance on large DoD

inventories to reliance on commercial

markets, from management of

individual items to management of

long-term commercial contracts,

from managing individual processes

to managing integrated supply

chains. Prime vendor, virtual prime

vendor, direct vendor delivery,

corporate contracts and on-demand

manufacturing all became the norm

as we evolved and changed. The net

results were improved customer

response and support and reduced

operating costs. Our shift to the use

of commercial business practices was

huge and fueled our use of these new

methods. DLA served as a catalyst for

the revolution in business affairs and

acquisition reform.

We developed better customer

knowledge and focus with a more

forward presence and on-site

representatives, the use of a virtual call

center, and the development and use

of tailored support packages and stock

positioning to be more responsive

to the rapidly changing needs of the

warfighter. We armed our employees 

with the skills and experience they

needed to adapt to the changing

environment to be successful.

Straw: I have already described

major mission expansion and process

improvement changes that took place

during my tenure. That said, I have

not yet mentioned some of the most

significant aspects of the organizational 

changes that allowed such radical

policy, procedural and technological

changes to be implemented so

quickly and so successfully. First,

the headquarters reorganization

from stovepiped vertical functions to

the more collaborative groupings of

mission-related organizations was very

important to our success. Second was

strengthening the headquarters-field 

activity relationship by creating SES

deputy commanders at the defense

supply centers. This single decision

promoted some of our best GS-15s to

SES rank and provided the lower-level

GS managers the opportunity to aspire

to SES positions. I consider the loyalty

that resulted from this decision to be

one of the most critical ingredients in

the well-recognized achievements of

the agency from 1992-1996.

How much of a role did DLA play

with humanitarian missions? 

Straw: I think there’s a

misperception that DLA only got

involved in this area in recent years. 

Actually, as we have already discussed,

that role started becoming significant 

in the 1990s through efforts linked

to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the

mission in Haiti in 1994, and in the

Balkans starting in 1995. They were

forerunners to DLA’s current wellestablished role as a provider to the

Federal Emergency Management

Agency in the U.S. and supporter of

forward-deployed humanitarian relief

efforts, such as those recently in Haiti

in 2010 and this year in Japan after

their massive earthquake.

Glisson: DLA has always been a

huge participant and supporter for all

humanitarian missions from Somalia

in 1997 to all of the hurricanes, floods 

and other natural disasters that

occurred during my tenure. That role

continues today. 

What do you feel have been DLA’s

greatest strengths throughout the

years?

Glisson: Several things. First and

most important, it’s the workforce! 

Without any question, it is the

sacrifice, professionalism, competency 

and dedication of the workforce that

defines DLA as an organization. 

Regardless of the challenge or

adversity, it always finds a way to 

deliver the right material, at the right

time and place, every time, around

the clock and around the world. DLA

employees know that the lives of

people are at stake and do everything

within their power to ensure mission

success. There are no greater patriots.

They are flexible, resilient, constantly 

changing and improving, and totally

dedicated to warfighters. And they 

have responded time and again to the

change required to ensure success. 

Second, DLA has had leaders

who have been innovative,

entrepreneurial, visionary and bold.

[They are] not afraid to take those

scary steps to question and challenge

the status quo. Rather, they embrace

change and continued process

improvement as a norm, always

looking for new ways to improve the

agency’s business processes and the

ways it supports the warfighter. And 

they have forged great relationships

with the warfighters and their 

industry partners. Lastly, they have

had great support from the Office 

of the Secretary of Defense and its
Loglines l November - December 2011 27

DLA Strategic Communications

staff, who have provided exceptional

mentorship, funding and leadership.

Straw: A number of key factors

combine to make an agency like

DLA successful. I am sure all the

past directors you will talk to will

no doubt rightfully emphasize that

DLA’s strength is ultimately in its

people. The civilian staff at all levels

in both the field and at headquarters 

has been consistently superb. They

bring the strong, experienced skills

and deep commitment that are

absolutely necessary for success.

They – coupled with the talented,

field-experienced military members 

assigned to DLA – teach each other

and continue to improve the way DLA

fulfills the expanding global readiness 

requirements of the services.

I was blessed during my four years

to have arguably the best team of

logistics leaders ever assembled in one

command at the same time, and if my

memory is correct, I had three future

DLA directors, four future service or

Joint Chiefs of Staff logistics chiefs,

and over a dozen future civilian DLA

hall of famers in senior leadership

positions. I credit them and their

staffs with the recognition that DLA

and I personally received from DoD

and the services when I retired in

October of 1996.

I would also quickly note DLA’s

ability to evolve and to meet – no, to

actually seek out – new challenges.

