Fort Belvoir, Virginia –
You’ve served with the agency in a variety of positions over the years, first as aide to former DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Edward Straw, then as commander of DLA Aviation, and now as the Director of DLA Logistics Operations. What changes have you seen over this time?
DLA is a constantly evolving organization, and I’ve seen much of that change. When I was here initially working for Vice Adm. Straw, DLA Headquarters was still at Cameron Station, and we were primarily centered on parts and consumables. We had just moved into the distribution business, which was the second evolution of missions coming to DLA from the services.
When I commanded DLA Aviation, I witnessed a DLA positioned much closer to our warfighters. Business Systems Modernization also led to significant reorganization; we were more focused on customer-facing efforts. And there was also the name change from Defense Supply Center Richmond to DLA Aviation.
Now as the J3, our warfighter support has expanded and improved even further. DLA has matured into a valued partner for whole of government because of the speed of our response across a full spectrum of operations. There’s a much more robust engagement with combatant commanders than we had before. My duties within DLA have changed, but my belief that DLA is a great partner to warfighters remains unchanged.
How is Logistics Operations supporting the DLA Strategic Plan?
J3 is fully energized implementing the agency’s strategic plan. Not only are we the lead for its No. 1 goal — Warfighter First — but we’re directly involved in initiatives that support every goal in the plan.
Under Financial Stewardship, we’re working with DLA Finance to lead quarterly Cost Summits with our customers, opening up DLA’s books to increase transparency. Our team is also leading the effort to improve collaboration with U.S. Transportation Command; we wrapped up a joint continuity of operations exercise with them in February that tested our organizations’ ability to fulfill warfighter needs in the event of denial of service attack.
In the Strategic Engagement area, J3 has a team dedicated to looking at performance-based logistics as a way forward for DLA supporting DoD’s Better Buying 3.0 Initiative, as well. These are just a few examples.
One of the big shifts within the agency is a renewed emphasis on support to the nuclear enterprise, including the standup of the Nuclear Enterprise Support Office last year. How is this office making a difference in the readiness of this strategic national priority?
Our NESO team aligns resources across DLA, synchroniz-ing our support, engaging with our customers and partners, maintaining situational awareness of their issues, and resolving support gaps and shortfalls. We’re tied in tightly with the Navy, Air Force, U.S. Strategic Command and other stakeholders to maintain and improve support to the submarines; aircraft; ground-based missiles; other weapon systems; and command, control and communications systems that define the nuclear enterprise. We’re also aggressively pursuing improved materiel availability for all nuclear enterprise weapon systems.
As part of its whole-of-government approach, DLA plays a large role supporting FEMA when disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires strike the continental U.S. How does the agency stay ready to support these efforts, which can happen with little notice?
Where it makes sense for both DLA and other federal agencies, we extend our logistics expertise to other elements of government. Currently, we support more than 40 federal agencies. Our most established relationship is with FEMA for day-to-day operations and disaster response. We have developed pre-scripted mission assignments), which are essentially statements of work that DLA has indicated can support FEMA during disasters. Those PSMAs are approved and vetted through the enterprise and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and they drastically reduce response times to our customers and the survivors of a disaster. They outline in detail what DLA needs to bring to an event rapidly and cost effectively. We also hold regular joint exercises with FEMA where we plan, prepare and practice it all. Last year, we took on support to the U.S. Forest Service’s firefighting role. While we’re always happy to provide support where it makes sense, we never forget that Warfighter Support is our No. 1 priority.
DLA is supporting USAID in its humanitarian efforts to lessen the suffering of refugees in Syria and Iraq. What were some of the challenges that came along with that operation?
In August, the State Department asked the Defense Department to use funds expiring at the end of September to help USAID obtain humanitarian assistance for refugees: lumber, plastic sheets, wash basins, dignity kits and more. It was a tight timeline, but by working closely with our partners, we got it done. Another challenge was getting the goods to non-government organizations that actually provided the goods to refugees. We set up intermediate staging bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey where goods were received and accounted for, and then they went to NGOs like UNICEF, the International Medical Corps and the Danish Refugee Council, who distributed them to refugees. Our efforts supporting USAID were a great example of finding ways to accomplish a very tough mission.
How is J3’s Research and Development team working with DLA Aviation and the military services on additive manufacturing?
Additive manufacturing is a fairly new concept, but we’re thinking big. Our vision is to use additive manufacturing to obtain obsolete and hard-to-source parts for DLA inventory. We’re partnering with Naval Air Systems Command and the other military services to enable prompt testing, evaluation and acceptance of these parts for use in the supply system. Ultimately we want to expand our additive manufacturing parts catalog for integration into the supply system; produce approved critical safety item parts; establish and maintain a parts-on-demand capability; and have a library of Technical Data Packages with 3D models to enable faster production.
DLA’s customers count on the agency to hold enough inventory to take care of their known and unknown needs, which requires a lot of forecasting and planning. How are we improving in those areas?
One big initiative under the DLA Strategic Plan is restructuring the agency’s demand and supply planning. With the Center of Planning Excellence, we’re moving inventory forecasting to an enterprise level. Using data pulled from the Enterprise Business System, we’ll be able to perform deep statistical analysis to better align supply and demand. The demand and supply planners at the primary level field activities are being merged into materiel planners, each responsible for the overall “health” of an item. These two groups will work together to make sure we have enough in stock to satisfy our customers’ needs while ensuring we keep costs down. Huge in all of this is staying in lockstep with our customers, understanding their needs and working with them to get in on the ground floor of the weapons systems life cycle.
What are customers saying about DLA support to their organizations?
I engage with our customers all the time: on trips to various areas of responsibility, in forums with senior leaders and during direct communication. What I keep hearing is that our customers really like what we do. As budgets get tighter, they’re looking to DLA to find ways to maximize their buying power, and we’ll continue partnering with them to do that.
What are three things you think every leader should focus on?
First, it’s leading by example. Leading is about identifying an objective, task or goal you want to accomplish and having your whole team come together to achieve the desired outcome. When you pick a course, you have to communicate to your folks through voice and action so the whole team owns that path. Equally as important is listening and caring about their wellbeing, something we’re emphasizing with DLA’s new Resiliency Program. Third, make sure your folks know you have their best interests in mind and provide them with the tools to be successful. When you pull all of that together, you get results. Nothing is more fulfilling for a leader than witnessing mission success and knowing that everyone on the team contributed their best to achieve it.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
It’s a great honor to serve at DLA again, deeply involved in supporting amazing missions around the world. None of this is possible without the people who make up this great organization, from those working in depots in far off places to personnel standing watch 24/7 in our Operations Centers. Everyone has an important role to play in keeping DLA on the path to success. Thanks for all you do.