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News | Oct. 1, 2015

DLA Distribution headquarters hosts KPMG

By Dawn Bonsell DLA Distribution Public Affairs

As the external audit nears, DLA Distribution continues to prepare the agency for success. Recently, the organization welcomed three executive members from KPMG’s Management Consulting Advisory practice.  Ken Drover, lead partner, Global Defense Center of Excellence, Patty St. George, partner, Federal Advisory and Jeff Langley, director, Supply Chain and Logistics, visited DLA Distribution for a discussion with leadership on operational and financial supply chain transformation. KPMG is the advisory firm currently assisting DLA Distribution prepare for the independent audit.

Just like an annual physical being a good indicator of personal health, the upcoming independent public accountant audit will determine the overall financial health of DLA. The efforts taken to become audit ready have helped the agency make more informed decisions, optimize the budget, increase confidence of financial status and enhance the public’s trust.

The KPMG team began their visit with a stop at DLA Distribution Susquehanna, Pa.’s Eastern Distribution Center, the largest distribution center within the Department of Defense.  There, they viewed the Consolidation and Containerization Point, the Storage, Retrieval and Sortation System and the Outloading Operations.

Following the tour, the team met with DLA Distribution directors and distribution center commanders, who participated via teleconference, to discuss organizational and cultural transformation around Supply Chain and Logistics by leveraging the work KPMG has done on a global scale. According to Langley, in addition to ensuring that good controls are in place, the performance numbers cannot be manipulated, detailed reports should be evaluated at the right level, leaders should focus on risk minimization / mitigation and look at the big picture, the ‘so what’ factor.   

After meeting with the directors, the KPMG team spent the afternoon meeting with the DLA Distribution Compliance and Audit Sustainment team to discuss performance metrics versus process excellence, governance risk and compliance, and audit sustainability. According to St. George, “You need a framework. You need to capture the data at a low level, aggregate, and analyze what it means and what actions need taken.” Langley added, “From an audit sense, you need to determine what data you need to see to determine financial health.  For process health, you need to know your performance, but customers don’t care how many receipts you process, they want to know if you’re good at it.”

DLA Distribution will continue on the audit readiness and process excellence journey, ready to face the challenges ahead and will continue to improve operational processes along the way to make sure the organization is efficient, effective and provide the best value for customers.