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News | Oct. 24, 2022

DLA Supplier Survey invites vendor feedback

By Beth Reece

Over 7,000 suppliers can share their praise or critiques of the Defense Logistics Agency’s contract solicitation and post-award processes by taking the 2022 DLA Supplier Survey now through Dec. 31.

The 30-question survey was emailed Oct. 24 to vendors that have conducted over $50,000 in business with DLA since the previous survey in October 2020. It includes a section for written comments and completion should take 10-15 minutes. Responses are anonymous.

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Michelle Skubic encouraged industry partners to share their opinions in her written introduction to the survey, adding that the biennial review was created in 2018 to help the agency understand the issues that affect and motivate industry.

“Since that time, challenges to the acquisition environment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, inflationary pressures, and more have made close coordination with industry more urgent and essential than ever,” she said.

The survey measures suppliers’ experience doing business with DLA in four categories: communications, effectiveness, supplier relationships, and growth and profit. New questions about inflation and supply chain disruptions are also included.

Results should be available early next spring, said Tim Stark, chief of DLA Industry Engagement and Analysis.

“We expect to receive a plethora of comments along with numeric results that show us where our vendors may have had some issues. Our supply chains will use that data to create action plans that target areas where we need improvement,” he said.

Previous surveys have resulted in DLA Aviation investing more resources in post-award reporting and the creation of an industry newsletter by DLA Energy. The agency also stood up a market intelligence team to improve knowledge of vendor capabilities and challenges.

“We’ve tried to stay in close communication with suppliers through COVID and the survey is one of the things that made us focus on that area,” Stark said. “Although I think we’ve made a lot of good efforts, especially in getting senior leaders to talk to industry, there’s still more we can do.”

Respondents of the 2020 survey rated DLA highest in trustworthiness with the lowest scores being in timely resolution and innovation although those ratings were higher than in the 2018 survey. The growth and profit potential category, which measures how suppliers view business opportunities with the agency, is the only category that had no improvement. Stark attributed the slight dip to funding challenges and the pandemic.

“We encourage all those who received the survey to respond and give us their honest feedback. We take it seriously,” Stark added.

The survey is also part of DLA’s Industry Engagement Plan and supports the strong partnerships focus in the agency’s Strategic Plan

Industry representatives can get more information about the survey by contacting the DLA Industry Engagement Office at DLASupplierSurvey@dla.mil.