BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
The main mission of Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services’ Business Support Directorate is to support the functionality of other areas and provide ancillary support to business functions within the agency.
In November, the directorate guided the organization through its first Warehouse Management System deployment. The pilot rollout was initiated at the Training and Operations Simulation Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.
“[WMS deployment] has been challenging and demanding but it’s been awesome working with everyone,” said WMS Program Manager Gerry Charlton.
The commercial, off-the-shelf software offers benefits ranging from improving productivity and streamline processes to better achieve audit readiness and reporting capabilities between DLA and its customers.
“It’s been a total team effort, we’ve had a long journey over the last 11 months planning for the rollout at the TOSC and I am extremely pleased with our efforts and methods used during the entire planning stage,” said DLA Disposition Services Business Support Director Mark Aicher.
A key focal point for Business Support is to modernize systems and processes so DLA Disposition Services can better support the warfighter and its customers.
Another highlight comes from the work completed by the Process Excellence Team, who oversaw the remediation of a longstanding, self-identified material weakness within the Scrap Management Program for the Europe and Africa region.
Originally identified in the DLA Office of Inspector General audit, seven key elements were missing from the Contracting Officer Representative’s designation letter.
Those elements have since been added to the Department of Defense Joint Appointment Module smart form that is used to appoint CORs to a contract.
The System Sustainment Team reduced Assignment Management and Provisioning System Segregation of Duties conflicts from 58 to zero.
The team worked directly with DLA headquarters and Disposition Services’ operations and field site personnel to resolve the issues by proposing alternative AMPS roles in both Enterprise Business System and Distribution Standard System. This gives users the ability to fully perform their duties without having SOD conflicts between the two systems.
It should be noted that Disposition Services is the only DLA Major Subordinate Command to reduce SOD conflicts to zero.
And while WMS has been the primary focus, especially as the year wraps up, the directorate overall has reached its goals in all operational areas.
“Business Support has had a lot of successes this year, the Law Enforcement Support Office hosted its first face-to-face annual conference in the COVID Era, continuing improvement on audit readiness, no late PCRs [program compliance review] and close out of our material weakness. I’m proud of the work my team has done,” said Aicher.