Improve Customer Service u Decrease Material Costs u Reduce Inventory 

Decrease Operational Costs u Achieve Audit Readiness

Improve Customer Service Decrease Material Costs Reduce Inventory 

LOGLINES

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2012
DIRECTOR

I

n August, we held our Hall of Fame 

induction ceremony where five former 

DLA employees were recognized for 

contributions that helped shape this 

great agency. Their accomplishments are 

evidence that our rich heritage of success 

comes directly from our employee base. 

As we round out DLA’s 51st year of service 

and support to America’s warfighters, we 

find ourselves at a turning point within the 

agency and the Department of Defense. 

We are facing an increasingly complex 

future that demands innovative ideas and 

new ways of doing business. 

This is a critical journey that requires 

Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek, USN

Director, Defense Logistics Agency

from the

all of us to look at our operations from 

end to end, correcting the course where 

we need to, but also charting new courses 

to achieve our overarching goal of 

significantly improving DLA’s performance 

to warfighters while dramatically reducing 

costs. Earlier this year, the agency’s senior 

leadership team developed a plan called 

“10-in-5,” organized around five core “Big 

Ideas” and supporting initiatives, that sets 

DLA on a path to reach a 10 percent savings 

rate over the next five years. 

Many of our 10-in-5 initiatives are 

well under way and others are already 

seeing noteworthy results. In March, 

we completed the first of three phases 

of Strategic Network Optimization, 

which will ultimately reduce the cost, 

infrastructure and inventory associated 

with maintaining 26 distribution centers 

worldwide. 

At DLA Headquarters, we’re holding 

regular face-to-face “Captains of Industry” 

meetings with key suppliers to encourage 

their best efforts and obtain their advice 

about strategies to reduce the cost of 

the materiel and services they provide 

to our military customers. Acquisitions 

professionals are working hand in hand 

with our industry partners and customers 

to develop new approaches that will 

improve our buying processes and take 

advantage of commercial supply chains 

when it makes good business sense. The 

field activities are looking to consolidate 

buys across the military services, which 

means we can buy in larger quantities and 

yield increased savings for our warfighting 

customers.

Every day I read the comments on the 

“Direct Channel” blog and am constantly 

impressed with the volume and scope of 

ideas many of you have for improving the 

agency’s support. We also implemented 

“Ask a Leader,” a new website where you 

can ask questions and voice your ideas 

and suggestions for making DLA a better 

agency and logistics enabler for America’s 

warfighters. 

No one leader, employee or customer 

has the market cornered on good ideas — 

we all have a stake in the 10-in-5 strategy. 

I believe wholeheartedly in the DLA team, 

and I know we’ll reach even our most 

aggressive goals.

Let’s keep the big ideas coming. Happy 

51st anniversary, DLA! 

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. Mark Harnitchek

DLA Vice Director

Ted Case 

Chief of Staff

Frederick N. 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 Amanda Neumann

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:

Official Flagship Publication of the Defense Logistics Agency

LOGLINES
Loglines l September - October 2012 1

CONTENTS September - October 2012

pg 2

pg 8

pg 32

pg 24

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dla.mil

www.twitter.com/

dlamil www.dla.mil

www.youtube.com/

dodlogisticsagency

The Big Five 2

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek’s “Big Ideas” set the 

stage for the agency to cut costs by $10 billion over five years.

Energy for Less 8

Switching jet fuels and moving to natural gas are just two of the 

initiatives helping DLA Energy reduce costs in the agency’s most 

expensive supply chain.

Faster, Smaller 13

Strategic Network Optimization looks to make the DoD supply chain 

more efficient as well as reduce inventories and warehouses.

Decreasing Material Costs 16

A variety of contracting methods will help the agency get more warfighting material for less money.

Performance-Based Logistics 24

DLA Acquisition looks to new contracting methods that will give

suppliers a stake in ensuring lower costs and fewer repairs for the 

military services.

Depot to Foxhole 32

A new U.S. Transportation Command and DLA partnership develops 

a network that will allow logisticians to find their supplies anywhere 

in the world.

A Conversation with ... 20

NewsWire 23

Money Matters 27

We are DLA 30

I am DLA Back Cover

DEPARTMENTS

BIG IDEAS

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
2 www.dla.mil

THE

BIG FIVE

Story by Beth Reece

he goal: save $10.3 billion in 

five years. It’s a lot to ask of his 

employees, but Defense Logistics 

Agency Director Navy Vice Adm. 

Mark Harnitchek said he is 

certain they’ll succeed.

“We must build on DLA’s history of 

innovation, successful performance and 

cost control, and leverage various means 

to do even better, and do so as quickly as 

possible,” Harnitchek wrote in a May 9 

blog post. 

Harnitchek announced the initiative, 

known as the “Director’s Big Ideas,” in 

March after President Barack Obama and 

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released 

a new national defense strategy that 

includes a $500 billion cut for the Defense 

Department over the next 10 years. 

In fiscal 2011, DLA spent about $46 

billion, with about $5 billion going toward 

personnel, operations and facilities. 

“That leaves about $40 billion of 

stuff that we buy, whether it’s food, fuel, 

pharmaceuticals or repair parts for the 

military services. The president is expectto our customers,” she said. “This includes 

awarding more long-term contracts, 

expanding the use of automation in 

awarding contracts, and utilizing such 

innovative contracting techniques 

as performance-based logistics and 

tailored logistics support arrangements. 

Additionally, we must leverage best 

government and commercial practices 

such as reverse auctions.”

Lower material costs will account 

for about $8.6 billion in savings, said 

Matt Beebe, DLA Acquisition deputy 

director. Long-term contracts and 

reverse auctions are already being used 

to achieve better prices, but Beebe said 

those tools will become more prominent 

in the years to come. 

Placing popular items on long-term 

contracts rather than buying them 

ing us to do better, so that’s what we’re 

going to do,” the director told employees 

in April during a Director’s Call in which 

he encouraged employees to share their 

ideas on how to make it happen.

The $10 billion in savings is expected 

to occur in 2 percent increments 

beginning in fiscal 2014 and involves 

five focus areas: decrease direct material 

cost, decrease operating costs, reduce 

inventory, improve customer service and 

achieve audit readiness. While the effort 

is not expected to cost any of the agency’s 

27,000 employees their job, the agency 

won’t be able to count the shrinking 

demand for wartime supplies as part of 

the savings, Harnitchek said. 

Decreasing Direct Material Costs

DLA Acquisition Director Nancy 

Heimbaugh said the largest portion of 

the savings are to be achieved through 

material cost reductions. 

“This will require us to expand the use 

of innovative techniques that have proven 

to provide the best prices and best support 

he goal: save $10.3 billion in 

five years. It’s a lot to ask of his 

employees, but Defense Logistics 

Agency Director Navy Vice Adm. 

Mark Harnitchek said he is 

certain they’ll succeed.

T

E

to our customers,” she said. “This includes 

awarding more long-term contracts, 

expanding the use of automation in 

awarding contracts, and utilizing such 

innovative contracting techniques 

ing us to do better, so that’s what we’re 

going to do,” the director told employees 

in April during a Director’s Call in which 

he encouraged employees to share their 

ideas on how to make it happen.

The $10 billion in savings is expected 

to occur in 2 percent increments 

beginning in fiscal 2014 and involves 

five focus areas: decrease direct material 

cost, decrease operating costs, reduce 

inventory, improve customer service and 
Loglines l September - October 2012 3

through a series of one-time purchases 

guarantees vendors business and 

improves the chance for lower costs, 

he said. And unlike traditional bidding, 

where suppliers don’t know who is 

competing for a contract or how much 

they’re bidding, reverse auctions allow 

suppliers to see what others are bidding, 

thereby encouraging them to propose a 

lower figure.

Acquisition experts will also look 

for new ways to take advantage of 

existing commercial capabilities, similar 

to how DLA Troop Support relies on 

private-sector vendors to buy, 

store and deliver food and 

pharmaceuticals.

“Years ago we realized 

there was a commercial 

industry that already 

had great success doing 

this; we didn’t need to do 

it ourselves. While we can’t 

apply the prime vendor model 

to all of our supply chains, we may 

be able to rely on a commercial vendor 

to do smaller groups of items,” Beebe 

said, adding that supplies like light bulbs 

A Chinook helicopter picks up a load of 

equipment during a resupply mission 

at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. The 

Defense Logistics Agency is working 

to cut the cost customers pay for such 

material by as much as $8.6 billion in the 

next ve years. 

— Photo by U.K. Royal Air Force Flight Sgt. Graham Spark
4 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

and bolts could easily be managed by 

commercial companies. 

A market study will also give the 

agency a “should-cost” analysis that 

outlines what DLA has historically paid 

for items versus what industry has 

charged to determine whether present 

costs are normal, above normal or below. 

“This will help us target our efforts 

in areas where we’re certainly above the 

normal cost,” Beebe said, adding that 

the in-depth analysis will arm buyers 

with data that allows them to make quick 

comparisons and determine fair and 

reasonable prices.

Heimbaugh said DLA employees 

should treat the agency’s money like it 

was their own.

and transportation services, as well 

as infrastructure and information 

technology. These costs are built into the 

agency’s cost-recovery rate and passed 

on to customers as part of the total cost 

of goods and services. Reductions in 

the cost-recovery rate will be noticed 

and appreciated by military customers, 

Harnitchek said, especially as they 

look for ways to cope with their own 

shrinking budgets.

While some reduced costs will result 

from consolidating inventories, closing 

“We buy way too much inventory that we don’t use, and we 

keep it too long.”

— Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek 

Army Spcs. Alexander Perez and Cherish Truong exit a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during a military training exercise. In 2011, DLA

spent about $40 billion on supplies ranging from food to fuel in support of military operations around the world.

“Each of us must apply the same 

diligence in spending taxpayer funds as 

we do when we go to the grocery store or 

shop for a new vehicle with our personal 

funds,” she said. “This may be a simplistic 

analogy, but it speaks to the same 

budgetary concern we should exercise 

with each contract dollar we award.” 

Decreasing Operating Costs

DLA will save another $1.7 million 

by reducing operating costs that 

go toward warehouse, distribution 

Army Staff Sgt. Kyle Richardson
Loglines l September - October 2012 5

warehouses and leveraging industry’s 

ability to store and deliver high-demand 

items, the rest will come from reducing 

the cost of information technology. 

DLA Information Operations Director 

Kathy Cutler said her staff will have two 

major roles. 

“One is to help other organizations 

within the agency achieve their Big 

Idea goals by providing enhanced IT 

capabilities, automating processes or 

providing them with an IT solution that 

they don’t already have. The second 

part of that is making our own internal 

operation more efficient and reducing 

the cost of IT operations for the agency,” 

she said. 

