DSCC
ORGANIZATION PROFILE:
Defense Supply Center Columbus
The Center represents a rich history of warfighter support.
It is a unique installation that capitalizes on the synergy of state, federal and defense organizations such as the Ohio National Guard and Reserves, a brand new Department of Veterans Affairs clinic, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and Defense Information Systems Agency, which are collocated on or near the site. It’s no wonder that the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recognized the military value of the DSCC Installation to its surrounding community because of the various missions housed within its gates.
DSCC’s relationship to the community began nearly 91 years ago when a farmer named Smith decided to sell some farm and swampland to the Department of War.
DSCC YESTERDAY
The DSCC Installation has a long and rich history in support of America’s defense. While it has had 14 different names over the past years, DSCC’s basic mission remains the same—supporting our troops during times of peace and war.
In the early 1900s, Columbus boasted one of the greatest concentrations of rail and highway, thus having the potential of reducing shipping times to a minimum. The city was also located within a 500-mile radius of the nation’s manufacturing centers. It was destined to become part of a complex and extensive depot system developed to handle millions of supplies for the Army. Columbus’ moderate climate and high-quality labor market made it even more advantageous to a logistics mission.
The Army established the Columbus Quartermaster Reserve Depot in April 1918 to support the heavy demands of World War I. Transportation lines to ports of embarkation for troops and materials were filled to capacity. To relieve the pressure, money was appropriated to purchase 281 acres of farm and swampland east of downtown Columbus. Construction began on a government military installation to support U.S. troops in France with the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
After the war, the depot’s mission and responsibilities focused on managing war surplus that was reconditioned for resale or disposal. In 1930, the installation was renamed the Columbus General Depot and became the District Headquarters for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) for Ohio and West Virginia. The CCC was President Franklin Roosevelt’s project to help solve unemployment by implementing conservation projects.
More warehouses were built in 1940 as the world became embroiled in another world war. The gigantic problem of receipt, storage and issue of hundreds of thousands of items required by modern armies was about to assume its full magnitude as the United States and the rest of the world prepared for more than four years of global warfare.
In December 1942, the government purchased an additional 295 acres, expanding the depot to 576 acres. Soon afterward, 41 warehouses and 64 supplementary structures, and open storage areas were filled with supplies needed by U.S. troops in Europe, the Pacific and Africa. By 1943, the installation, now named the Columbus Army Service Forces Depot, became the largest joint military supply installation in the world. More than 10,000 civilians worked there, and before the war’s end, its work force would number well over 14,000 military and civilian personnel. It was Franklin County’s second-leading employer. All hands were needed to move tons of supplies for delivery to points all over the world—to Okinawa in the Pacific and Omaha Beach in Normandy.
The depot served in a multitude of ways, from equipment storage and rebuilding, to creating training films on loading operations and material handling procedures. In the latter part of World War II, an estimated 400 German prisoners of war were interned here and were given the work of building wooden pallets.
After WWII, the depot was a transfer point for war dead. Families had their choice of having their loved ones buried in American cemeteries overseas, or having them shipped home for burial. Those coming home would be carried aboard funeral fleets of white ships marked from bow to stern with the purple band of mourning. It was estimated that it would take up to five years to complete this mass movement.
As world war evolved into the Cold War, work at the depot continued. In the mid-1950s, 3,000 employees worked at the depot, which supported 180 military installations in a 14-state area. During the Korean conflict, the depot shifted into high gear to support the efforts of the United Nations in filling one end of a 7,000-mile supply pipeline.
Following the Korean conflict, the depot remained a busy place. Each month, 35,000 trucks, 10,000 railroad cars and 100,000 postal service packages entered or left the installation. Columbus was still a hub of transportation. Port Columbus airport and the U.S. Naval Air Station were located less than a mile from the installation—with Lockbourne Air Force Base located 7 miles southeast. Commercial air transportation was provided by six airlines and five of the country’s leading railroad systems were available to transport materials to or from the depot. The installation supported U.S. forces in the 1958 Middle East crisis and the Vietnam War.
In the years that followed, it became apparent that efficient management of the vast amounts of supplies procured by the armed forces demanded a new degree of coordination. Joint purchasing agencies, integrated logistics management and standardization began showing its great potential for efficiency and effectiveness.
In 1963, the Department of Defense formed the Defense Supply Agency, which later became the Defense Logistics Agency, to provide logistics support to all of the military services. The installation was transferred from the Army to the new agency.
From that time on, it would not only serve the Army, but also the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and the United States’ military allies around the world.
In the 1970s, the Defense Construction Supply Center was a principal source of constructions materials, automotive and construction equipment components, and many repair parts used by the military services and other federal agencies. In 1996, DSCC was merged with the Defense Electronics Supply Center in Dayton as a result of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission process, thus forming the present Defense Supply Center Columbus.
DSCC TODAY
Today, DSCC is known to more than 145,000 customers and over 7,000 contractors as one of the largest suppliers of weapons systems spare parts that support aerospace, maritime, missile and land-based weapons systems. The center is a one-squaremile installation that sprawls the boundaries of two central Ohio cities—Whitehall and Columbus.
The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions of 2005 further extended DSCC’s mission to directly support customers, transferring mission and personnel in Mechanicsburg, Pa., supporting the Navy, and in Warren, Mich., supporting the Army.
These organizations focus on leveraging DLA’s huge buying power while procuring depot level repairable (DLR) assemblies. DSCC is also poised to receive units to perform supply, storage and distribution (SS&D) services to industrial depot customers of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps over the next two years.
