Delivering PBL
Written by Paul Woodlief
MLF 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 10 (November/December)
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An example of this is where an auxiliary power unit is used by multiple services on multiple weapon systems and each service has decided on a PBL support strategy, with its own set of metrics, and each service has contracted with the same OEM. Touch labor is performed by the maintenance depot under a PBL partnership and parts support comes directly from the OEM who sets up a warehouse to house the parts. This sets up competing supply chains to support different workloads with the same OEM and a larger logistics footprint for supply, storage and distribution. If a joint PBL approach were taken, the savings to the taxpayer could be significant while providing better support and sustainment to the warfighter.
There is currently no single DoD entity that has responsibility for—or can effectively manage—the complex end-to-end DoD supply chain. With the rise of performance-based logistics as the preferred product support strategy, the DoD supply chain is sub-optimized even further. In order to simplify and streamline the DoD supply chain to meet the needs of the warfighter, efforts must be made to capture every opportunity for joint economy and reduce unnecessary redundancy, build the capability to make good enterprise decisions, and enforce consistency in logistics processes and infrastructure. PBL as it is currently implemented subverts joint opportunities for savings and efficiencies in the wake of decisions made by BRAC 2005 relating to consolidating both consumable items and the procurement management of DLRs and the consolidation of the service supply, storage and distribution functions.
Recently, senior leadership at Defense Supply Center Richmond, DLA’s aviation demand and supply chain manager, established a new PBL-centric, customer-focused organization within the confines of their Customer Operations Directorate. Paul Woodlief, a former DSCR weapon systems support manager (WSSM) for the Air Force’s heavy bombers and the C-130, was chosen as the new organization’s PBL manager. He and his team of 16 PBL program managers and analysts are charged with maximizing joint opportunities by partnering with the center’s WSSMs (DLA’s single face to the Weapon System Program Manager) and their services’ program management office during the early stages of the WSSM’s program manager’s PBL initiatives. The new organization was staffed with personnel from the center’s Business Development Office, Customer Relationship Management Program, and their Strategic Acquisitions Directorate.
The team comprises individuals with backgrounds including weapon system program management, forward presence representation at military industrial depots, PBL consulting, business development, marketing, and supplier relationship management. The engagement strategy is to identify the PBL requirements of program managers and help develop performance- oriented outcomes to meet the needs and expectations of the warfighter. This engagement and coordination strengthens DLA’s relationships with OEMs, depots, and engineering support activities.
Some factors that are making DLA support and sustainment to warfighters faster and more efficient include:
• Integrating stakeholders with DLA’s new mission in retail item management and DLR procurement;
• Growing mission in collaborative supply chain planning, coupled with DLA establishing a forward presence at major aviation depot repair facilities/operational sites, such as Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va.;
• Embedding civilian personnel within the AOR.
While the majority of the parts in the DoD supply chain are for depot level workload, there are always some that are used to support other depot, intermediate and organizational (D, I, and O) level workloads as well. DoD must still support the other workloads for many of the same parts supplied by the PBL contractor. This splits DoD’s leveraged buying power and distribution capability. The incentivized PBL contract is more likely to get the scarce parts from the contractor that could jeopardize warfighter readiness. Woodlief’s team works to identify these scenarios and balance support and sustainment for DLA’s vast portfolio of customers preventing optimization for some customers at the expense of others.
The 2008 DoD Logistics Roadmap cited three goals for the Department’s logistics force to meet the Combatant Commander’s intent:
• Unity of effort by increasing alignment along the supply chain and optimizing integration of U.S. joint, multinational, interagency, and non-governmental logistics capabilities.
• Visibility by having assured access to information about logistics processes, resources, and requirements in order to gain the knowledge necessary to make effective decisions and increase warfighter confidence in the global logistics system.
• Rapid and Precise Response by making the ability to meet the constantly changing logistics needs of the joint force, assuring readiness and reduce mission risk.
How can DoD achieve a joint PBL approach? Decisions by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC 2005) as well as efforts to “lean forward” by DLA have provided an “opportunity to move to the next generation of PBLs with opportunities for significant cross-service infrastructure savings that have eluded [DoD] … because of different policies, processes, and cultures. DLA is uniquely positioned to overcome these impediments and to ensure that mixed contracts and PBL solutions are DoD-centric in their support strategies and provide optimization through DLA’s vast supply chains.
In order to understand how DLA is positioned, one must turn to the BRAC 2005 decisions and DLA’s efforts to lean forward, and how they can help DLA gain the capability of a joint PBL approach.
Decision 35 (Recommendation 176) of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) 2005 “realigns or relocates the procurement management and related support functions for the procurement of depot-level reparables (DLR) to th Decision 35 (Recommendation 176) of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) 2005 “realigns or relocates the procurement management and related support functions for the procurement of depot-level reparables (DLR) to the Defense Logistics Agency. ... Services relocate consumable item budgeting/funding, contracting, cataloging, requisition processing, customer services, item management, stock control, weapon system secondary item support, requirements determination and integrated materiel management Inventory Control Point function to the Defense Logistics Agency.”
This effectively established DLA as a single DLR and consumable procurement management provider for DoD. It allowed DoD to fully leverage its DLR and consumable buying power as well as allowed for commercial partners to maintain a single procurement management strategic partnership with DoD. Implemented in tiers within a governance process, DLA has the capability to gather all the PBL requirements from the services and award a single joint PBL contract without “color of money” issues.
Decision 51 (Recommendation 177) of BRAC 2005 directs the DoD to “reconfigure wholesale storage and distribution around four regional Strategic Distribution Platforms (SDPs). Realign remaining DDs as Forward Distribution Points (FDPs) and consolidate their supply, storage, and distribution functions, and associated inventories with those supporting industrial activities such as maintenance depots and shipyards.”
This decision removes the distinction between wholesale and retail functions and places responsibility for supply storage and distribution at defense depots under one agency. It forges an integrated supply chain for DoD that achieves economies and efficiencies, enhancing the effectiveness of logistics support to operational joint and expeditionary forces. It enables DLA to have visibility of the DoD supply chain as a whole when making PBL decisions to reduce the logistics footprint.
The BRAC 2005 decisions reconfigure the DoD logistics infrastructure to improve support to the future force, whether home-based or deployed in the AOR. DLA’s efforts to lean forward through its forward presence have facilitated a better understanding of the program manager’s and combatant commander’s logistics requirements. These actions will enable DLA and DoD to begin venturing into joint PBL support strategies. This next generation of optimized PBLs will strike the targeted balance between unity of effort, visibility, and rapid and precise response of the DoD supply chain to best meet the logistics needs of the warfighter at the least cost to the taxpayer, and DSCR’s Customer Operations Directorate’s PBL-centric team is engaged. ♦
Paul Woodlief, the PBL manager at DLA Defense Supply Center Richmond, and members of his team contributed to this article.