PHILADELPHIA –
Knowledge and information sharing is a key aspect to any successful business. Whether it’s used to enact policies, improve services or ensure best practices; the more accessible the information, the more streamlined and fruitful the workflow.
At the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, the Process Compliance Directorate is working with the organization’s five supply chains to improve and enhance knowledge sharing throughout the workforce with the new Centralized Library for Knowledge Management.
Jennifer Hamby, a DLA Troop Support Audit Compliance Office business process analyst, said the purpose of the centralized library is to position useful information strategically in an organized, manageable and easily searchable format that is accessible to the workforce.
“Currently we don’t have one central area to look for information ... everyone has everything everywhere,” Hamby said. “So if you need to find something you have to go hunting for it everywhere. It could be in 29 different places. With the centralized library all the relevant information that enables our people to do their jobs properly will be in one place.”
This information will include, but is not limited to, job aids, manuals, procurement and requirement correlation matrix’s, desk guides, standard operating procedures, and training manuals. Hamby said the site will be hand-crafted to individual supply chains, as well as the command staff offices, making all pertinent information reachable to the individual areas.
Taylor Fontana, an Industrial Hardware contract specialist, is working with Hamby to construct the site for her supply chain and said the library will be a wonderful tool for IH.
“I think it will be an asset for sharing knowledge and it will help with the standardization of workflows and processes since everyone will have access to these documents,” she said. “With all of this information in one central location, it will ensure that information and practices are accessible to all who need it within the supply chain. I believe it will help us better serve the Warfighter in a more enhanced and expedited manner.”
For Subsistence supply chain’s commodity subordinate liaison, Evan Newpher-Lockard, the library will fill a gap that was created when the supply chain’s business office was reorganized.
“When we had a business office assigned to Subsistence, they could assist with policies and training throughout the supply chain. Since then, it has fallen on the workforce to step up to record policy, document processes, conduct internal training and generate due outs requested from Troop Support Command, DLA Headquarters and our service customers,” he said. “By having a centralized location where any previously created documents can be stored will be a huge help in consolidating all of our information that is currently out there on the floor.”
Centralizing a location for information will also allow the inspection, removal and updating of data happen in a timelier manner, reducing the chance of employees to be working with outdated material.
“Currently we have many employees doing the same job in vastly different ways because we do not have standardized policy and training like we once had,” Newpher-Lockard said. “By creating standard policies and documenting processes, we can identify shortfalls and bottlenecks in our business practices and develop targeted training to solve those issues. I believe the centralized library is the first step towards that goal and it will allow us to become a much more efficient and productive workforce and commodity.”
The Centralized Library for Knowledge Management is scheduled to go live early spring of this year. Hamby said from there the site will be maintained and updated through a collaboration between her office and the supply chains and command staff offices.
“It is going to be a living document and it’s going to be key that it changes as our work and our jobs change,” she said. “I really hope people use it to the extent that it can be. If we do, it has the potential to make it a lot easier to do our jobs.”