DSCC continues to grow in its pursuit of better, faster, lowercost combat logistics support to warfighters of all services. It now takes on the role of end-to-end supply chain management rather than that of a wholesale manager. In managing the entire supply chain, DSCC partners with customers and suppliers to improve overall support to warfighters.
A focus on performance, transformation and culture is crucial to DSCC’s ability to provide supply chain excellence. Watershed events such as its Forward Execution strategy, MRAP support initiatives, innovative partnership agreements, and the product testing centers are just several areas that are indicative of DSCC’s forward-thinking culture.
FORWARD EXECUTION STRATEGY
DSCC is at the forefront in the development of Forward Execution strategy by embedding DSCC customer logistics site specialists and customer support representatives at Navy shipyards and Army depots to become the face of DLA at these sites. These individuals improve processes and ensure quality products and services by ensuring the right material is available at the proper time to the military customer. Memorandums of understanding (MOUs) establish mutual expectations and govern the relationships between the services and DSCC. They document the goals, objectives, metrics for monitoring performance and collaborative responsibilities. DSCC employees working with Navy expeditors, planners, engineers and supply specialists are able to get information on repair parts requirements used in the DSCC demand planning process to ensure that the right material is available to meet stringent scheduling deadlines and return ships and submarines to duty.
MRAP
When fielding of the mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) family of vehicles began in 2007, DSCC was assigned a lead role in the sustainment of the life-saving platforms. Because the program’s early goal was to field MRAP vehicles to deployed forces as rapidly as possible, a number of logistics and sustainment challenges were encountered. Working closely with the Defense Logistics Information Service and the MRAP Joint Program Office to rapidly assign and catalog national stock numbers (NSNs), DSCC began the acquisition and flow of repair parts for the MRAP family. There are now more than 20,000 NSNs assigned with inventory supporting more than 11,000 deployed MRAP vehicles. Because of the efforts of all participants, the MRAP fleet enjoys high operational readiness rates.
INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS
The Industrial Product Support Vendor (IPV) initiative supports Army depots at Anniston, Ala.; Red River, Texas; Letterkenny, Pa.; and Tobyhanna, Pa., by providing parts to support the overhaul and reset of critical weapons systems needed by the services. In the past, the customer submitted requisitions for each part needed. Under this initiative, a contractor is responsible for monitoring consumption and ensuring there are no stockouts. IPV maintains a 99.995 percent fill rate of more than 100,000 line-side bins throughout the depots. The contracts, worth $506 million over a 10-year term, redefined the method of Army depot production support.
The Fleet Automotive Support Initiative-Global (FASI-G) fulfills global demands for thousands of items supporting the Army’s fleet of ground mobility platforms. It will decrease the response time needed to obtain automotive parts, reduce government inventories, and reduce the total costs incurred by the government for providing automotive fleet support throughout the globe. FASI-G provides tremendous flexibility to the DLA’s customers. When the customers’ requirements change, FASI-G will provide uninterrupted, seamless support by leveraging the best logistics practices from the commercial marketplace. With 10-year maximum terms, the contracts carry a value of $10 billion, with tremendous opportunities for both large and small businesses.
The Integrated Logistics Partnership (ILP) provides direct support to ground mobility platform RECAP and RESET programs, singling up multiple sources of Class IX items into an innovative partnership with AM General. The contract, worth over $3.6 billion over the 10-year term, is responsible for significant improvements in depot repair programs. These improvements would not have been possible without the leadership and perspectives of senior Army acquisition officers.
DSCC recently formed a supply chain alliance for warfighter support with Rockwell Collins. The alliance establishes a longterm working relationship with key suppliers, and incorporates both the pricing and delivery terms of the existing long-term contract. The partnership will also help DSCC contracting officers develop a more robust time-definite direct vendor delivery program for some items on those long-term contracts. This is one of many examples of end-to-end supply chain management that puts DSCC at the forefront of optimal supply chain management practices.
PRODUCT TEST CENTERS
DSCC also provides command and control for four DLA product testing centers (PTCs) that conduct verification and functional testing in support of mechanical, electronic, textile and chemical products that DLA provides to all military services. This testing is conducted to ensure that DoD customers receive quality parts. The Mechanical PTC, located in Columbus, has been very proactive in partnering with the Army on its M-2 machine gun rebuild program at the Anniston Army Depot. The Electronics PTC, also in Columbus, is playing an integral role in identifying and preventing non-conforming and lead-free components from entering the DLA supply system.
In addition to testing capabilities in Columbus, Ohio, DSCC manages two other test labs in Philadelphia, Pa., and Tracy, Calif. The Philadelphia Chemical Lab focuses tests on clothing and textile items. The Tracy Lab conducts non-destructive and dimensional testing.
The PTCs partner closely with both DLA and DoD working groups in the detection of fraudulent and non-conforming material. The quality management system adopted by each PTC test site is ISO 9001:2000 certified. This ensures that DSCC has a consistent, effective, controlled and objective system focused on processes necessary to meet customer requirements. ISO 9001 is an important element in DSCC’s journey to continue providing accurate, verifiable and timely test data.
DSCC TOMORROW
DSCC’s history and proud tradition has prepared it well for continued success and performance. Its 2,600 dedicated associates are executing DLA’s strategic approach to end-to-end supply chain management. By leveraging the best of government and industry capabilities, it will continue to achieve the greatest performance at the best value to help keep American warfighters ready, well into the future. ♦