NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. –
Distribution Process Worker Supervisor Natalie Lee-Haynes, assigned as the Bin Division deputy chief at Defense Logistics Agency Distribution San Joaquin, California, was selected as the DLA Distribution 2019 Lt. Gen. Kathleen M. Gainey Innovation Award winner.
“Ms. Natalie Lee-Haynes is a phenomenal supervisor and critical to DLA Distribution San Joaquin’s Mission Group. Her expertise and consistent display of potential led her to come up through the ranks, and she is now one of the most effective supervisors at DLA Distribution San Joaquin,” said Bin Division Chief Anthony Zuk. “If there is a challenge or requirement to accomplish within the Mission Group or across San Joaquin, Ms. Lee-Haynes is the supervisor regularly relied upon by senior management to jump in and lend a hand.”
Lee-Haynes is a true team player and has the best interest of the distribution center. Her relentless efforts to address Navy stock in transit shortfalls led to DLA Distribution San Diego, California, requesting her expertise to assist in establishing a Navy SIT team at their site to manage their own local Navy SIT program. After the visit and helping stand up their team, she received accolades from San Diego’s commanding officer for her vast understanding of Navy SIT related systems and processes and her willingness to share valuable knowledge and lessons in regard to query support, process mapping and key touch points identification.
Additionally, Lee-Haynes expertly supervised the DLA Distribution San Joaquin Navy SIT team. Throughout fiscal year 2019, her efforts were fundamental in establishing local processes used to resolve Navy SIT discrepancies at San Joaquin and with Navy customers, leading to better visibility of Navy materiel receipted, processed and shipped to/from DLA Distribution San Joaquin. In the course of her duties, she proved herself to be a pioneer in overcoming Navy SIT challenges both across DLA Distribution and with Navy units across the globe.
Lee-Haynes diligently overcame many obstacles. During fiscal year 2019, there were over 91,000 Navy SIT assets, worth more than $7.2 billion, which DLA Distribution San Joaquin received, stored and shipped. Most of these Navy SIT assets were naturally reconciled with a proof of receipt, proof of shipment or on-hand acknowledgment. However, due to various complex supply chain errors, there were a percentage of these items that became discrepant. Over the course of the year, she led the team that researched and identified the root causes resulting in errors and discrepancies with Navy SIT assets, enabling the Navy to regain accountability of all their material in-transit.
Further, she established a dedicated team to research and reconcile all discrepant Navy SIT materials in response to identified shortfalls in the Navy SIT program. Her team resolved over 5,200 discrepant Navy SIT assets per quarter valued at $130 million. Her actions and involvement with the Navy SIT team directly contributed to Fleet Readiness through proper accountability and asset visibility.
Lee-Hayne’s experience, resourcefulness, and work ethic led to her selection as one of two DLA Distribution quality assurance representatives for the joint DLA-Army Sustainment Command proof of principle project at Fort Carson, Colorado. Lee-Haynes was instrumental in closing out the PoP in early-2019, which at its conclusion processed over 24,000 transactions, stored 2,400 NSNs, provided the planograph for of 2,900 locations and met or exceeded metric performance in seven of 10 key performance indications for storage and distribution. Balancing production with quality, she directly contributed to the site maintaining a denial metric of .12% against a standard of .40%, and an inventory accuracy rate of 91% throughout the PoP.
Lastly, Lee-Haynes conceptualized, created, coordinated and implemented a lost receipt walkthrough process sheet, which streamlined and mitigated overlapping research processes from various stakeholders. This process decreased the lost receipt average days from 30 days to five days, a decrease of 84%. She accomplished this decrease through concise communication and collection of evidential matter, which was compiled along each process step, allowing inventory to submit a completed packet to DLA Distribution Headquarters.
“Ms. Natalie Lee-Haynes had a stellar year and her superb leadership ensured countless successes in every task she was assigned. She is most deserving of this prestigious award,” concluded Zuk.