IT professionals will work with the 

Defense Information Systems Agency to 

find more efficient ways of storing data and 

providing communications capabilities.

“For instance, we are using Voice 

over Internet Protocol to reduce 

telecommunication costs. VoIP delivers 

communication services over the Internet 

vice the telephone network. Over time, 

VoIP will allow us to reduce equipment 

and infrastructure, which will reduce our 

communications costs while improving 

users’ capabilities,” Cutler said. 

Showing internal customers the 

cost of IT functions and presenting less 

expensive alternatives will also help DLA 

leaders make educated decisions about 

which IT solutions are most effective and 

economical, she added.

Reduce Inventory 

Large inventories are another 

opportunity for savings. While not part 

of the $10.3 billion goal set by the DLA 

director, inventory reductions will lead to 

savings in internal infrastructure costs. 

“We do not do a very good job 

forecasting what our needs are,” 

Harnitchek told defense reporters in June. 

“We buy way too much inventory that we 

don’t use, and we keep it too long. ... That 

has been a legacy problem as long as I’ve 

Navy Seaman Justin Willingham performs 

maintenance on a Seahawk helicopter aboard 

the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. DLA 

is working to reduce the price warghters pay 

for common items such as bolts and screws by 

relying on commercial industry to manage them.

been in the logistics business.” 

DLA Distribution will comb through 

its $13 billion in current inventory 

to clear out unnecessary items and 

set benchmarks for how long it will 

keep material in the future, said Barry 

Christensen, chief of DLA Logistics 

Operations’ Demand and Supply 

Planning Branch. Inventory managers 

will begin weighing such factors as the 

cost of storage, production lead times and 

operational risks of removing inventory, 

he said.

“Cleaning the attic is not the only 

focus of this effort. We need to reduce 

future excess inventories with better 

demand planning and collaboration with 

customers, and make improvements in 

our lead times internally and with our 

vendors,” Christensen said.

Decreasing the $1.6 billion 

contingency-retention stock that DLA 

manages for the services will bring 

additional cost reductions. 

“You don’t necessarily have a strong 

economic basis for keeping $1.6 billion, 

so my guess is there will be a 70 to 90 

percent reduction in the next few years, 

barring any outcries from the services,” 

he added.

And finally, clearing up space at DLA 

facilities will enable the agency to assume 

storage of material the services are 

keeping in warehouses around the world. 

“Then the services can shut down 

some of their warehouses, especially 

those in need of refurbishing, and not 

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Billy Ho
6 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 

especially by sending its own employees 

in harm’s way to provide service on the 

battlefield, he continued. However, more 

work is needed to ensure employees, 

particularly those in contracting, have 

the skills to quickly respond to changes in 

customers’ requirements.

“The days of sitting back and just 

waiting for somebody to give us a 

requirement are gone. We have to be fast; 

we have to be agile,” he said, adding that 

military customers should view DLA not 

“To gain the efficiencies that everyone 

is looking for and to be more effective 

with fewer resources, we really have to 

partner with our customers. We have to 

understand what their requirements are 

and what they’ll need us to do for them 

in the future so they can focus more 

energy and resources on their own core 

competencies, because they’re going to be 

impacted by resource cuts even more so 

than we are,” he said. 

The agency earned a reputation for 

providing excellent logistics support 

have to pay high maintenance costs. 

When you add up all the different 

installations across DoD, it can add up to 

some big numbers,” he said.

Improve Customer Service

Reducing inventory and cutting 

material costs means DLA employees will 

have to work closely with customers to 

understand their needs and challenges, 

said Jonathan Mathews, acting executive 

director of operations and sustainment 

for DLA Logistics Operations.

Cleaning unneeded material out of DLA’s inventories will lead to savings in internal infrastructure costs.

Reducing inventories and cutting material costs means DLA employees will have to work 

closely with customers to understand their needs and challenges.

Beth Reece
Loglines 

l September - October 2012

7

as a commercial defense firm, but as a 

fellow federal agency that provides expert 

logistics solutions because its employees 

are “as far forward as they are.” 

Achieve Audit Readiness

The agency will further demonstrate 

its commitment to customer support 

and lower costs by improving financial 

processes and making its business 

processes audit-ready. 

“We want to make sure the numbers 

we’re reflecting in our financials are 

accurate,” said Simone Reba, deputy 

director for DLA Finance and program 

manager for audit readiness. “In the 

private sector, if you don’t do this, you 

go out of business, because investors lose 

confidence in the company.”

After validating DLA’s financial data, 

Reba’s team will standardize business 

processes as much as possible.

“Complexity creates more risk as well 

as increases the audit readiness workload 

and associated audit sustainment costs. 

It creates additional infrastructure and 

training needs. Bottom line, it’s expensive 

and can be inefficient,” she said.

And when leaders understand how 

much the agency’s processes cost, they can 

make more informed decisions on what 

costs can be eliminated without sacrificing 

mission performance, she continued. 

Harnitchek has admitted that his 

savings goals will be challenging, but DLA 

leaders agree that the opportunities exist. 

“It’s through these times of crisis that 

a lot of innovation comes out. There’s 

no question that there’s $10 billion of 

opportunities out there,” Beebe said. 

Saving $10.3 billion in the next ve years will 

help DLA better serve customers like Army 

Spc. Daniel Miller, shown here providing secu-

rity in Zabul province, Afghanistan.

— Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt Brian Ferguson
8 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

D

Energy for Less

A C-17 Globemaster III ies behind a KC-135R Stratotanker during an aerial refueling mission. DLA Energy Americas is moving forward with a plan 

to convert current customers in the continental U.S. using JP8 to commercial Jet-A fuel. 

Story by Terry Shawn and Susan Lowe

Terry Shawn and Susan Lowe are writers for DLA Energy 

Public Affairs.

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner

efense Logistics Agency Energy 

is building cost-cutting strategies 

into its primary mission to provide 

comprehensive energy solutions to 

the Defense Department and other 

federal agencies. The field activity is helping 

to do its part in meeting DLA Director Navy 

Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek’s broader goal 

for the agency to save $10 billion over five 

years. DLA Energy already has programs 

and initiatives in place to perform its mission with more cost effectiveness in mind, 

officials said.

“DLA Energy has pushed the initiative 

to convert from JP8 to commercial 

grade Jet A aviation turbine fuel in the 

continental U.S. as a cost-saving initiative 

for several years,” said Lee Oppenheim, 

deputy director of DLA Energy Americas 

at San Pedro, Calif.

Working with service control points 

and engineering support activities, DLA 

Energy assisted in obtaining approval 

for military aircraft to unconditionally 

use Jet A, he explained. Air Force testing 

shows almost no issues with this change, 

and the service authorized DLA to 

procure Jet A for many of its locations.

DLA Energy Americas is moving 

forward with a plan to convert current 

customers in the continental U.S. 

using JP8 to commercial Jet A fuel. 

Within the DLA Energy Americas at 

San Pedro region, several employees 

foresaw this change and implemented 

changes within the infrastructure to 

accommodate Jet A use.

Robert Short, then-chief of bulk fuel 

distribution; Bowdoin Swenson, chief of 

the distribution division; and Michael 

Koury, chief of the quality division, began 

modifying defense fuel support points to 

accommodate commercial-style filtration 
Loglines 

l September - October 2012

9

and providing the sites with the capability 

to inject military-required additives.

“With that accomplished, implementation within the region will not require long 

lead times to retrofit the terminals before 

converting to Jet A,” Oppenheim said. 

“Almost all Air Force weapon systems have 

been approved to use Jet A as an equal with 

the military-specification JP8.”

Army and Navy organizations are in 

the process of considering Jet A as an 

equal fuel, he said.

The Air Force, Navy and Army represent DLA Energy’s top three customers, 

with sales of more than $18 million.

“The basic goal is to allow suppliers 

to maintain a single aviation turbine 

fuel stock at production and within the 

supply chain until DLA Energy purchases 

it,” Oppenheim said. “By eliminating 

separate production, storage and 

transportation for military-specification 

product, DLA and the warfighter 

will reap the benefits of eliminating 

suppliers’ additional expense. Jet A 

customers anticipate a savings, once fully 

implemented in three years, of 2 to 3 

cents per gallon.”

According to the most recent figures 

available, DLA Energy had net sales of 

1.25 billion gallons of JP8 within the 

continental United States in fiscal 2011. 

A 2- to 3-cent savings per gallon would 

realize a total savings of between $25 

million and $37.5 million. 

Air Force Master Sgt. Scott MacKay

An Airman provides fuel for a KC-10 Extender 

aircraft. DLA Energy Americas’ plan to convert 

current customers in the continental U.S. to 

commercial Jet-A fuel should save customers 

2 to 3 cents per gallon once fully implemented 

in three years.
10 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

Marines troubleshoot the connectivity of a 

Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy 

Network System being used to power an 

entry control point. DLA Energy helps provide 

coal, natural gas, electricity, renewable energy 

and energy-conservation measures for DoD 

facilities.

Marine Corps Sgt. Alvin D. Parson

Natural Gas Program Proves to be 

Cost Effective

Another program in place that 

has cost effectiveness in mind is DLA 

Energy’s Natural Gas Program. 

This DLA Energy Installation Energy 

program helps provide coal, natural gas, 

electricity, renewable energy and energyconservation measures for DoD facilities.

The program focuses on providing 

cost-effective, reliable energy solutions in 

support of the DoD mission.

“The DLA Energy Natural Gas 

Program was established in 1990 for the 

purpose of competitively acquiring direct 

supply natural gas for military services,” 

DLA Energy Installation Energy Director 

Pam Griffith said. 

The Defense Department requires 

that the natural gas program be cost 

effective and have the same degree 

of supply reliability as other practical 

alternative energy sources, Griffith said.

Since the program’s inception, DLA 

Energy has netted participating customers 

more than $850 million in cost avoidance 

when compared to local utility rates. 

On average, this represents an 8 to 15 

percent savings beyond what customers 

would otherwise pay their local utility, 

she said. 

“In the past three years, we’ve 

improved our cost avoidance for customers 

to more than 20 percent through various 

process improvement initiatives aimed at 

ensuring our contracts were representative 

of best commercial practices, properly 

balancing risks and streamlining of our 

processes,” she added.

The total DoD cost avoidance for fiscal 

1991-2011 has exceeded $656 million, 

according to DLA Energy’s Fact Book.

Griffith explained that DLA Energy, 
Loglines l September - October 2012 11

Marines set up a Ground Renewable Expeditionary Energy Network System that will provide power to an entry control point. DLA Energy

provides cost-effective, reliable energy solutions in support of Defense Department missions.

as DoD’s central procurement agency 

for direct supply natural gas, is actively 

managing multiyear contracts valued 

in excess of $500 million for the supply 

of more than 110 million dekatherms, a 

form of measurement for energy.

