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Army Maj. Gen. Susan Davidson, retired, was DLA Distribution’s 9th commander from 2012-2014. During her tenure Davidson balanced ongoing operations in Afghanistan, natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, and DLA’s efforts to dramatically reduce costs while significantly increasing performance. She was also faced with the challenge of the 2013 sequestration and furloughs, but with an outstanding workforce at the 24 centers around the world, DLA distribution was able to maintain green in their key performance indicators. Even with the interruptions, the employees knew that the warfighter depended on uninterrupted services and continued to perform at their highest level supporting container utilization, sometimes shipping empty containers just to make sure supplies get somewhere right away. Under her leadership, shipping costs were reduced from 40 cents a pound to less than 26 cents with container utilization. Davidson also supported the Agency’s strategic goals of decreasing material and operating costs, reducing inventory, improving customer service, and achieving audit readiness. When tasked with reducing 2.3 million square feet of storage, her team reduced 4.1 million square feet of warehouse, saving DOD over $45 million per year by shifting all operations from Sharpe to Tracy, California in record time. In addition, her team created process maps to ensure validation of outlined deliberate, repeatable processes, ensuring actions were always traceable and accountable. Not an easy feat with multiple processes within the overall distribution process and at 24 distribution centers around the world.