PHILADELPHIA –
A global pandemic that has the majority of employees working from home didn’t stop the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support from welcoming two new customers in May.
The Medical Customer Operations Collective (Whole of Government) division recently on boarded the Armed Forces Retirement Homes in response to a high-visibility request that came down from the Office of the Assistant of the Secretary of Defense Health Affairs.
The AFRH is the nation's only federally-run retirement home for retired enlisted members and their families, housing more than 1,000 veterans in their two campuses in Washington D.C. and Gulfport, Miss.
Yvonne Poplawski, Medical Collective/Foreign Military Sales division chief, said her team was able to bring AFRH into the Troop Support fold in record time.
“Our team was able to get them up and running in lightning speed, providing them with a [Department of Defense Activity Address Code], generating trading partner agreements and training them in our Medical/Surgical Prime Vendor web ordering system, as well as FedMall,” she said. “From the time we got the call to when they made their first order was under six weeks.”
AFRH’s initial orders were for personal protective equipment such as nitrite gloves, medical gowns and masks, but future orders may expand to a wide range of medical supplies and beyond.
“Through the training we provided in our medical ordering systems and FedMall, we expect orders to increase in the future,” said Peter Skillings, Medical Collective/Foreign Military Sales supervisor. “We not only brought aboard a new medical customer, we brought on a new DLA customer able to buy throughout the organization.”
FedMall is a government e-commerce acquisition platform used by the U.S. military services as well as federal, state and authorized local governmental agencies.
Trang Phan, tailored vendor logistics specialist, led the training to bring AFRH up to speed with the DLA ordering process, and was impressed with the quick learning of the AFRH staff.
“They were able to pick everything up and moved from the training to putting in orders very quickly,” said Phan.
Poplawski expressed pride in the medical team and the work they accomplished in support of AFRH.
“I just want to give kudos to the team,” she said. “They were able to efficiently and professionally bring the AFRH aboard, and it’s an honor that DLA will be able to help support some of our nation’s veterans during the golden years of their lives.”