DoD requirements, which come 

from about 140 military installations, 

represent more than 75 percent of the 

overall contract quantity. The remaining contracts support federal civilian 

agencies, including the Bureau of Prisons, 

NASA, and the departments of Energy, 

Agriculture, Homeland Security, and 

Health and Human Services, Griffith said. 

“Inclusion of the federal civilian 

agencies helps balance our load profiles 

and improve our buying power, enabling 

us to negotiate better deals for our DoD 

customers,” Griffith said.

Demand Response Programs Net 

Millions in Energy Savings

Another cost-savings program in 

DLA Energy is its Electricity Demand 

Response Program.

The program is designed to enable 

customers to contribute to energy-load 

reduction during times of peak demand. 

“Our mission is to provide federal 

agencies with comprehensive energy 

solutions that are effective and efficient, 

and demand-response services go a long 

way in helping us meet that goal,” said 

Larry Fratis, chief of the DLA Energy 

Electricity and Renewables Division. 

In exchange for an installation 

reducing its electricity load, the 

independent system operator or the utility 

distribution company provides financial 

incentives to participating customers in 

the form of credits to their utility bills, he 

explained. These credits have the effect of 

reducing the price the government pays 

for a kilowatt of electricity.

“DLA Energy’s customer participation 

in the various demand-response programs 

has grown exponentially and netted customers millions of dollars in energy costs 

Marine Corps Sgt. Alvin D. Parson

“Our goal at DLA Energy is to ensure reliable energy supplies are 

delivered to our installations in the most cost-effective manner and 

to implement energy-reduction measures.” 

–— Pam Grifth
12 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

savings,” Fratis said. 

The Electricity Demand-Response 

Program is a cost-saving, energymanagement initiative that can help 

customers save money on their utility bills, 

Griffith said. The DLA Energy program 

has supported customer participation 

in various demand-reduction programs 

available across the U.S., in both regulated 

and de-regulated market areas, netting 

customers more than $10 million in 

financial credits on their utility bills from 

the program’s inception in fiscal 2008.

Contracts Produce Savings and 

Reduce Environmental Impact

Energy savings performance 

contracts are another energy-savings 

vehicle used by DLA Energy. 

ESPCs are alternatively financed 

contracts that leverage private-sector 

capital and expertise, allowing the 

government to achieve mandated energyand water-conservation goals without 

up-front capital costs, Griffith said.

She explained that under ESPCs, 

contractors are paid from energy 

cost savings that result from energy 

conservation measures implemented by 

the contractor.

The Energy Independence and Security 

Act of 2007 and Executive Order 13423 set 

new federal energy intensity goals that are 

implemented by ESPCs, she said.

EISA and E.O. 13423 require DoD 

to cut energy use, compared to 2003, by 

3 percent per year from 2007 to 2015, 

according to information available on the 

Department of Energy’s website.

Defense Reform Initiative Directive 

21, dated January 1998, directed DLA 

to assist the military services in using 

tools such as ESPC contracts to decrease 

energy demand.

DLA Energy has been procuring and 

administering ESPC contracts since 1999 

and has awarded contracts with a total 

value of $430 million, Griffith said.

Part of DoD’s core strategy when 

it comes to facility energy is to reduce 

demand through energy efficiency and 

conservation measures, Griffith said. She 

added that officials have seen a significant 

increase in customer energy conservation 

requirements over the past 12 months, 

particularly given the president’s directive 

to achieve $2 billion in investment in these 

efforts by December 2013, Griffith said.

Facility energy is important to DoD 

when it comes to mission assurance, cost 

and environmental impact, Griffith said.

“Our goal at DLA Energy is to ensure 

reliable energy supplies are delivered to 

our installations in the most cost-effective 

manner and to implement energyreduction measures,” she added. 

The cost savings realized under DLA 

Energy programs can then be reallocated 

by customers to support mission 

priorities, and the energy savings help 

reduce the department’s impact on the 

environment, she said. 

Each day, this Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, locomotive transports up to 1,000 tons of coal to the power plant that provides the base with its 

sole source of heat and power. Coal is one of the resources the DLA Energy Installation Energy program helps provide for DoD facilities. 

Air Force Senior Airman Willard E. Grande II
Loglines l September - October 2012 13

A

Faster, Smaller

Marine Cpl. Calvin Hartley, an automotive organizational mechanic with 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, works on a 

Humvee engine. Strategic Network Optimization will reduce the amount of warehouse space needed to store consumable items and depot-level 

reparables while ensuring warghters have the supplies and parts they need. 

Story by Jacob Boyer

Courtesy Photo

s Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s 

efficiency initiatives and Defense 

Logistics Agency Director Navy 

Vice. Adm. Mark Harnitchek’s 

“Big Ideas” push the agency to find 

ways to provide superior support at lower 

costs, a joint program between DLA, U.S. 

Transportation Command and the military 

services is looking at ways to make better 

use of the storage nodes and transportation lanes that comprise the Defense 

Department’s distribution network.

Strategic Network Optimization, 

an Office of the Secretary of Defense 

program being led by DLA, is taking in 

data from across DoD’s logistics network 

to find where and in what amounts 

consumable items – items that aren’t 

reused like ammunition, paint, fuel and 

bandages – and depot-level reparables 

– items like vehicle transmissions that 

can be repaired and refit and then put 

back into service – should be kept around 

the globe, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Manuel 

Ganuza, operations research lead on 

the SNO team. The program’s goal is to 

make more efficient use of the network’s 

transportation and storage capabilities to 

minimize inventory requirements. 

“What SNO is doing in essence is 

looking to reduce total supply-chain costs 

while increasing warfighter readiness 

related to supply,” Ganuza said. “We 

want to find that balance between being 

effective and being efficient.”

Another effect of SNO will be 

reducing the number of warehouses DoD 

uses to store its inventories, said Bret 

Nichols, the program’s business manager. 
14 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

“We’re looking at eliminating 

warehouses where it makes sense,” 

he said. “We’re looking at individual 

buildings. In the continental United 

States, there are 256 distribution sites 

with significant capacity. We’re trying 

to whittle down that warehouse capacity 

where appropriate.”

Ganuza said budget constraints and 

the need to transform the supply chain 

to support a variety of future operations, 

from contingency to humanitarian 

assistance, are the compelling reasons 

for SNO.

Lynne Allen, SNO’s program manager, said the program is also looking to 

reduce redundancies brought about by 

DLA, USTRANSCOM and the services 

performing the same or similar functions. 

“There is a lot of duplication across 

DoD between the services and DLA and 

a lot of redundancy,” she said. “That’s 

part of the transformation as well: to 

consolidate and reduce redundancies. 

That’s sort of the underlying foundation 

that gets us where we need to be 

to support the current and future 

environment. In view of the coming 

budget constraints, it would make sense 

to leverage what we have because we 

can’t afford to go out and make the 

investments in inventory that we’re used 

to making.”

In order to do that, SNO is planning 

and implementing in three phases. Phase 

1 is transportation-focused and configures 

the supply network, including the number 

and location of strategic distribution 

depots, the transportation lanes used to 

get supplies where they need to go, and 

the anticipated flow of materials.

“In Phase 2, we looked at DoD-wide 

inventory. Many will say we have too 

much stuff across DoD,” he said. “We 

may be short of something we do need 

but, in totality, we have too much stuff. 

The goal is to get rid of $10 billion of 

material across all of DoD, not just DLA.”

Nichols said that in addition to 

reducing the investments required for 

a larger inventory, Phase 2 will also 

eliminate other costs involved in keeping 

that inventory.

“There are also carrying costs to 

keeping things in our inventory,” he said. 

“There’s spoilage, obsolescence, handling 

fees and more. Eventually, if you keep 

something on the shelf long enough, you 

don’t need it any more. That piece of 

equipment is gone from our inventory, we 

don’t service it any more, we don’t issue 

it anymore, but there are still warehouses 

full of it.” 

That leads directly into Phase 3, 

in which the Defense Department will 

reduce the excess warehouse capacity 

that results from the reduction of 

inventory, Nichols said. 

“Once you clear the attic out, our 

model has allowed us to equate the value 

of those items in cubic feet and square 

feet,” he said. “We take that out and that’s 

how much warehouse space we anticipate 

being able to eliminate.”

The order of the initial phases is 

purposeful, Ganuza said. 

“Phase I basically reconfigures your 

network. It focuses on items that are 

moving within the network,” he said. “Once 

you’ve established the network, how you’ll 

use it and the conditions under which 

you’ll be operating, then you look at the 

inventory portion. That’s where we have 

things in excess. Once you get the entire 

picture of the inventory with the network 

reconfigured and operating the way you 

want it to, you can look at infrastructure. 

Then you scale the infrastructure to the 

new demand and functions you’re going to 

assign to a specific site.” 

Ganuza said that while a net decrease 

in warehouse space is anticipated, some 

individual sites may see the opposite due 

to various causes and missions.

“Some sites might need an increase, 

STRATEGIC NETWORK OPTIMIZATION

DLA Distribution

San Joaquin, Calif.

DLA Distribution

Oklahoma City, Okla.

DLA Distribution

Red River, Texas

DLA Distribution

Susquehanna, Pa.

DLA Distribution

Warner Robins, Ga.

Selected based on their proximity to customers, these 

depots provide optimal transportation costs while still 

meeting customers’ logistics response times. 

DISTRIBUTION DEPOTS
Loglines l September - October 2012 15

FEMA workers arrive at Fort Bragg, N.C., ahead 

of Hurricane Irene in 2011. As Strategic Network 

Optimization moves into its next phases, 

logistical support to humanitarian assistance 

and disaster relief operations will be added.

Sharilyn Wells

and others will be reduced significantly,” 

he said. “You still need to provide 

support to industrial activities. You still 

need a storefront. Someone still needs 

to manage it.”

These three phases are anticipated 

to reap more than $7 billion in network-, 

inventory- and infrastructure-related savings across the Defense Department from 

fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2018, Nichols said. 

DLA itself is expected to save more than 

$76 million from Phase 1 alone. Savings 

to individual partners for phases 2 and 3 

haven’t been calculated yet.

 “By optimizing the 

network, we’re able to 

use lower-cost forms of 

transportation,” he said. 

“We can go surface versus 

air. There’s a huge difference in the cost of moving 

something by truck or boat 

versus moving it by plane.”

The optimized network 

will also allow planners 

to send consolidated 

shipments to customers, Ganuza said. 

Regular shipping schedules, with many 

shipments going to multiple customers, 

will allow for reduced transportation 

costs and inventories.

“Among all the services, we’re 

consolidating all the shipments,” he said. 