By now I think that is ingrained in

DLA’s DNA. It’s what enables the

agency to adjust to a more direct role

in industrial support, to offer initiatives

that help meet the department’s

logistics efficiencies objectives, and 

to send qualified military and civilian 

staff forward with the troops. 

Lastly, I must emphasize two other

things that are often overlooked. One

is DLA’s proven ability to effectively

manage the revolving fund that covers

more than 98 percent of its budget

and must closely match the customers’

buying power from DLA. Another

is in having the tools to meet the

mission. Here again, I think DLA has

been very effective, both in providing

the necessary IT support – such as

the department’s only completely

implemented enterprise resource

planning system – and in sustaining an

effective military construction program

in a complex environment where DLA

is usually a tenant.

From your perspective as a DLA

employee and customer, how

did you see the agency evolve

throughout the years? 

Straw: I saw DLA evolve for years

as a customer in my various Navy ship

and shore assignments. But in that

era – roughly the mid ‘60s until the

mid ‘80s – DLA’s role was often hidden

behind the mask of the Navy’s own

retail stocks and warehouses. I didn’t

really start to get directly acquainted

with DLA’s capabilities until the late

‘80s and very early ‘90s when I was in

senior staff roles and worked closely

with some of the Navy’s DLA leadership

at that time, such as Rear Admirals

Jim Eckelberger, Brady Cole and Jim

Davidson. They were supporting General

Charles McCausland in various efforts 

to encourage the Navy to make its

requirements known more directly to

DLA so the agency could do more than

just react to Navy demands once the

Navy had exhausted its own stocks. I am

perhaps oversimplifying here, but not by

much. Frankly, while I was still with the

Navy staff I nonetheless did all I could

to fight the DMRD decisions I talked 

about earlier. I loved DLA as an effective

wholesale provider of backup stock but

did not trust that such a large command

with little pier-side experience could

possibly be entrusted with direct retail

support of our ships and aircraft. DLA

proved I was wrong about this!

Of course when I came to DLA

in 1992 I was required to turn on a

dime and do all I could to help make

the DMRDs a success. And thanks to

the great DLA staff and a lot of other

strengths of DLA that I just talked

about, that’s what we did: make them

a success. And DLA has continued to

evolve ever since. The DLA 21 strategic

plan, Business Systems Modernization,

major increases in forward support in

the past decade, and so much more [are

things] that DLA can be quite proud of. 

What are your thoughts on the state

of the agency today? 

Glisson: I’m proud to say I am a

former DLAer! The agency’s reputation 

is solid, and it is well respected by the

warfighter community it serves. It has 

continued to evolve and mature over

the years and is a much more capable

organization today than during my

tenure. It continues to be the premier

logistics organization in DoD.

Straw: I think DLA is one of DoD’s

greatest assets, in terms both of overall

supply support and also as a means to

pursue the kinds of savings needed to

help meet the increasingly restrictive

budgets likely ahead. That said, I am

still active in the broad private and

public sector supply chain community,

and I know DLA faces many challenges,

like meeting industrial support

requirements as equipment comes back

from Iraq and eventually Afghanistan,

refreshing the workforce as retirements

become an issue in the years ahead,

keeping up with technological

change, preventing nonconforming

or counterfeit parts from entering the

supply chain, and many other factors

like future fiscal constraints that will 

stress DLA itself and DoD across the

board. But over the years, for all the

reasons I’ve already discussed, I have

learned that DLA meets its challenges,

and I have great faith it will continue to

do so in the years ahead.
28 www.dla.mil

Money Matters

A

recent overhaul of processes is 

allowing Defense Logistics Agency 

Aviation’s Gyro Support Cell at 

Warner Robins, Ga., to increase 

efficiency in supplier operations 

and provide better support to customers. 

“We started ... with 

a complete review of 

building production,” 

said Marcel Baril, the 

team’s supervisor.

His team inventoried 

all the parts it had on 

hand and looked into 

a history of customer 

demands to figure out 

how to best support their 

needs. 

Mark Eblen, a 

customer support 

specialist on the team, said the team 

has focused on material support 

requirements.

“We have adopted an aggressive 

approach to identify, mitigate and correct 

insufficiencies on material support 

requirements,” Eblen said. “This has 

resulted in reduced customer wait time, 

reduced unfilled and awaiting parts back 

orders, and reduced maintenance wait 

and lag time[s].” 

The new approach has significantly 

decreased the number of 

items waiting for parts, 

Eblen said.

“One of the areas ... 

we are most proud of is 

the decrease of items in 

awaiting parts status. We 

have had ... a 72 percent 

decrease since September 

2010.” 

