Tobyhanna: Enabling Global Reach
TOBYHANNA: Enabling Responsive Global Logistics
by Colonel Ron Alberto, Commander, Tobyhanna Army Depot
THE MISSION
Tobyhanna Signal Depot officially opened on February 1, 1953. At the time, it had a limited geographic mission to support the Army in the Northeastern United States. Even so, the Army has had a near-continuous presence at Tobyhanna since 1912, when the site in the Pocono Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania was first used as a field artillery training camp for regular Army and Army National Guard units. It also had several missions during World War II as a storage point for gliders used for airborne operations in Europe, as a prisoner of war camp and as a military hospital.
From its establishment in 1953, Tobyhanna Army Depot, now supporting all branches of the Armed Forces, has evolved into the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems (C4ISR) joint maintenance center for the Department of Defense (DoD). The Secretary of the Army has designated Tobyhanna as the Army’s Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for C4ISR and electronics, avionics, and missile guidance and control. Likewise, the Secretary of the Air Force has designated Tobyhanna as the Air Force’s Technology Repair Center for command, control, communications and intelligence. Today the depot is the largest full-service C4ISR maintenance facility in the DoD. Its mission is “total sustainment,” including design, manufacture, repair and overhaul of thousands of C4ISR systems and equipment.
Tobyhanna’s breadth and depth of C4ISR sustainment capability is unmatched in the public or private sector. The systems supported by Tobyhanna span the electromagnetic spectrum from hand held radios to strategic satellite terminals, from man-portable radar systems to large air defense radars and artillery locating systems, from electro- optics and night vision devices to anti-intrusion and airborne surveillance equipment, from navigational instruments and electronic warfare systems to guidance and control systems for air-toair and air-to-ground missiles.
Tobyhanna is a core subordinate command of the CECOM Life Cycle Management Command (CECOM LCMC) one of the major subordinate commands under the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC).
Today, Tobyhanna is the largest employer in Northeastern Pennsylvania with its workforce approaching 6,000 Department of the Army civilians and support contractors. As the largest employer and one of the largest consumers of goods and services, the depot generates an annual economic impact of $2.3 billion in the region.
GLOBAL REACH
Like all of the depots in the AMC, Tobyhanna’s workload and workforce have increased significantly since combat operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq. But, what has also changed at Tobyhanna is that more work is performed outside the fences of the depot. Tobyhanna is a worldwide enterprise, operating more than 65 forward repair activities (FRAs) around the world, including more than 20 providing direct support to warfighters in Southwest Asia (SWA).
Each day about 550 technicians, fully 10 percent of the workforce, are working outside the gates of Tobyhanna. On average, about 150 Tobyhanna employees are deployed to SWA, primarily in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait, doing logistics and maintenance support missions every day. In addition to these and FRAs at almost every post, camp or station across the Army, Tobyhanna has many system specific technicians embedded in many of our Army formations including Stryker brigades and Guardrail units, and supporting systems like tactical operations centers, Army airborne command and control systems, tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, common ground stations, and air defense and air management cells.
Likewise, Tobyhanna has been and is a key organization with extensive capabilities to assist efforts to defeat improvised explosive devices (IED). Between 35 and 40 technicians are in-theater installing IED defeat equipment on vehicles used for combat and logistics operations.
REFRESHING THE FORCE
A substantial portion of Tobyhanna’s workload is resetting equipment for units training in preparation for deployment. Since 2003, Tobyhanna has reset more than 115,000 items in more than 850 programs. Principal systems reset at or by Tobyhanna include secure communications equipment, tactical operations centers, aircraft countermeasures systems, FM, microwave and satellite communications systems, Firefinder artillery locating radars, battlefield computer systems, and over 25,000 smaller items of communications and electronics equipment.
Tobyhanna’s communications electronics evaluation repair teams (CEER-T) are rapidly deployable groups of technicians who help speed the reset of equipment such as night vision devices and FM ground radio systems used in the combat zone. These critical systems are in high demand by the warfighter and are immediately needed after redeployment to begin training for future missions and operations. By exporting capabilities to installations where Army units are preparing for redeployment, Tobyhanna delivers faster turnaround of these critical systems.