“With SNO, you’re setting the schedule 

of dedicated trucks to be more effective. 

Now you have a high volume of material 

moving through a lane to customers that 

are near each other.”

“It has an impact on inventory,” 

Ganuza continued. “If my analysis tells 

me I’m going to hit you every two weeks 

with a truck, you might estimate you 

need more on hand. That goes hand in 

hand with phases 1 and 2. We can assess 

the responsiveness of the supply chain 

and the network to the consumer, which 

impacts inventory. Now 

that we can assess that 

responsiveness, those 

parameters the services 

use to calculate inventory 

levels will have impacts 

on retail operations. 

They tell us what they 

need. If we can service 

them every day, they 

need less.”

The SNO team is 

using a modeling and 

simulation program called Supply Chain 

Guru to help it decide how to most 

efficiently manage the worldwide supply 

network, Allen said. The program allows 

DLA, USTRANSCOM and the services to 

input data on infrastructure, inventory 

and transportation into one database 

from which they can assess individual 

changes to the network, she said.

“That’s one of the more unique 

things about what we’ve done,” Allen 

said. “We’ve gotten actual cost data 

from each of [the partners], put them 

together, and done some optimization 

and modeling. We’re going to simulate 

the network to make sure. We’re going 

to test it to make sure the new network 

can respond with current or improved 

performance. This will validate that we 

won’t degrade any response times. We’re 

doing that now.”

Ganuza said the team expected initial 

results from the simulations in early 

August, but that the analysis of those 

results would take time. 

Phases 1, 2 and 3 of SNO will reach 

implementation in 2014, 2015 and 

2016, respectively. Further phases are 

already beginning, Allen said. Phases 

4, 5 and 6 will look into how to use 

the network to support geographic 

combatant commanders and 

humanitarian assistance and disaster 

response operations, as well as add 

classes of supply beyond repair parts. 

SNO’s initial three phases 

are anticipated to reap 

more than $7 billion in 

network-, inventory- and 

infrastructure-related 

savings across DoD from 

scal 2014 to scal 2018.

Sharilyn Wells
16 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas
Loglines l September - October 2012 17

Decreasing

Material 

Costs

A Navy Knighthawk helicopter lifts a pallet of 

supplies from the deck of the replenishment 

oiler USNS Yukon. DLA will use a variety of 

acquisition tools, from long-term contracts 

to reverse auctions, to decrease the cost of 

such supplies. 

— Photo by Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Chase A. Corbin

Story by Beth Reece

cquisition experts throughout 

the Defense Logistics Agency’s 

nine supply chains are increasing 

the use of traditional contracting 

models and adopting several new 

procurement tools to reduce customers’ 

material costs.

“We’re doing more of what we already 

do, such as long-term contracts, where 

we have a longer relationship with 

contractors and they can therefore make 

investments to drive down costs. We’re 

also looking at some new and innovative 

ideas that will allow us to take better 

advantage of commercial practices, 

for example,” DLA Acquisition Deputy 

Director Matt Beebe said.

Agency officials expect to save about 

$8.6 billion in material costs by fiscal 

2018. Material costs represent the highest 

portion of DLA’s budget, Beebe added. 

Of about $46 billion the agency spent in 

fiscal 2011, about $40 billion went toward 

such material as food, fuel and repair 

parts for the military services. 

DLA Troop Support will rely on 

reverse auctions to get savings in such 

areas as pharmaceuticals, construction 

equipment, and clothing and textiles, said 

Chris Cosfol, the activity’s deputy director 

of procurement process support. 

Unlike traditional bidding, where 

suppliers don’t know who is competing for 

a contract or how much they’re bidding, 

reverse auctions allow suppliers to see what 

others are bidding, thereby encouraging 

them to propose a lower figure. 

While most pharmaceutical prices for 

the Defense Department are set by law 

and aren’t likely to change, Cosfol said, 

the cost of delivering them could decrease 

dramatically as a result of reverse auctioning. Pharmaceutical delivery is typically 

done as part of the vendor’s commercial 

distribution network, so the vendor offers 

DLA a discount in the form of what’s called 

a negative distribution fee.

“If we get a negative distribution fee 

of 5 percent and the cost is $100, for 

example, then the vendor actually charges 

cquisition experts throughout 

the Defense Logistics Agency’s 

nine supply chains are increasing 

the use of traditional contracting 

models and adopting several new A

procurement tools to reduce customers’ 
18 www.dla.mil

Big Ideas

Navy Petty Ofcer 2nd Class Pablo Hinojosa 

moves supplies through a hangar bay during 

a replenishment at sea aboard the aircraft 

carrier USS George H.W. Bush. DLA Aviation 

is expanding the use of long-term contracts to 

shorten administrative lead time and increase 

the availability of supplies for customers 

around the world.

Navy Seaman Jessica Echerri

us just $95,” Cosfol said. 

The activity is currently soliciting bids 

for a national pharmaceutical prime vendor 

contract that will become effective in 

March 2013. After offers were received and 

evaluated for technical capability and item 

pricing, DLA Troop Support sought further 

savings by conducting a reverse auction 

on just the negative distribution fee, then 

reevaluated offers to make an award.

Cosfol said officials expected 

significant savings. “We’ll receive 

what we expect to be a higher negative 

distribution fee over the five-year span of 

the contract,” he continued. 

In clothing and textiles, acquisition 

experts will conduct a “should-cost” 

analysis of overhead costs. Several items 

in that supply chain are mandatorysource items that come from Ability One, 

which supports the National Industries 

for the Blind and National Industries for 

the Severely Handicapped. 

“We’ve had some overhead-rate 

issues, so we’re hoping a should-cost 

analysis will bolster our position as we 

negotiate with workshops to reduce those 

costs,” Cosfol said.

While DLA Troop Support already 

uses long-term contracts to procure 

more than 90 percent of its items, 

activities like DLA Aviation are working 

to greatly increase use of the tool. A new 

long-term contracting development 

and preservation section was recently 

established at DLA Aviation.

“This will allow us to reduce the 

amount of routine contract actions, 

shorten administrative lead-time, 

increase supply availability and decrease 

potential supply excess, all of which 

contribute to cost reductions,” said Sonja 

Parham, a sourcing strategy specialist.

Decreasing sole-source items that 

are manufactured by just one vendor 

for reasons other than U.S. propriety 

rights to technical data will also increase 

competition and reduce costs in several 

supply chains, Beebe added. The effort 

would require reverse engineering to 

generate product data that can be made 

available to other vendors willing to 

compete for business. 
Loglines l September - October 2012 19

“This can be a laborious process, but 

you have to target your efforts,” Beebe 

said. “If I’m only going to buy the item 

once every three years, it’s probably 

not worth it. But if it’s something I buy 

regularly or something I’m paying a 

premium for, then it’s definitely an area 

of opportunity.”

Engineers at DLA Aviation are using 

the Value Engineering Sourcing Support 

Tool to target cases where multiple 

suppliers are capable of making sole-source 

items but aren’t bidding for contracts 

because the items have unstable demand 

patterns and are technically complex.

“New suppliers tend to avoid these 

items, but the warfighter still needs them 

at an affordable price. We developed 

VESST to allow us to share some of the 

expense associated with gaining approval 

as a source of supply with a contractor so 

that the risk is reduced to an acceptable 

level,” said Ralph Newlon, deputy director 

of the DLA Aviation Engineering Division.

Military engineering activities that have 

sustainment oversight and design control 

over items that DLA buys are currently 

reviewing source approval requests for five 

items, including three separate support 

assemblies for the TF33 airplane engine. 

“Potential procurement savings as a 

result of these efforts are estimated to be 

$186,000 per year,” Newlon said, adding 

that production lead times will also 

decrease significantly, with the lead time 

for one of those five items dropping from 

660 days to 180. 

Working with new suppliers to 

decrease sole-source items and the 

use of reserve auctions are expected to 

bring in the biggest chunk of savings for 

DLA Land and Maritime, said Barbara 

Robertson, deputy director for business 

process support. Another initiative will 

eliminate the requirement for expensive 

packaging in cases where commercial 

packaging is adequate. In the past, the 

services have placed special packaging 

requirements on material to protect it 

during long-term storage.

“But what we’ve found is that most of 

our items are consumed pretty quickly; 

as soon as they hit the depot, they’re 

shipped out immediately because a 

customer needs it,” Robertson said.

Relying on commercial companies 

to manage supplies that are easily 

obtainable, such as light bulbs and bolts, 

is another way DLA expects to achieve 

lower material costs. 

“We manage a lot of inventory that 

could be purchased at Lowe’s or Home 

Depot,” DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. 

Mark Harnitchek told defense reporters 

in June. “Why spend $11 to manage a bag 

of nuts that costs 75 cents” when industry 

can provide it on demand. 

Other innovative ideas include the 

use of a new contracting model called 

performance-based logistics, through 

which the agency will combine multiple 

service contracts for similar items into a 

single PBL arrangement that supports all 

the services. Performance-based logistics 

gives contractors partial responsibility for 

material readiness and is expected to save 

DoD 15 to 20 percent, said Navy Capt. 

John Spicer, who oversees DLA’s PBL 

Program Office.

In a May 9 blog post, Harnitchek 

described the agency’s material reduction 

goals as an effort that nearly all DLA 

employees are directly or indirectly 

involved in.

“This is all about delivering worldclass logistics support at best value,” he 

said. “I have been in the supply chain/

military log business a long time, and 

nobody does more of it than DLA, and 

nobody does it better. Now we must take 

it up another notch.” 

Engineers at DLA Aviation are using the Value Engineering Sourcing 

Support Tool to target cases where multiple suppliers are capable 

of making sole-source items but aren’t bidding for contracts. 

Navy Petty Ofcer 3rd Class Eric Crump (right) 

assists Navy Lt. Laura Modafferi with packing 

bins of medication in the pharmacy aboard 

the hospital ship USNS Comfort. DLA Troop 

Support is working on a reverse auction that 

will reduce the cost of pharmaceutical delivery.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Alesia Goosic
A Conversation with . . .

20 www.dla.mil

You’ve been a Soldier working in 

logistics for more than 36 years. 

What are some of the biggest 

changes you’ve seen during your 

career?

Really, the more things change, 

the more they stay the same. When 

I entered the Army in 1975, we were 

required to deploy with our unit basic 

and prescribed loads. A basic load 

is designated quantities of specific 

types of supplies that allow a unit 

to initiate its combat operations. 

We also deployed with our motor 

pool maintenance section that was 

required to carry its prescribed load 

list. Prescribed loads are quantities 

of maintenance-significant supplies 

and repair parts to support the unit’s 

maintenance program. Keep in mind, 

the unit’s basic and prescribed loads 

must be able to move into combat 

using organic transportation in a single 

lift. We also identified a field ordering 

officer who would acquire local 

supplies when needed.

The requirement to deploy with 

the unit’s loads still holds true today. 

However, we have seen many of our 

rotational units fall in on left-behind 

equipment in operational theaters. 

Since units fall in on equipment left 

by previous units, a majority of our 

sustainment functions have been 

accomplished by the Logistics Civil 

Augmentation Program, known as 

LOGCAP. Many units deploy with 

little or no basic or prescribed loads. 

LOGCAP plays a major role in support 

of our warriors. Furthermore, this 

program frees up human resources to 

be employed elsewhere.

Strategically, very little has 

changed except that strategic planners 

are side by side on the battlefield with 

supported units. As far as supplying 

and re-supplying, we are doing 

business much the same as in the past. 

During the Civil War, leaders used 

the road and rail network to move 

supplies. During World War II, they 

used road, rail and air assets to get 

supplies where needed. Today, we still 

use road, rail and air assets to deliver 

supplies and provide services, but we 

also use many types of technology to 

be more efficient in delivering those 

supplies and services.

Army Command Sgt. 

DLA’s Senior Enlisted Leader Talks About His Extensive Military Career, His Time at DLA and His Prospects for the Future.

One thing that has changed is 

the tactical abilities of our logistics 

service members. Early on in my 

career, combat service support 

organizations delivered goods to their 

supported units and combat arms 

units went along to protect them. 

However, during OEF and OIF this 

was not the case. CSS units had to 

protect themselves both heading out 

on deliveries and returning to home 

base. Troops in these organizations 

had to learn how to be gunners, react 

to attacks, defend their position, call in 

an emergency medical evacuation and 

evade improvised explosive devices all 

while under attack. And they’ve more 

than stepped up to the challenge.

The mission hasn’t changed 

much, just the methods we use to get 

warfighters what they need, when 

they need it and in the right amounts. 

In what ways did you interact 

with DLA over your career before 

becoming its senior enlisted leader?

The majority of my experiences 

in logistics have come from the 

school of hard knocks and my various 

assignments at the company, battalion, 

brigade, division and corps level 

support offices. Frankly, I didn’t know 

who or what the Defense Logistics 

Agency was. Most of my interactions 

were with the supply support activities 

organic to units and the inventory 

control points organic to the military 

services. However, there were a few 

item managers that I would call on 

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Otis Cuffee

Defense Logistics Agency
DLA Strategic Communications 

Loglines l September - October 2012 21

 Maj. Otis Cuffee

for status of requisitions. These item 

managers were identified by their 

routing identifier code. Some of 

these codes were for DLA items from 

Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Va.

During Operation Enduring 

Freedom, a DLA representative was 

co-located with my headquarters in 

Uzbekistan. This representative was 

responsible for tracking and providing 

status on DLA-managed repair parts. 

We also had a representative from the 

Defense Reutilization and Marketing 

Office, now known as DLA Disposition 

Services, who provided information on 

disposal cost and services.

Over the years, I have picked up 

knowledge and experience on the 

subject of end-to-end supply chain 

management through hands-on work 

and reading a lot of books. My time 

at an Army command gave me the 

strategic view of logistics, acquisition 

and the contracting process. However, 

nothing really prepares you for 

serving at DLA other than a previous 

assignment at DLA.

DLA is a very large organization 

with a huge mission. It provides 

everything service members need head 

to toe, and it supplies more than 80 

percent of the military’s spare parts 

and nearly 100 percent of the services’ 

rations. This includes the supply cycle 

from acquisition to distribution and 

disposal. DLA supports more than 

2,178 weapons systems, manages 

nine supply chains, and processes an 

average of 114,200 requisitions and 

11,000 contract actions a day. DLA 

operates in 48 states and 28 countries 

to support our national defense with 

critical materials management.

How big of an impact has the global 

war on terrorism had on both the 

logistics career field and DLA?

Gen. George S. Patton once said, 

“Never tell people how to do things. 

Tell them what to do and they will 

surprise you with their ingenuity.” 

Logisticians’ skill sets have been 

challenged beyond their limits, but 

they have adjusted and continue to 

prevail. As a result of the changing 

battlefield and threat, the majority of 

our logisticians are now multifunctional. 

Our officers, warrant officers, 

noncommissioned officers, civil 

servants and contracted employees 

are being exposed to multifunctional, 

multinational and joint logistics 

experiences earlier in their careers, 

often while in combat. Consequentially, 

our logistics organizations require 

smart, competent and confident leaders 

who have the training and experience to 

operate effectively as part of a joint or 

multinational force. 

DLA has provided outstanding 

support over the past several years. 

However, it has not been easy. DLA has 

worked through sustaining the forces 

on two fronts while simultaneously 

supporting the other commands, depots 

throughout the world, the Department 

of State and nongovernmental agencies. 

And we have successfully done it with 

fewer resources.

DLA has been challenged to get 

supplies in and around Afghanistan, 

especially when the Pakistan ground 

lines of communications road network 

closed The bigger challenge now is 

helping commanders get equipment 

out of Afghanistan, particularly since 

Afghanistan is a land-locked country 

and flying everything is very expensive.

Can you share one moment or time 

in your career when you were 

happiest to be doing what you 

were doing?

I, like all military members, 

have trained and rehearsed for 

that moment to be called to duty. 

I have been called on for several 

deployments, but Operation 

Enduring Freedom and Operation 

Iraqi Freedom really allowed me to 

showcase what I was trained to do. 

Supplying and sustaining units on 

the battlefield, on the move and on 

time showed that sustainers are a 

force multiplier. I was the happiest 

when the units I supported had 

everything they needed and wanted 

for nothing. The reward of seeing 

the smiles of our customers after 

delivering subsistence, fuel, ammo 

and water was exciting. It also felt 

great to receive accolades from the 

leadership on mission complete 

and a job well done. However, I am 

reminded that the work isn’t over 

until the entire mission is complete 

What was the toughest part of 

your career?

Other than exiting an aircraft 

while in flight in Afghanistan and 

Iraq?! You really have to know 

your business, because you will be 

challenged beyond your imagination. 

You will have to know more than 

logistics to supply and sustain the 

forces in different environments. 
A Conversation with . . .

22 www.dla.mil

The mountainous terrain and lack of 

road infrastructure in Afghanistan is 

the toughest challenge. You just can’t 

get to the forward operating bases 

or contingency operating bases or 

combat outposts without flying or air 

dropping supplies.

In Iraq, we had to deal with 

improvised explosive devices and 

ambushes, as well as sand and dust 

storms. During the dust storms, 

nothing moves – no flying or driving. 

You couldn’t see your hand, so 

we had to have a plan, a backup 

plan and a backup backup plan to 

re-supply. Man, what a challenge. 

In one example, my team was 

tasked to support an offensive 

operation in two locations. We 

needed to make one drop, return to 

home station to reload and make the 

second drop. In anticipation of bad 

weather, we attempted delivering 

fuel and supplies just outside 

Baghdad to the first site when we 

were hit with an IED. We recovered 

and made it to the destination of 

delivery only to find it was under 

attack. After we remained there for 

three hours, the main roads in that 

sector went black, which meant no 

road movement. The second team 

on tap had not made it back to home 

base to make the next supply run. 

The third team was resting from 

doing back-to-back drops in the 

northern sector. Bad weather had 

moved in earlier than expected, so 

nothing was flying except medical 

evacuation helicopters. This is what 

I mean by being challenged and 

bringing your “A game,” because it 

was tough operating in a climate of 

uncertainties.

If you could give a junior enlisted 

service member one piece of 

advice, what would it be?

Learn all that you can about your 

craft and hone your skills; you too 

will be called to duty. Your leaders, 

subordinates and teammates expect 

you to be the expert. Don’t worry 

about filling someone else’s shoes, 

just fill your own. When you assume 

the responsibility of leadership, many 

will want you to be as good as or 

better than your predecessor. Seek out 

those who went before you for their 

experience and seek a mentor. We all 

need someone who has gone this way 

before, someone who understands 

the inner working of the organization, 

who can guide and assist in your 

development and growth. Master 

your tactical and survival skills. This 

is not a movement through friendly 

neighborhoods, but navigating rough 

terrain and hostile environments. 

Remember, you are a professional of 

arms first and a technician second. 

If you cannot survive, you cannot 

supply. It doesn’t matter if you’re 

supplying goods and services or 

reinforcing the front line with your 

team. Most importantly, always do 

your best to do what is right.

What do you see as DLA’s next 

steps in the years to come?

DLA has always been America’s 

combat logistics support agency. It 

provides our armed services, other 

federal agencies, and combined and 

allied forces with the full spectrum 

of logistics, acquisition and technical 

services. Its enduring goals of 

Warfighter Support, Stewardship 

Excellence and Workforce Development 

have always kept this agency at the tip 

of the spear. So, I see DLA taking on 

more of the military services’ logistics 

functions while reducing costs. If 

you look back at DLA’s history, it 

has assumed these functions when 

necessary. DLA inserts best business 

practices and invests in technology to 

get organizations where they need to be 

to support their operations. That process 

has reduced cost and produced the same 

level support or better for the customers. 

The DLA director’s current initiative 

is “10-in-5”: reduce costs by $10 billion 

over the next five years starting in 

fiscal 2014. That will go a long way in 

reducing the agency’s and the armed 

services’ budget requirements.

What’s next for you?

For 37 years I have seen change 

take place up close. I’ve seen changes 

like Base Realignment and Closure, 

force structure alignment, protective 

clothing and uniform changes. All 

were done for the right reason, 

which is to care for our warriors and 

protect the American way of life. 

So, it’s my time to change from the 

uniform of a Soldier to that of a civil 

servant. I would like the opportunity 

to serve within the Department of 

Defense in some capacity continuing 

to assist warfighters. Of course, none 

of this will happen until I take a long 

vacation with my family.

My thoughts to share: The cost 

of freedom is very high, sometimes 

calling upon what Abraham Lincoln 

referred to as “the last full measure 

of devotion.”

No one knows this more than the 

citizens of each generation who have 

seen beyond the haze of indifference 

and who acted to serve a cause greater 

than themselves. The brave men and 

women of our civil service workforce 

who manage, provide and repair 

equipment to keep our armed forces 

protected with the latest technology 

and engineering designs are one 

of the most potent weapons in war 

and one of our nation’s resources, 

without a doubt. These civil servants, 

teammates of the military, working 

in domestic locations or deployed 

overseas, provide exceptional support 

to our forces.

Finally, may God bless our 

military services and DLA, and God 

bless America. 
— Lisa Hake, 

DLA Document Services Public Affairs

Defense Logistics Agency Document 

Services partnered with the AbilityOne 

Program to award a desktop printer toner 

contract that will save Department of 

Defense users time and money, create jobs 

for people with disabilities, and comply 

with the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act. 

In accordance with the JWOD Act, 

the U.S. AbilityOne Commission — the 

operating name for the Committee for 

Purchase From People Who Are Blind 

or Severely Disabled — is the federal 

agency authorized to administer the 

AbilityOne Program. The commission 

designated National Industries for 

the Blind and NISH to assist with the 

program implementation. These central 

nonprofit agencies create employment 

opportunities for people who are blind 

or have other significant disabilities. 

More than 600 nonprofit agencies across 

the nation associated with either NIB 

or NISH produce products and services 

under the AbilityOne Program, John 

Coney, NIB Business Development 

director, said.

In the past, recycled printer toner 

available through the AbilityOne 

Program was substandard, motivating 

many DoD users to write waivers to the 

JWOD Act and proceed with numerous 

small purchases. Working with DLA 

Acquisition, DLA Document Services 

developed a new contracting approach 

that streamlines the acquisition process 

and allows DoD users to take advantage 

of their collective buying power, while 

remaining compliant with the JWOD Act 

mandate, Steve Sherman, DLA Document 

Services director, said.

AbilityOne now acquires new toner 

cartridges through Alabama Industries 

for the Blind. AIB provides training 

and employment opportunities for 

people who are blind and/or deaf. These 

employees produce more than 100 

different items, including a new patented 

DLA Document 

Services 

Partners with 

AbilityOne 

Program

toner that carries an unconditional 

lifetime warranty. The new toner was 

independently tested, and the results 

indicated significantly higher page yields 

and improved print quality as compared 

to products from other equipment 

manufacturers. Because of higher toner 

content and yields, less than half as many 

cartridges need to be manufactured and 

shipped. All components are 100 percent 

recyclable, and used cartridges can be 

easily returned with an enclosed return 

label. In addition, the toner complies with 

the Environmental Protection Agency’s 

Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines 

for Resource Conservation, Coney said.

With this new toner available, DLA 

Document Services and AbilityOne 

partnered to award a contract that covers 

the most prevalent desktop printer 

toner vendors in DoD, Hewlett-Packard 

and Lexmark, at an average savings 

of 25 percent compared to the price 

for manufacturers’ products. As other 

vendors’ newly manufactured toners 

become available through AbilityOne, 

they will be added to the contract, Chuck 

McNelley, DLA Document Services chief 

contracting officer, said. 

To streamline the ordering process, 

the new toner contract will be available 

for online ordering and payment via 

Government Purchase Card through DoD 

EMALL, https://dod-emall.dla.mil.

Headquarters DLA Europe was established in Stuttgart, West Germany, 

by then-DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. E.A. Grinstead on Jan. 24, 1983. DLA 

support of U.S. forces in Europe included supplying food, clothing, fuel and 

medical material as well as consumable hardware items and bulk petroleum 

stocks. One advantage to establishing an office in Europe was it strengthened 

DLA participation in war and contingency planning and permitted more 

comprehensive participation in military exercises.

Did You Know?

NewsWire DLA Strategic Communications 

Loglines l September - October 2012 23
24 www.dla.mil

Performance-Based 

Logistics

Air Force Airman 1st Class Dwayne Quesenberry 

(foreground) operates an MJ-1 jammer as Air 

Force Airman 1st Class Bryan Martin and Air 

Force Staff Sgt. Jason Logue guide a training 

missile from an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft. 

Performance-based logistics could help 

improve support for such military equipment. 

Story by Beth Reece

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Caycee Cook

he more often a part breaks, 

the more the supplier’s cash 

register rings. This used to be the 

norm under traditional contract 

agreements between the Defense 

Department and commercial industry. 

But a new business model that gives 

contractors partial responsibility for 

material readiness is expected to yield a 

15 to 20 percent savings for DoD without 

sacrificing industry’s profit. 

The military services are already 

using the model, called performancebased logistics, to improve support for 

such components as aircraft engines and 

tires. Now, the Defense Logistics Agency 

is working to combine multiple service 

contracts for similar items into a single PBL 

arrangement that supports all the services. 

“If the services have their own PBLs, 

then they still have separate supply chains, 

separate warehouses and separate repair 

processes. DLA has the opportunity to 

bring all of these together and save the 

services a great deal of money,” said 

Gerry Tonoff, lead strategist for DLA 

Acquisition’s PBL Program Office.

he more often a part breaks, 

the more the supplier’s cash 

register rings. This used to be the 

norm under traditional contract 

agreements between the Defense T

Department and commercial industry. 

Improving support for components such as aircraft engines and tires, the Defense Logistics Agency is 

working to combine multiple service contracts for similar items into a single purchasing arrangement that 

supports all the services through . . .
Loglines 

l September - October 2012 25

Military mechanics such as Navy Petty Ofcer 

2nd Class Mark Gill (left) and Navy Seaman 

Jon Blankenship will be able to turn around 

equipment repairs faster with performancebased logistics. The arrangement gives 

contractors partial responsibility for material 

readiness while 50 percent of the repair work 

remains at military maintenance facilities.

Under traditional contract structures, 

the military services are responsible for 

determining the type and quantity of parts 

they need, as well as making repairs, while 

the contractors only have to supply parts. 

PBL contracts differ by putting contractors 

in charge of knowing what parts are 

needed for the types of repair work. 

“The inherent incentive for the 

supplier is that if they can make 

equipment more reliable so that it spends 

less time at the shop for repairs, their costs 

will go down and their profit margin will 

increase. The military has already seen 

a rise in readiness rates for equipment 

under these types of contracts,” said Navy 

Capt. John Spicer, who oversees DLA’s 

PBL Program Office.

Performance-based logistics contracts 

comply with legislation mandating that at 

least 50 percent of repair work is done at 

military maintenance facilities.

“We’re not pulling work out of our 

depots. Most of the work is done through 

what we call a public-private partnership, 

and there are various versions of that, 

but the most successful PBLs have been 

done where the depot is essentially a 

subcontractor to the industry partner,” 

Tonoff said.

Despite an initial fear of job losses, 

mechanics at military depots agree 

the arrangement leads to far fewer 

backorders and quicker turnaround 

times, Spicer added.

“Industry will, in many cases, have our 

artisans overhaul an entire unit from front 

to back because they know it will increase 

reliability,” he said. “The artisans are very 

happy because they’re getting to do repairs 

the way they always wanted to.”

Navy Seaman Billy Ho
26 www.dla.mil

DLA is working to combine nine service contracts for this T700 aircraft engine into a single 

contract that supports all the services.

Roy Heitman

Tonoff and Spicer have advocated 

performance-based logistics since 

the late 1990s, when they served on a 

team at Naval Inventory Control Point 

Philadelphia that established one of the 

military’s first PBL contracts. The contract 

was designed to increase the availability 

of auxiliary power units, self-contained 

generators that are used to start aircraft 

engines. The readiness rate for the units 

should have been at 85 percent, but had 

dropped to 60 percent, and in some cases 

even lower, Tonoff said.

The Navy went to commercial airlines 

in search of a solution and noticed 

Southwest Airlines’ maintenance service 

agreement with commercial industry 

worked well for both the airline and 

its suppliers. The agreement entailed 

Southwest paying a fixed amount of 

money per flight hour with the expectation 

that repair parts would always be available 

when needed.

After adjusting the model slightly so 

it applied to military logistics, the Navy 

awarded a PBL contract for logistics 

support of its auxiliary power units to 

Honeywell in June 2000. 

“Honeywell increased the reliability 

and availability of APUs for less than we 

previously paid, and repair time quickly 

dropped to about half of what it used to 

be,” Spicer said.

DLA is currently working to combine 

separate service contracts for Honeywell 

APUs, wheels, brakes and other 

components into one PBL contract. The 

effort is expected to save DoD about 20 

percent of what it’s now paying, he added. 

The agency is also looking for similar 

savings for the T700 aircraft engine used 

in several helicopters. 

“There are nine contracts among 

the services to support that one aircraft 

engine, plus some DLA contracts. That 

sounds like someone put together a 

bunch of contracts without thinking it 

through, but nobody did it for nefarious 

reasons. Somebody saw a problem and 

put a contract in place to solve it,” Spicer 

said. “As long as there’s plenty of money 

to go around, industry is happy to do 

business that way. But now, they see the 

budget is coming down and they need to 

partner with us in creating efficiencies.”

 DLA officials expect to soon finish 

training employees at primary-level field 

activities on the benefits of PBL contracts 

and the steps required to create them. But 

the shift to a joint solution will require 

additional collaboration with the services, 

DLA Troop Support Deputy Commander 

Richard Ellis said.

Like Tonoff and Spicer, Ellis helped 

create PBLs for Navy Inventory Control 

Point Philadelphia during the end of his 

active-duty career.

“The direction back then was for us to 

work these PBLs across the services, but 

we had some real challenges because each 

service approached PBLs from a different 

perspective,” he said.

While the Air Force wanted to 

maintain control of what got repaired 

and when, for example, the Navy wanted 

the contractor to make those decisions 

so that if the contractor failed to meet 

requirements the service wouldn’t be at 

fault, he continued. 

Finding a common solution for all of 

the services is more important now than 

ever, Ellis said, “especially in this budgetconstrained environment we’re in.”

Transitioning to a joint-service, 

performance-based logistics support 

strategy will require a culture change 

for DLA employees and customers alike, 

Tonoff agreed.

“But we know it’s a successful business 

model,” he said, “and we’ve seen the proof 

that it benefits both DoD and industry.” 

26 www.dla.mil

One of the Navy’s rst performance-based 

contracts was awarded to Honeywell for 

support of auxiliary power units such as the 

one Air Force Senior Airman David Holley is 

replacing in an E-3 Sentry airborne warning 

and control system aircraft in Southwest Asia.

Air Force Master Sgt. William Greer
Money Matters DLA Strategic Communications

Loglines l September - October 2012 27

Engineering

Savings

Story by Amanda Neumann

T

he federal government is one savvy shopper – 

minus the coupon clipping. Just like consumers 

shopping for the lowest price in day-to-day 

life, the government uses value management, 

a term generally used interchangeably with 

value engineering, to shop around, comparing prices 

on materials and services to find the best value. DLA 

value-management experts say the goal is to find better 

performance at a lower cost.

As described in a program brochure, the VM 

program is designed to save the government money by 

analyzing the requirements of all systems, equipment, 

facilities, procedures and supplies for the lowest 

total cost. These cost-saving initiatives include lower 

acquisition or logistics costs, resulting in improved 

reliability and maintainability, a reduction in 

production lead times, and improved supply availability. 

