RICHMOND, Va. –
More than five dozen business process analysts from across the Defense Logistics Agency enterprise converged on Richmond, Virginia for the Enterprise Business Process Analyst Training Development Summit. The event took place in the DLA Aviation Operations Center on Defense Supply Center Richmond, Mar. 27-31.
Yvette Richardson, program manager for DLA Human Resource Service - DLA Training located in Columbus, Ohio said the idea behind putting together the BPA training development summit was born during the Digital Business Transformation Senior meeting held in July 2022. During the DBX, a need was identified to create an enterprise-wide BPA curriculum and associated courses.
Richardson said DHRS–DT was tasked with taking the lead on this project. The first order of business was to complete the BPA curriculum, which Richardson said was completed in December 2022. The second task was to gather content from the BPA community for the first two modules of the course. This is where the Enterprise Business Process Analyst Training Development Summit came in the picture.
“When you are dealing with multiple process areas, meeting in-person to gather content is the fastest way to accomplish this task,” said Richardson.
Those process areas include finance, order management, inventory management, planning, procurement, real property, and technical/quality.
During the weeklong training, participants defined individual core BPA duties, responsibilities, special tasks, systems used to perform tasks, and touch points for primary tasks for each process area. Participants also identified enterprise-wide common tasks and touch points and built out scenarios in which those touch points are involved.
Paul Vance is a supply systems analyst within DLA Aviation’s Business Process Support Directorate’s Order Fulfillment Division’s Inventory Management Branch in Richmond.
He said the summit provided him and others an excellent opportunity to share knowledge, experience, area expertise and BPA support across the DLA Enterprise.
“The defining of the position of business process analyst will support the updating and improvement of policies and procedures for BPAs, help to develop an appropriate training program for BPAs in all areas of expertise and set a foundation for creating building blocks for training future BPAs,“ said Vance.
Ryan Racine, lead financial systems analyst at DLA Finance in Battle Creek, Michigan said he found a lot of value in collaborating in person with the BPAs from the other major subordinate commands because they were able to share a lot of knowledge.
A sentiment echoed by Kesia McCoy. She’s a supply system analyst based out of DLA Aviation at Cherry Point on Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. She said as a forward and retail site BPA, networking with others from around the DLA Enterprise is vital.
“Putting faces to names and understanding job roles across the enterprise helps me holistically in determining courses of action and cause and effect of changes regarding functionality,” McCoy said.
The next summit is scheduled to take place May 2-5 at DLA Headquarters at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia.