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FORT BELVOIR, Va. (February 24, 2009) - As
17,000 soldiers and Marines ordered to Afghanistan by President
Barack Obama prepare to deploy this spring and summer, logisticians
already are orchestrating the shipment of critical supplies such as
food and lumber.
The Defense Logistics Agency here has been working with U.S.
Central Command's Deployment Distribution Operations Center in
Kuwait since January to support the troop increase requested last
year by U.S. Forces Afghanistan Commander Gen. David D. McKiernan,
Navy Rear Adm. Mark Heinrich, director of DLA's Logistics
Operations and Readiness Directorate, said.
The operations center merges experts from U.S. Transportation
Command, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, Army
Materiel Command, DLA and service components. Together, they plan
the most efficient and timely movement of supplies to troops.
"We're planning for increased demands of food subsistence,
building supplies, spare parts and packaged petroleum products in
Afghanistan," Heinrich said. "All of our supply centers are deeply
involved with the CDDOC and working closely with DLA support teams
in Kuwait."
Defense Supply Center Philadelphia is partnering with the
operations center to ensure collapsible housing units are sent
where needed.
"The [distribution center in Kuwait] is playing a role in
metering the flow - some by air, some by ship - and getting them to
where they need to be to meet warfighters' requirements," Heinrich
said. "The fact that they're doing that and have visibility, and we
know who to talk to there, has been very beneficial to DLA.
Heinrich, who headed the operations center during a voluntary
five-month deployment last year, said the arrangement is working
because the right people are working together in the right ways.
"Our response to warfighters is greater because DLA and its
strategic partners have put boots on the ground over there, which
allows us to fuse our information and be persistent," he said.
The operations center is the first of its kind to be used in
wartime, Heinrich said. It was established in 2004 at Centcom's
request, with the goal of achieving shorter delivery times and
lower costs.
The admiral said he believes the center already has made big
improvements. The center lets DLA members see how the supplies they
procure are actually sent to customers, he said, which challenges
them to evaluate agency processes and occasionally make adjustments
that speed delivery.
For example, he said, small changes at the Defense Distribution
Depot Kuwait, Southwest Asia, shortened the time it takes to
prepare pallets for shipment.
"DDKS produces about 60 pallets each day for air delivery, and
when you send a pallet via air, there's an expectation that it's
going to get there fast," Heinrich said. Pallets built at the depot
were being weighed and measured on the airfield, then offered for
bid to commercial carriers.
"But the CDDOC started looking at the process and asked, 'What
if we did all this at DDKS?'" he said. "'Can we improve the
process?'"
Two months later, the depot had installed the Air Mobility
Command's Global Air Transportation Execution System, which gives
visibility of pallets awaiting shipment.
"So we were able to report those air pallets as soon as they
were built at DDKS to the people who offer them to commercial
carriers," Heinrich said. "What took about seven and a half days
now takes about two days."
Partnerships generated at the center are being used now as the
depot assumes management of a formerly Navy-owned warehouse in
Bahrain.
"Today, when folks in Bahrain requisition material from Kuwait,
we fly it at a cost of about $1.98 a pound," he said. "Now that we
have a warehouse in Bahrain, we can fill it with material from
Kuwait and, working with Transcom, we can truck it, and it will
only cost us about 10 cents a pound."
The center also has improved end-to-end distribution by
increasing cargo visibility and maximizing airlift assets. And by
initiating the use of "pure pallets," which contain items for one
customer only, the center eliminated the need to break down and
repackage cargo for specific users in theater.
"The CDDOC plays an important role in synchronizing operations
right there on the ground," Heinrich said.
"The future for CDDOC is limitless, and I feel lucky to have
been a part of its beginning," he added. "It's made me a better
logistician and a stronger member of the DLA team."
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