Other benefits include easy-to-obtain repairs and 

replacements, the elimination of unnecessary materials 

and the reusing of materials.

Developed more than 50 years ago, VM was 

tailored to address savings with weapons systems or 

items defined by military specifications. Today, VM 

encompasses more than just that.

“Value engineering considers changes in the design 

and function to ensure the product we’re providing 

gives us the lowest life cycle costs for our customer,” 

said Ralph Newlon, chief of DLA Aviation’s Engineering 

and Technology Division. “Let’s say you have a part 

that you put on an airplane. Value engineering would 

T

he federal government is one savvy shopper – 

minus the coupon clipping. Just like consumers 

shopping for the lowest price in day-to-day 

life, the government uses value management, 

a term generally used interchangeably with 

value engineering, to shop around, comparing prices 

T
Money Matters

28 www.dla.mil

say: ‘If I make that part last three times 

as long, we don’t have to buy it as often 

and there’s less repair and maintenance 

involved.’ The key is to not reduce 

functionality and quality in the process. It 

then frees up more labor dollars to apply 

toward equipment.”

For DLA in general, value 

management goes beyond engineering, 

Newlon said, adding that the cost savings 

can be substantial.

“We’re procuring those items, 

whether they’re repair parts or end 

items,” he said, noting that DLA Aviation 

tends to “focus on value management, 

on lowering the acquisition costs, not 

necessarily changing the design or 

function of the item.”

And the government isn’t the only 

one cutting costs, said Dan Krist, chief 

of DLA Land and Maritime’s Pricing and 

Sourcing Office.

“We can buy more items with the 

dollars we have,” he said. “We try to 

reduce the actual cost to the customer 

because their budgets are cut, too.”

A drop in price on an individual 

part can make a big difference in the 

government’s overall budget, Newlon said.

“One of our projects involved a 

pressure switch for [an air-cushioned 

landing craft]. We found in our 

procurement history that the company 

supplying us the part was not the 

manufacturer. We contacted the actual 

manufacturer directly and worked with 

them to supply directly to us. We ended 

up saving over $611,000 on our last order 

alone,” he said.

Finding out what parts are eligible to 

participate in value engineering takes a 

team of experts.

“We typically look at sole-source 

items, because when we develop 

competition we save 30-40 percent of 

the cost of the item,” Krist said. “We’re 

buying it from the original equipment 

manufacturer so the higher the quantity 

we buy, the better business case it gives 

us to put resources into it to save money.”

One method to combat overpricing is 

known as “replenishment parts purchase 

or borrow,” through which contractors 

can reverse engineer items, a long-term 

process that can be time consuming but 

valuable, Newlon said. 

“Prospective contractors can come 

in and see the part or they can go on our 

virtual site and buy an example of the 

part from us and reverse engineer it,” 

Newlon said. “They will disassemble the 

item, take all the critical measurements 

and create a drawing based on the sample 

part. We review it, then get approval to 

procure the part. Then once we have two 

or more sources for that item, it drives 

the price down.” 

When reverse engineering isn’t an 

option but a new source is still needed, 

DLA Aviation has an alternative process it 

Although reverse-engineering parts may work for some 

divisions within DLA, the remanufacturing of parts doesn’t lend 

itself well to DLA’s Troop Support supply chains. 

 — Neil Kovnat

An air-cushioned landing craft inates as it 

prepares to return to the amphibious assault 

ship USS Bonhomme Richard. DLA’s value 

engineering team worked with a manufacturer 

to reduce the cost of a pressure switch for 

the craft. 

Navy Petty Ofcer 1st Class Joseph Seavey
DLA Strategic Communications

Loglines l September - October 2012 29

can use to drive down prices. 

“When we see those items not getting 

any interest from contractors, maybe 

because it’s too expensive to reverse 

engineer the item, we use the Value 

Engineering and Sourcing Support Tool, 

called VESST,” Newlon said. “We have a 

standing contract where we pay the research 

cost. The lowest bidder will get that award. 

That contractor then becomes an approved 

source. What was originally a sole source 

situation then becomes a competition and 

again drives the price down.”

Although reverse engineering parts 

may work for some divisions within DLA, 

the remanufacturing of parts doesn’t 

lend itself well to DLA Troop Support 

supply chains, said Neil Kovnat, director 

of the Command Support Office and also 

DLA Troop Support’s value management 

program manager.

“We rely on commercial items, which 

is different than other supply chains,” 

he said. “Reverse engineering doesn’t 

embrace the nature of our supply chains. 

We need something more applicable to 

commercial items. Now with the broader 

acceptance of value management, it 

allows the cross savings. It helps that 

we buy in bulk. To us, it’s more than 

end-item improvements; it’s increasing 

competition, using reverse auctions and 

making process improvements from 

which savings are complementary.”

Competition is the government’s best 

friend, Kovnat said. Once sole-sourced 

items are available from more than one 

company, savings are instant.

“Our construction and equipment 

staff worked with Northrup Grumman 

on the sourcing of air duct cooling coils 

used in F-16s,” he said. “During contract 

discussions, we discovered some of the 

subcomponents could be competed 

instead of going to one supplier. Once we 

moved to compete the items, the contract 

price went from $10 million to $7 million 

and we saved over $3 million.” 

 Still, value engineering is not without 

its hurdles, as time is a major opponent, 

Newlon said.

“Our biggest obstacle can be the 

amount of time it takes to complete 

projects,” he said. “Almost always, those 

trying to procure the items just can’t wait. 

We’ve done a lot of work to speed up our 

processes, but it can still take months, 

TIPS TO FINDING

COST-SAVING IDEAS 

IN AN ORGANIZATION:

•	 Can	some	other	product	or	

service	do	the	job	at	less	cost?

•	 Are	requirements	too	restrictive	

or	excessive?

•	 Can	the	product	be	packaged,	

stored,	handled	or	transported	

in	a	more	advantageous,	less	

costly	manner?

•	 Are any	test	procedures,	

operations	or	steps	

unnecessary?

•	 Is	the	product	sole	source?

•	 Are	there	alternative	products,	

requirements,	procedures	or	

methods?

•	 Is	there	a	more	efficient	way

to	accomplish	the	function	or	

process?

even a year, especially with reverse 

engineering, to create a new source.”

Cost-savings to the government, part 

of DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark 

Harnitchek’s “Big Ideas” initiative, have 

been in the millions and continue to 

grow. In fiscal 2011, DLA achieved savings of more than $237 million, with DLA 

Land and Maritime saving $76.4 million, 

DLA Troop Support saving $52.7 million 

and DLA Aviation saving $107 million. 

And many big projects within the past 

five years are still garnering savings, Krist 

said. Among DLA Land and Maritime’s 

VE projects, changes in purchasing a 

sole-sourced Humvee antenna have saved 

$45 million so far. 

With further opportunities in VM and 

VE within the divisions, there’s plenty 

of untapped opportunity in the indirect 

supply chain savings, said Renee Magill, VE 

division chief at DLA Land and Maritime.

“Through education, we can track 

it better, and we can increase our 

indirect saving dollars,” she said. “The 

whole enterprise is into using more VM 

techniques to save money. We’re really 

driving partnering with our service 

program managers and engineering 

support activities to all be working on 

the same initiatives to get that return on 

investment. At DLA Land and Maritime, 

we’re removing those obstacles and 

partnering up front proactively instead of 

getting them to buy into something later 

down the road.” 

Krist agreed, adding that DLA is part 

of the bigger picture.

“We’re really in the limelight now 

because of all the cost-cutting measures 

going on,” he said. “VE is going to be a 

bigger part of how the government operates by getting us involved early and making sure we’re looking at all our options 

before we go and buy materials.” 
DLA Strategic Communications

30 www.dla.mil

We are DLA

DLA Ofce of

When a previous Defense 

Logistics Agency director 

wanted to compare the 

agency’s performance in 

stocking meals, ready-to-eat, 

for warfighters during Operation Iraqi 

Freedom to its ability to do the same 

during the Gulf War, he went to a DLA 

office in Richmond, Va., to get the answer.

The DLA Office of Operations Research 

and Resource Analysis crunched data from 

databases that preceded the Enterprise 

Business System to come up with the 

answer: There were enough MREs in Iraq 

at the time to keep every resident of Salt 

Lake City fed for a month. 

“We were able to say that there were 

customers out there who were now 

complaining about what they 

were getting to eat, not whether 

they had something to eat,” 

DORRA Director Glenn Petrina 

said, emphasizing the improvement in MRE availability from 

one war to the next.

DORRA is DLA’s in-house 

consultant, providing information 

and analysis to the agency’s decision 

makers and action officers, Petrina said. 

Using databases that go back more than 

When a previous Defense 

Logistics Agency director 

wanted to compare the 

agency’s performance in 

stocking meals, ready-to-eat, 

for warfighters during Operation Iraqi 

W 20 years, interviews with employees 

and an experienced team of operations 

research and management analysts, the 

office provides data and recommendations 

for leaders across the agency.

“One general said DORRA is the 

50-pound brain in the agency,” said 

Larry Vadala, DORRA’s business 

manager. “We are able to give them 

insight and be an honest broker into 

what the data tells us. Without our 

analysis, many of our clients would not 

be able to make informed decisions.”

The most important function 

DORRA provides is helping analyze 

mission requirements for DLA’s many 

organizations, Vadala said. The office 

uses a variety of methods, including 

interviews, statistical modeling and 

comparisons to similar organizations, to 

get the answers the agency needs. 

The agency’s recent establishment of 

DLA Intelligence is an example of a time 

DORRA’s management analysts helped 

agency leaders decide what to do, Petrina 

said. In addition to conducting interviews 

with staff to discuss the organization’s 

missions, functions and responsibilities, 

DORRA looked at the intelligence 

capabilities of similar commands – 

U.S. Transportation Command, Army 

Materiel Command and the Air Force’s 

air logistics centers among them – to help 

deduce how DLA Intelligence should be 

staffed to fulfill its mission, he said. 

“Our staffing model looks at the 

jobs you’re doing or activities you’re 

performing, how long they take, and 

whether you have enough people to 

do that mission based upon current 

staffing levels,” he said. “We also look at 

organizations and how they’re arranged 

and make recommendations about how 

they could be more efficient based on 

how they’ve organized.”

DORRA’s staff develops tools that 

help the organization get the answers 

“We were able to say that there were 

customers out there who were now 

were getting to eat, not whether 

DORRA Director Glenn Petrina 

-

consultant, providing information 

and analysis to the agency’s decision 

makers and action officers, Petrina said. 

Using databases that go back more than 

organizations, Vadala said. The office deduce how DLA Intelligence should be 

staffed to fulfill its mission, he said. 