Communication and 

cooperation have been 

key in the changes the 

team has made, said 

Kenneth Edney, another 

of the team’s customer 

support specialists.

“We really just tweaked the way we 

do business,” he said. “It all comes down 

to communication and cooperation. 

We have a great relationship with 

our customers ... as well as with our 

schedulers and planners. These folks 

know they can 

depend on us and 

us [on] them with any 

problems or concerns that 

may arise,” he said.

Baril said the team’s 

accomplishments came in part from 

efforts to educate customers. 

“We had to let them know the supply 

chain process and explained how it would 

help them with their demands of parts,” 

he said. 

After that, Baril said, customers 

began notifying DLA Aviation in advance 

of their parts requirements, and his team 

was able to forecast those demands and 

immediately meet the customers’ needs. 

“We had to let our customer know 

how they could forecast to us their future 

demands instead of waiting for the system 

that could take six to eight months to 

create a demand plan,” he said. “When 

our customer knows or sees there will 

be spikes in demand or there is a new 

requirement, the quickest way to forecast 

these demands to us for immediate 

consideration of procurement is through 

the demand data exchange process.”

STREAMLINING 

OPERATIONS Story by Trinace Johnson, DLA Aviation Public Affairs

A

recent overhaul of processes is 

allowing Defense Logistics Agency 

Aviation’s Gyro Support Cell at 

Warner Robins, Ga., to increase 

efficiency in supplier operations 

and provide better sup

A

Customers began 

notifying DLA Aviation 

in advance of their 

parts requirements, 

and the team was 

able to forecast 

those demands and 

immediately meet the 

customers’ needs. 

DLA Warner-Robins 
Loglines l November - December 2011 29

DLA Strategic Communications DLA Strategic Communications

Military customers are often under 

the impression that present demands 

automatically make DLA aware of future 

demands, Baril said, but that is not 

necessarily the case. 

Baril said the DDE process has 

changed from past incarnations. Input 

responsibility and forecasting now go 

through the new Planning for DLA 

Managed Consumables Office at Tinker 

Air Force Base, Okla. Representatives at 

each air logistics center forward forecasts 

to the DMCO for review. The process 

allows customers to forecast out two to 

five years and allows temporary systemic 

planning until actual demand catches up 

with forecasted demand, Baril said. 

“We have also submitted requests to 

initiate manual stock transfers from other 

distribution sites to DLA Distribution at 

Warner Robins,” Baril said. 

He said that by moving stock from 

other distribution sites, three- to 14-day 

waits can be cut to a point at which his 

team is able to bring needed items right 

out to customers. 

“What it boils down to is our ultimate 

goal: supporting the warfighter,” Edney 

said. “We all feel proud and honored to 

be working towards that goal.” 

A Sailor signals to an MH-60 Seahawk pilot with Helicopter Sea Combat

Squadron 2 during ight operations aboard the USS San Antonio. DLA

Aviation’s Gyro Support Cell recently overhauled its operations to enhance

its efciency. 

— Navy Petty Ofcer 1st Class Edwin F. Bryan 
30 www.dla.mil

We are DLA

work on this mission at DLA Distribution 

Hill. In addition to the deployable 

systems, they assemble various first-aid 

kits and repair medical shelters. 

DLA Distribution Hill works closely

with the U.S. Army Medical Materiel

Agency on these missions, Konrady

said, and in addition to assembling kits,

employees disassemble used kits and

determine which supplies can be reused

and which need to be disposed of.

The other side of DLA Distribution

Hill’s mission is normal depot operations

to support local Air Force customers,

specifically the Ogden Air Logistics Center, 

also located on Hill AFB. The distribution

center supports the Ogden ALC for 

Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles, the

emergency rocket communication system,

F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolts, 

C-130 Hercules, and the Air Force-wide 

depot-level overhaul and repair for all 

types of aircraft landing gear, wheels,

brakes and tires.

Since 2002, depot operations at DLA 

Distribution Hill have been governmentowned and contractor-operated, Konrady 

said. The 283 contractor employees 

perform day-to-day operations with 

oversight from a government activity

made up of 26 civilian employees, he 

said. The contractors manage more than 1 

million square feet of warehouse space in

four warehouses and more than 1 million 

square feet of outdoor storage space in two

storage lots. These facilities, along with six

satellite locations on Hill AFB, house more

than 100,000 different items valued at 

more than $6.8 billion. DLA Distribution 

Hill averages issues and receipts of more

than 1.3 million items annually. 