The Tobyhanna new equipment training team conducts on-site training for the divisions, brigades and battalions fielded tactical operations centers. Similarly, Tobyhanna has on-site and distributed training programs for its technicians who are embedded with the units to ensure continuity of support and operations.
RAPID RESPONSE
With extensive engineering design and manufacturing capabilities, Tobyhanna can react rapidly to changing battlefield requirements. As an example, Tobyhanna quickly designed and now manufactures helmet brackets for night vision devices. With over 400,000 produced to date, the Tobyhanna brackets are more economical and are more durable than the original brackets they replace.
Similarly, Tobyhanna is manufacturing a variety of installation kits to meet current field requirements, including kits for the secure battlefield wide-area network commonly referred to as the Blue Force Tracking system. More recently, these efforts have expanded to produce several types of installation kits for the critical mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles.
Tobyhanna also provides support for the rapidly fielded Lightweight Counter Mortar Radar. In addition to an FRA to deliver in-theater support, Tobyhanna is part of a program management and contractor team installing a live fire test simulator at the depot. When fully operational and certified, the simulator will eliminate the requirement for live fire testing at Yuma Proving Ground for both new production systems and overhauled systems. This will reduce costs and get systems in the hands of the warfighter faster and with greater reliability.
PREPARING THE FUTURE
Tobyhanna uses all of the latest technology, logistics theory and doctrine, and supply chain advancements to optimize performance today and set conditions for its responsiveness and growth over the next decade.
Tobyhanna is the Army’s first depot to implement the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) component of the Single Army Logistics Enterprise (SALE). LMP delivers real-time, single- view total asset visibility, promotes collaborative planning and forecasting, supports the prediction of future capacity and associated supply needs, and, as a result, delivers a smaller supply chain footprint on the battlefield.
Performance based logistics (PBL) is designed to optimize system readiness and meet performance goals for a weapon system. Working for the Program Manager Distributed Common Ground Station (CGS) - Army, Tobyhanna’s integral involvement with PBL is demonstrated by its selection as the product support integrator for the CGS Systems.
Public-private partnerships utilize the respective strengths of private-sector firms and organic depots by lowering costs, accelerating innovation and sustaining critical skills and capabilities. Tobyhanna has scores of partnerships with leading defense firms. In a unique arrangement, Tobyhanna is partnered with several personal computer manufacturers to deliver warranty support for their products to Army users in SWA.
Finally, the tools of Lean and Six Sigma remain a foundation for continuous improvement to ensure the Depot remains competitive and value added to every customer. Tobyhanna is accomplishing its unprecedented workload growth through the effective application of lean business practices. Depot employees apply lean techniques to become more efficient; consequently, they free up capacity to respond to increased workload as well as new missions. In FY07 Tobyhanna saved over $14 million applying lean tools and expects more than double those savings for FY08. The efficiencies created earned the depot prestigious Shingo Prizes for Excellence in Manufacturing in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Confirming Tobyhanna’s position as a joint depot, Tobyhanna earned its first Shingo medallion in 2006 for its process improvements on the AN/ TPS-75 air defense radar, an Air Force system. In 2007 the Shingo Board recognized the Depot for eliminating waste and creating efficiencies for its overhaul of the Firefinder radar antenna transceiver group. Most recently in 2008, Tobyhanna earned Shingo awards for value steam improvements on the AN/ TYQ-23 tactical air operations module supporting both Air Force and Marine Corps operations and the AN/ASM 189 electronic maintenance van supporting Army maintenance units.
IN CONCLUSION
Tobyhanna Army Depot is a vibrant, rapidly growing, adaptable and responsive organization with an exacting commitment to quality and timely support to our warfighters. It is our vision to be the DoD C4ISR logistics support center of choice for warfighter readiness and transformation. We are realizing that vision by bridging from our history to execute our C4ISR sustainment mission across the spectrum of military operations. Expanded global reach, new missions and responsiveness are setting conditions for our future while allowing us to increase our relevance to today’s customers. Finally, application of state of the art technology and logistics theory is setting conditions for our significance over the next decade. ♦