FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
Big changes can come with some hiccups. An unexpected issue in rolling out the new Warehouse Management System at Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, could have disrupted customer orders if not for a dedicated Defense Logistics Agency employee.
Dustin Thoeny, a general supply analyst with DLA’s Planning and Order Management team at New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, worked singlehandedly to keep the rollout on schedule.
Tobyhanna needed a new DLA Routing Identifier Code because the previous one was associated with an Army designated RIC and needed to be changed over to a DLA designated RIC, Thoeny said. The RIC is a three-character code that uniquely identifies a unit, activity or organization in various systems for transactions, and it can’t be changed after it’s assigned to a depot. A new depot had to be created for Tobyhanna in the system for the new RIC, he said.
Replacing the DSS RIC also requires the material inside the warehouse be moved to WMS. The easiest way to do that, Thoeny said, is through stock transport orders from one system to the other as a no-cost transaction.
About 400 items at Tobyhanna had to be transferred so customer orders weren’t disrupted or delayed, he said. When he learned about the needed changes at 4 p.m., Thoeny volunteered to process the stock transport orders on his own.
“I said, ‘Look, I’m the fastest at doing these STOs. Let me do it. It shouldn’t take me that long,’” he said.
Thoeny eventually finished at 1 a.m.
He said his department is looking to hire and train more staff to process STOs and is also working to automate as much as possible as more locations switch to WMS.
The new system modernizes warehousing, depot and transportation functions. It also improves productivity and streamlines processes for better audit readiness and reporting capabilities between DLA and its customers.