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LOGISTICS TRANSFORMATION
We’re looking to the business community and asking, “What are
you doing? How do you achieve this ‘just in time’ instead of ‘just in
case’ so we can eliminate some of these storehouses that we have,
these warehouses stacked with equipment that may never be
used.” We want to have the kind of system where we can get
something that’s needed to the field just in time—the right place,
the right time, and the right equipment. We’re doing that. We are
proceeding into the future with astonishing velocity, so we have to
continue tearing down archaic barriers and burdens, and harness
the full potential of private industry, and to continue to answer
enduring challenges with novel solutions. That’s really the spirit
behind defense and acquisition reform.
-- William S. Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense, USA
INTRODUCTION
One of the favorite buzz words for the last several years has been the idea of
transformation. Transformation is a process by which the military achieves and
maintains advantage through changes in operational concepts, organizational structure,
and/or technologies that significantly improve its warfighting capabilities or ability to
meet the demands of a changing security environment. As one can imagine, the term
transformation can have many different meanings, depending on the individual point of
view and area of expertise. The logistics transformation initiative provides real-time
logistics situational awareness; instills soldiers confidence by optimizing logistics
business processes, transitioning to a logistics system open architecture that provides
interoperable and actionable logistics information; and finally, enhances logistics
response to the joint warfighter. Commercial industry best practices in the areas of
supply support and acquisition may be the key to achieving real and lasting logistics
transformation.
As we progress through Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and reengineer military
logistics, the defence logistics community is challenged to do business better, cheaper
and faster than ever before. What is being tried to bring about in defence logistics has
already been demonstrated in the commercial world. Today, you can log on to the
Internet, click on to a commercial resource, choose what you want, place an order,
check its availability, purchase it, track its progress from the warehouse to your door,
and have greater than 99 percent confidence that it will arrive at the right time. Bottom
line is : The soldier wants logistics where he needs it, when he needs it, with the right
quality and quantity. . .every time. And we better provide that since this the least the
soldier deserves.
