COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Over the past year, Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime’s newest directorate has been working diligently to develop new solutions to enhance warfighter support.
The Specialized Management Operations Directorate, officially stood up in April of 2024, provides a dual focus on intensively managing critical weapon system parts for the 21N Nuclear Reactor Program and developing innovative acquisition solutions to improve purchase request productivity.
Heath Berkshire, Specialized Management Operations director, said this is done through two divisions working separate but interrelated missions – the Nuclear Reactor Program Division and the Acquisition Innovation and Supply Chain Integrity Division.
21N supply chain resiliency
The Nuclear Reactor Program Division manages the national stock numbers assigned to 21N, keeping submarines and aircraft carriers afloat and deterring the nation's enemies.
“Where most divisions and [Integrated Supplier Teams] throughout DLA focus on specific stock classes, we focus on that one specific weapon system and all its parts,” said Division Chief Trevor Horn. “This allows us to better focus on that singular military customer we support – the U.S. Navy.”
With nearly 200 different stock classes, the division manages about 30,000 NSNs – 95% of all NSNs assigned to 21N – and has a performance-based agreement with the Navy to always keep at least 95% stock availability on those parts.
Over the last 12 months, the team has achieved over 97% in 10 of the 12 months and over 96% for the other two months.
“When we first started this centralized mission, one of the big commodities we were struggling to meet the performance-based agreement goal was with O-rings,” Horn said.
With thousands of sizes and types of O-rings, the ordering patterns are high and frequent. They can also be unpredictable and subject to surges.
Working with DLA data analysts, the team created a QLIK app that provides a daily, live look at the stock position for all O-rings. The team can pull this information to know which O-rings are fluctuating in the supply position to create purchase requests and get orders placed with suppliers.
“Now we always have a steady flow of orders to vendors, orders being shipped in, orders shipped to users – we just maintain that flow,” he said. “From procurement to end user and all the steps in between, we always have two years’ worth of supply at some point in that process, so our warfighters are never waiting.”
Horn said the app is especially useful in forecasting and managing surges, adding resiliency to the supply chain.
“If the Navy says, ‘hey we have to overhaul this entire ship and need 10,000 O-rings now,’ and we were expecting them to need 10,000 the entire year, with our daily looks system, we’d catch that sooner and issue our buys in advance.”
The team has since added additional apps for a few other 21N commodities including wire, fuses, screws, washers and nuts. Horn said the goal is to implement the successful app for other critical weapon systems as well.
Innovation through data acumen
The Acquisition Innovation and Supply Chain Integrity Division has had its share of success in the past year as well.
Division Chief Eric Snow said a key focus for his team is utilizing data to find faster, more efficient ways to award contracts.
“That comes in the form of consolidation,” he said.
The team established a Consolidated Workload Center utilizing data analytics to distribute workload more efficiently and increase PR throughput.
“We take larger [Original Equipment Manufacturers] that submit a lot of quotes and work those with a single buyer,” he said. “If that manufacturer submits 30 quotes, they’ll work with one buyer rather than having separate email chains with different buyers for every PR we’re negotiating…so we gain efficiency there.”
Like the rest of DLA Land and Maritime, the team employs an automated evaluation system that solicits PRs. Contractors make offers against the solicitations and the automated evaluation system evaluates those offers to award contracts. Within Specialized Management Operations, a second look team then works a high volume of PRs rejected from the automated system to award a large number of PRs every month.
In February, the team held what they called a “Micro Purchase Blitz” with over 150 buyers throughout DLA Land and Maritime. They applied the automated data and processed a large quantity of PRs, yielding about 3,500 awards in a five-week period, Snow said.
The division’s post award team provides intensive contract management for all 21N items once they are awarded, ensuring expedited contract delivery. In addition, a quality notification team works with manufacturers to protect the supply chain by reducing the volume of supply discrepancy reports.
“Data acumen is one of the major tenants in the DLA Strategic Plan…and our team is trying to do the most we can with data…to glean new and unique insights through data,” Snow said.
“Our whole mission is to find what works and what doesn’t and push out what works to the rest of the organization,” he added. “And we’re in close communication with both Land and Maritime Supplier Operations so we’re constantly sharing ideas.”
Berkshire summarized the importance of the work his team has accomplished.
“It all comes down to a heightened management of the systems we handle and a proactive approach with our suppliers,” he said. “Ultimately it’s for the military customers we support, ensuring we always have what they need, when they need it.”