BRAC 2005

Written by Claudia "Scottie" Knott

This move takes DoD one step closer to focusing its abundant spending power on achieving long-term joint savings for the military consumer, and gives defense suppliers a “single face” point of contact. Contracts by individual DoD organizations can now be replaced with DoD enterprise-wide contracts, allowing industry to streamline its government contract processes and deal with a single DoD “buyer.”

BRAC requires the transfer of procurement management functions for DLRs from specific military service locations to DLA inventory control points based on supply chain affiliation, including land, maritime and aviation. For the Army, these locations include: Tank and Automotive Command (to include procurement management of items relocating from Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.); Aviation and Missile Command; and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. (to include procurement management of items relocating from Fort Huachuca, Ariz., and Fort Monmouth, N.J.). For the Navy and Marine Corps, these locations include: Naval Support Activity, Philadelphia, Pa., and Marine Corps Base, Albany, Ga. For the Air Force the locations include: Robins Air Force Base, Robins, Ga., Tinker Air Force Base, Tinker, Okla., and Hill Air Force Base, Ogden, Utah.

Figure 1 shows the alignment of these military locations to the current DLA supply chains managed at its inventory control points, the Defense Supply Centers Columbus, Philadelphia and Richmond. Additionally, consumable item transfer items are also being moved to DLA for inventory management and procurement purposes. This transfer increases DLA’s annual purchases of sustainment logistics items for aviation, land, and maritime by approximately $4 billion annually. These realignments will result in a net present value savings of $1.8 billion over the next 20 years.

Consolidating procurement management of both consumable and reparable weapon system spares under DLA allows buyers to use uniform policies, acquisition processes, solicitation provisions and contract clauses, through a single automated system. A preliminary review of provisions and clauses show that there are currently more than 4,000 unique military service and DLA clauses impacting sustainment logistics vendors. This number can easily be reduced by 40 to 60 percent by eliminating duplicative and redundant coverage and consolidating necessary contract language.

A recent review of the top weapons system supply chain contractors with whom DLA has established strategic supplier alliances, compared to contractors from whom the military services buy DLRs, demonstrates the effectiveness of this decision. Over 61 percent of the dollars spent showed at least one overlapping military service; 50 percent showed at least two overlapping military services; 18 percent had at least three, and 4 percent overlapped all four services.

DLA also plans on using SAP’s commercial-off-the-shelf government procurement product designed to specifically integrate with the MySAP material management and financial management modules. This product was developed in collaboration with DLA and will be implemented in all DLA supply chains in the 2008-2010 timeframe. The use of this standard, automated procurement system for sustainment logistics at the DOD ICPs aligns to another strategic objective—consolidating automated systems based on common business functions.

The BRAC DLR decision was briefed in March to the DLA Strategic Supplier Alliance Conference, which was co-hosted by DLA and the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) in the Washington, D.C., area. The strategic sourcing message was positively received by both industry and government attendees. Their expectation is that through a single point of collaboration, utilizing the existing DLA Strategic Supplier Alliance framework and DoD-approved vendor scorecard metrics, they will be able to integrate their procurement and logistics processes more readily with the entire department. Many of the vendors attending indicated that the implementation of the BRAC decision could also act as a forcing function within their own organizations, streamlining their multiple entry points for government work. This will facilitate increased use of electronic commerce, sharing of technical data, and other process improvements that heretofore required coordination across multiple organizations and military services.

Along with the consolidations of purchases and systems, the BRAC decision has also strengthened the move to establish a single acquisition work force through the creation of a joint defense agency cadre of acquisition professionals supporting military service logistics. As part of the change management effort associated with the BRAC changes, the human resources community is ensuring there is open access to all acquisition vacancies and training at co-located sites. Barriers to job movement between activities are also being removed as part of this effort. These personnel-related changes improve the ability of the DoD acquisition work force to move seamlessly within the department and focuses DoD’s training efforts on creating the ubiquitous acquisition professional needed at all levels for continuing efficiency and effectiveness.

While there are still many details to work out with the implementation of this BRAC decision, the goal and benefits of strategic sourcing for sustainment logistics are attainable through this procurement management consolidation. The clear winners are the taxpayers, the logistics community and the warfighters in the field. Transformation at this level would not have been possible without the forcing function that is BRAC. The promise of this transformational decision can be realized through support and collaboration between America’s logistics industry and the Department of Defense. ♦

Claudia “Scottie” Knott is the director of the Acquisition Management Directorate with the Defense Logistics Agency. She is responsible for the development, application and oversight of all DLA acquisition policy, plans, programs, functional systems and operations.

DLA provides supply support, and technical and logistics services to the U.S. military services and several federal civilian agencies. Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., the agency is the one source for nearly every consumable item, whether for combat readiness, emergency preparedness or day-to-day operations inside the Department of Defense. More information about DLA is available at www.dla.mil.