“We are a vital link in the DLA 

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY DISTRIBUTION

Story by Sara Moore

I modular units that can contain operating

rooms, X-ray equipment, blood labs and 

pharmacies and range in size from a

single general-purpose lab to a 1,000-bed 

hospital containing 12,000 items.

“Once on the ground, a modular 

hospital can be created from these 

standard-sized containers and tents that 

can be linked together like blocks to make 

a combat support hospital,” said Andrew 

Konrady, director of DLA Distribution 

Hill. “It is literally a hospital in a box, 

minus the medical staff.” 

A team of about 90 civilian employees 

Story by Sara Moore

Hill, Utah

An Army medic practices X-ray procedures

on a simulation dummy at Fort Hunter Liggett,

Calif. DLA Distribution Hill, Utah, assembles

all of the Army’s deployable medical systems.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Christine Jones

n addition to its typical receipt, storage

and issue functions, a DLA Distribution

center in northern Utah performs a

unique mission that could mean the

difference between life and death for

troops on the front lines.

DLA Distribution Hill, Utah, a tenant

of Hill Air Force Base, assembles the

Army’s deployable medical systems –

self-contained, portable units that can be 

positioned quickly in an area of operations

during war or a national emergency. The

distribution center assembles, modifies, 

repairs, rebuilds, certifies and stores 
Loglines l November - December 2011 31

DLA Strategic Communications 

Air Force Master Sgt. William Greer

Distribution mission,” Konrady said. 

“We provide key distribution operations 

to include receiving, storage, packing, 

issue and shipping of Air Force weapons 

system spare parts to our local and 

colocated industrial customers.”

DLA Distribution Hill is a forward 

distribution point, meaning it is located 

close to its customers and reports back 

to the nearest strategic distribution 

platform, in this case DLA Distribution 

San Joaquin, Calif. Being close to its 

customers allows the organization to stay 

in touch with and adapt to their needs, 

Konrady said.

“Being a smaller distribution center, 

we have our daily interaction with our 

customers all the time,” he said. “So as 

their needs change, we’re a little more 

flexible with them.” 

The 2005 Base Realignment and 

Closure process brought welcome changes 

to DLA Distribution Hill, Konrady said.

To meet goals set forth in the legislation,

the operation consolidated its warehouse

space and converted unused space

into storage areas. Specific projects 

included tearing out and removing

unused conveyors, reconfiguring and 

consolidating the receiving process and

packaging area, installing a streamlined

overhead conveyor system to maximize 

floor space, installing a new dimension 

and weigh system, and installing energyefficient lighting. The reconfiguration and 

consolidation resulted in the availability 

of about 56,000 square feet that can 

now be used for storage, including about 

34,000 square feet for pallet racks, 7,500 

square feet for package racks, and 15,000 

square feet for a walk-to-pick area.

“BRAC gave us the funding to utilize 

a lot of the wasted space, so we’re able to

maximize our efficiencies and improve 

our space and storage areas,” he said. “We

were able to operate a lot more efficiently.”

Konrady said he anticipates DLA 

Distribution Hill’s mission will grow 

as the Defense Department continues 

to make budget cuts and consolidate 

resources. 

“DLA Distribution has a proven track 

record for providing effective, efficient 

and innovative worldwide distribution 

support to our warfighters and other 

customers,” he said. 

An Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II returns from a mission above Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The depot at DLA

Distribution Hill, Utah, supports A-10 Thunderbolts, along with other aircraft and weapon systems, in its support of the Ogden Air Logistics Center.

Since 2002, depot operations at DLA Distribution Hill have been

government-owned and contractor-operated. The 283 contractor

employees perform day-to-day operations with oversight from a

government activity made up of 26 civilian employees.
32 www.dla.mil

S

ix years ago, the Defense

Department handed the Defense

Logistics Agency a large order:

to realign the way it stores and

distributes supplies while taking

on new responsibilities from the military

services and expanding its mission base.

The agency has traveled a long and

sometimes challenging road since then,

but in September it finished implementing 

Story by Sara Moore

actions related to the 2005 Base

Realignment and Closure legislation.

DLA successfully met the Sept. 15 

legal deadline for implementing the 

BRAC 2005 recommendations. 

BRAC 2005 mandated 113 actions for 

DLA, said Redding Hobby, deputy director of DLA Logistics Operations. Hobby 

led BRAC 2005 implementation for the 

past two years as executive director of 

strategic programs for DLA Logistics 

Operations. The agency had completed 

95 of the actions as of mid-July, and 

the remaining 18 were completed by 

September, he said. 

The three BRAC 2005 recommendations that most affected DLA were in 

the supply and storage area. They dealt 

with changes in the agency’s supply, 

storage and distribution; the addition of 

managing depot-level reparables – parts 

that can be repaired or reused through 

their usable life, like transmissions 

and vehicle engines; and commodity 

management privatization. 