“Our staffing model looks at the 

jobs you’re doing or activities you’re 

performing, how long they take, and 

whether you have enough people to 

do that mission based upon current 

staffing levels,” he said. “We also look at 

organizations and how they’re arranged 

and make recommendations about how 

they could be more efficient based on 

how they’ve organized.”

DORRA’s staff develops tools that 

help the organization get the answers 

customers out there who were now 

consultant, providing information 

and analysis to the agency’s decision 

makers and action officers, Petrina said. 

Using databases that go back more than 

staffed to fulfill its mission, he said. 

jobs you’re doing or activities you’re 

performing, how long they take, and 

whether you have enough people to 

do that mission based upon current 

staffing levels,” he said. “We also look at 

organizations and how they’re arranged 

and make recommendations about how 

they could be more efficient based on 

how they’ve organized.”

DORRA’s staff develops tools that 

help the organization get the answers 

OPERATIONS RESEARCH 

AND RESOURCE ANALYSIS

Story by Jacob Boyer
Loglines l September - October 2012 31

Air Force Staff Sgt. Russ Johnson pushes a 

pallet of meals, ready-to-eat, onto a cargo 

plane. The DLA Ofce of Operations Research 

and Resource Analysis takes on projects such 

as comparing MRE deliveries and stocks from 

Operation Desert Storm to those of Operation 

Iraqi Freedom, giving agency leaders valuable 

data with which to make decisions. 

agency leaders require. In 2009, DORRA 

developed the System of Integrated 

Metrics Analysis Model, an inventory 

simulation that evaluates the relationships 

between measurements across the agency, 

Petrina said. The SIMAN model allows 

analysts to make changes to variables 

involved in logistics planning, including 

data such as asset location, lead times 

needed for specific items and inventory 

levels. Once those variables are changed, 

SIMAN allows DORRA analysts to see 

how those changes affect order fulfillment, 

demand accuracy, material availability 

and inventory turnover 

“SIMAN has been used in various 

analyses dealing with forecast ability, 

inventory changes and management 

objectives,” Petrina said. “It has given 

senior leaders data needed to make 

informed decisions throughout the Agency. 

DORRA also played a key role in the 

sentencing of Roger Day Jr., a former 

DLA Aviation supplier who created a 

multiyear fraud scheme in which he 

set up a series of phony vendors that 

would bid for and win DLA contracts, 

Petrina said. DORRA, analyzing its 

historical database, was able to measure 

Day’s actual and intended damages, 

which came to $4.4 million and $11.2 

million, respectively. Day was ultimately 

sentenced to 105 years in prison.

“Well done. Nice work on finally 

getting this guy,” DLA Director Navy Vice 

Adm. Mark Harnitchek told a gathering 

of DLA employees involved in Day’s 

conviction in January. “This conviction 

sends a great message to others who 

might try to sell us counterfeit parts.”

Each of DORRA’s more than 60 

analysts provides about 1,500 hours of 

analysis for the agency each year, Vadala 

said. The research is prioritized regularly 

with most DLA organizations, including 

the agency’s primary-level field activities 

and DLA Logistics Operations. Before 

each fiscal year, he said, DORRA puts out 

a call to the agency’s multiple activities, 

offices and commands asking their leaders 

what types of analysis projects they need. 

Coming into fiscal 2012, the agency’s 

leaders asked for more than 120,000 hours 

of support, and prioritization was needed to 

winnow that down to the 85,000 hours the 

office calculated it could provide.

“Once you work with them for a while, 

you understand when they’re asking for 

more than they need,” Petrina said. “We 

work with them throughout the year to 

figure out what we can do. Invariably, 

new requirements come up and we have 

to adjust somewhere. Everyone has a 

discussion about what they really need 

and what they can give up or contract out.”

When a research project comes along 

that DORRA can’t support, the office 

helps its customers work with contractors 

to get the analysis they need, Vadala said. 

The staff can help translate a requirement 

into the language needed for contracting 

and offers administrative support once a 

contract is awarded.

“We have three contract vehicles 

they can use to get their requirements on 

contract more quickly,” he said. “These 

three contract vehicles have a ceiling 

of about $7 million a year available for 

customers to use, so if a customer says, 

‘I really need to contract this out because 

you can’t help me,’ there’s a good chance 

they can use our help to get it.”

Petrina said the ultimate benefit 

DORRA offers the agency is the expertise 

its analysts bring to the projects they 

work on.

“We are experienced in DLA. Most of 

our analysts have been here for a while,” 

he said. “We know the nomenclature and 

the territory. We know who bought what, 

where it came from, where it went, what 

it cost, and how often if was purchased. 

We’re the in-house consultants for DLA 

and feel like we bring a value to the 

agency it can’t readily get elsewhere.” 

U.S. Air Forces Central
32 www.dla.mil

DEPOT TO FOXHOLE

Story by Jacob Boyer

hen U.S. Transportation 

Command’s Global 

Transportation Network 

reached the end of its useful 

life after about 15 years of 

operation, the organization looked to 

the Defense Logistics Agency for help 

building its replacement. The result, the 

Integrated Data Environment/Global 

Transportation Network Convergence – 

or IGC – now gives logisticians across the 

Defense Department visibility of supplies 

as they move through the department’s 

transportation channels.

GTN was developed to improve 

the in-transit visibility of supplies for 

warfighters and logisticians worldwide 

after Operation Desert Storm, but it 

became outdated, and the investment 

needed to upgrade it to compete with 

current systems was too high, said 

Army Lt. Col. Rodrigue Aleandre, 

USTRANSCOM’s IGC program manager. 

Meanwhile, DLA had developed the 

Integrated Data Environment, the 

information broker that improved the 

visibility of data, secure access to data, 

and data quality in terms of its validity, 

timeliness and accuracy for logisticians 

across the Defense Department. 

Aleandre said there were two reasons for 

USTRANSCOM to partner with DLA to 

upgrade its system.

“From the logistics side, supply and 

transportation are linked,” he said “You 

cannot separate them, so the need for them 

to work together is the cornerstone of the 

business. The second point is that, instead 

of USTRANSCOM developing its own 

broker while DLA was developing one, we 

could work together. That pushed a mutual 

agreement to leverage the capabilities that 

were already developed under DLA. It was 

more of a cost avoidance.” 

In addition to curtailing costs, 

Aleandre said, IGC allows for the 

elimination of multiple legacy systems 

that were expensive to maintain and made 

it difficult for users to trust the fidelity 

of data as they tracked their shipments. 

IGC gives users one place to go to get data 

on shipments, reducing confusion and 

incompatible data formatting.

“There are a number of systems 

involved in doing this,” he said. 

“IGC takes the data from all 

those systems to give 

you that picture. 

Regardless of what 

system originated a 

transaction, IGC would be the system 

of record. We get satellite data when an 

item passes through a tracking point. 

You don’t have to go to multiple systems 

to create a picture. Under GTN, in order 

to provide a report on a shipment from 

one point to another, they would have to 

make multiple queries and compile that 

information.”

All those systems now feed into IGC, 

Aleandre said, allowing logisticians who 

need to know whether their supplies are 

on a truck in Germany or on a boat in the 

Mediterranean Sea.

“In the past, that information would 

have to be sent to multiple systems,” he 

said. “With the broker, it is published 

once and subscribed to by many. There is 

one publication point.”

In addition, IGC expands GTN’s 

historical data, Aleandre said. Under 

hen U.S. Transportation 

Command’s Global 

Transportation Network 

reached the end of its useful 

life after about 15 years of W

operation, the organization looked to 

32 www.dla.mil
Loglines l September - October 2012 33

— Photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace

the old system, planners could only pull 

shipping data from the previous 180 

days. IGC will allow those same planners 

to go back five years once the system, 

which went live in October 2011, has been 

online that long. 

“That allows planners to use the data 

to do analytical studies that could not be 

done before, because GTN only retained 

six months of data,” Aleandre said. “With 

the system just fielded, we don’t have five 

years, but over time, you’ll have all the 

data you need for agile tracking in the 

21st century to do that analysis. We maintain a single point of distribution of data.”

Noel Romey, a chemical engineer who 

works with DLA Aviation’s Hazardous 

Materials Information Resource System, 

helped test IGC to ensure it could be used 

by visually impaired users. He said that in 

addition to finding the system usable for 

people with visual disabilities, he found 

his own use for the system.

“I didn’t think that I would use it 

in my work. I was just asked to test it 

following a set of canned scripts, but I 

actually found there was a case I could 

use it,” he said. “We put in material 

safety data sheets for products that the 

Department of Defense procures and 

uses. My team puts in that data for DLA. 

We had a shipment that we weren’t sure 

where it was, and we were being told it 

was held up. I used IGC to pull up that 

shipment and see its status. To me, it’s 

another tool kit that we can use.”

Moving forward, IGC will be linked 

to DLA’s Asset Visibility system, which 

shows logisticians where supplies stored 

in warehouses and depots are located 

and in what quantities, Aleandre said. 

Having the two systems linked will allow 

planners and logisticians access to vital 

information on supply locations and 

quantities worldwide. Work on that link 

started in May, and Aleandre said it 

should be complete by the first quarter of 

fiscal 2014.

“You’ll be able to see the location, 

transportation channel of what’s 

moving and what’s located right at your 

doorstep,” he said. “You can see where 

it is, what’s being requested, and what’s 

needed to transport it and distribute it. 

Now you can track it from the depot all 

the way to the foxhole.” 

Loglines l September - October 2012 33

Service members retrieve cargo dropped from an Air Force C-17 

Globemaster III near Forward Operating Base Todd, Baghdis 

province, Afghanistan. The Integrated Data Environment/Global 

Transportation Network Convergence allows logisticians and 

planners to track in-transit supplies anywhere in the world.
I AM

Gail M. Kinney

My name is: 

Gail M. Kinney

I am:

The administrative officer for DLA Document Services 

Describe your job in a sentence:

I provide full administrative support: assisting with reorganizations, 

staffing specifics and award requirements for the DLA Document Services 

headquarters, field managers and employees.

How long have you worked for DLA?

I have been with DLA for 16 years and a federal employee since 1969. 

What is your favorite thing about working for DLA?

I really enjoy the opportunities I’ve had to provide support to our DLA 

Document Services managers and employees at the various Air Force, Army, 

Navy and Marine facilities worldwide. We have a very diverse workforce.

What is your best memory of working here?

It’s hard to pick one best memory, but I would have to 

say it’s been the responsibility for training our office services 

assistants in the field. They each face many different and 

unique situations in their work environments.

How do you make a difference to warghters?

I make a difference to warfighters by ensuring our managers 

and employees are staffed properly and are able to meet the 

challenges they face in providing document services to our military 

and civilian customers with a can-do attitude.