Under the commodity privatization 

recommendation, DLA created vendor 

contracts to manage the supply, storage 

and distribution of tires, compressed 

gases, and packaged petroleum, oils and 

lubricants, Hobby said. 

“Instead of spreading tires all across 

the services and motor pools and depots 

across the U.S. and overseas, we privatized that, so a contractor delivered that 

MISSION

COMPLETE

Sailors install a hydraulic backup pump on an

MH-60S Seahawk helicopter on the ight deck

of the USS Wasp. The management of depotlevel reparables, such as helicopter engines,

was transferred to DLA under BRAC 2005.

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class David Smart
Loglines l November - December 2011 33

material and it belonged to the contractor 

until the service needed it,” he said. 

The supply, storage and distribution 

recommendation yielded some great 

successes, Hobby said. Specifically, the 

agency freed up 11.6 million square feet 

of warehouse space, which will save the 

Defense Department a lot of money in the 

long run, he said. 

Another success was the transfer 

of responsibility for consumable items 

from the services to DLA. In addition to 

transferring management of 85,977 items 

to DLA from the services, the transfer 

process was also streamlined. 

Besides immediate successes, BRAC 

2005 is also laying a foundation for 

future changes that will further enhance 

the way the agency does business, Hobby 

said. BRAC 2005 was really a realignment for DLA and transferred functions 

and personnel from the military services 

to the agency and then consolidated 

inventory, he said. This process showed 

the potential economies of scale that can 

be achieved with one activity managing 

a supply chain, and DLA leaders are now 

using that model to improve other areas 

of the agency’s business, he said. 

“The ability to look beyond BRAC and 

optimize how we do business has been, 

I think, the primary benefit that we’ve 

learned as we go into the post-Sept. 15, 

2011, timeframe,” Hobby said. 

Hobby said he believes DLA will reap 

the benefits of BRAC 2005 for several 

years to come as efficiencies from the 

realignment continue to grow. In its 50 

years, DLA has always focused on providing excellent warfighter support, he 

noted, but the BRAC process has allowed 

the agency to look for potential ways to 

continue that high level of support while 

also saving money and becoming more 

efficient. 

“BRAC has given us a way to look 

at that same effectiveness now from an 

efficiency standpoint, to take on some of 

those multiple ways of doing business 

that we accommodated for each service 

and now do a realignment for that and 

become much more efficient,” he said. 

“That saves money, it saves work and effort, and sometimes, it saves frustration.”

Transferring functions from the 

military services to DLA and realigning 

the way the agency does business so that 

in some cases it works directly with an 

artisan on a manufacturing line has been 

a cultural challenge for both DLA and 

the services, he said. He credits the DLA 

change management strategy, which 

strived to keep leaders and workers on 

all levels informed, and dialogue between 

DLA leaders and the military services 

with helping overcome that challenge. 

Also key to overcoming these challenges and successfully implementing the 

BRAC 2005 changes was the dedication 

of the DLA employees at all levels who 

were involved in the process, Hobby said. 

Many of those involved worked on the 

process for its whole six-year span and 

were instrumental in its implementation, 

he said.

“It’s been the people: their skill, their 

commitment, their dedication, their 

courage in some cases to go into some 

places that DLA has not been before,” he 

said. “The commitment, the skills and the 

dedication that the people have shown 

has just been amazing.” 

A Marine installs a new tire on a rim at

Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. Commodity

privatization, one of the BRAC 2005

recommendations, privatized the supply,

storage and distribution of tires.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Bruno J. Bego
I AM

My name is: 

Army Maj. Jason Fairbanks.

I am: 

Chief of the Medical Materiel Executive Agent Division.

Describe your job in a sentence: 

We handle end-to-end medical supply chain and distribution 

management for DLA Troop Support.

How long have you worked for DLA? 

Since May 26, 2009.

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA? 

Being part of the medical logistics enterprise that provides the 

strategic framework that will improve medical logistics support to the 

Department of Defense.

What is your best memory of working here? 

Deploying as the operations officer for the DLA Support Team 

Kandahar, Afghanistan. The highlight of the deployment 

was bringing the helium transfill facility online to support 

operations in Regional Command-South and RC-Southwest. 

Helium support involved a tremendous amount of work from 

DLA Energy, the DLA support team and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, 

and seeing the first helium containers filled in Kandahar was a 

great milestone for our team. 

How do you make a difference to warghters? 

By providing world-class medical logistics support around 

the globe.

 world-class

Jason Fairbanks