RICHMOND, Va. –
The Defense Logistics Agency announced an upcoming shift to an automated technical data management system – or Technical Data Management Transformation – aimed to provide a faster, more efficient approach to item management, a critical advancement for DLA's vast operations.
The announcement came at the DLA Supply Chain Alliance Symposium and Exhibition, held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center June 11 – 12, during a Knowledge Bar session designed to foster insight and collaboration between key Defense Department and industry leaders.
DLA Land and Maritime Acting Commander Kenneth Watson opened by emphasizing DLA's immense scale and the criticality of modernization, stating, “We are a procurement machine on steroids.” He highlighted that DLA Land and Maritime alone manages 2.6 million parts and allocates about $4.5 billion annually to parts procurement.
The agency has already achieved significant automation, with over 90% of its contract actions fully automated and typically completed within seconds. However, Watson pointed out a crucial missing piece in this automation: technical data.
“We have automated so much of the supply chain, but the one piece we always missed was the tech data piece, and it's so important. I say that because we're running up against huge challenges with regards to obsolescence. Right now, a lot of legacy weapon systems are out there, and we’re still supporting them.”
DLA however, does not generate technical data.
“Each one of the services’ program offices and engineering support activities…that's where that comes from,” Watson said. “We act as an interface into those ESAs to validate that data for the items we're going to buy. We test to those specifications, but we don’t own them.”
Watson elaborated on the inefficiencies of the previous system, which relied on “slow and outdated” exchanges for data packages, often resulting in a lengthy back-and-forth process.
“But there’s a smarter way to do business, and we’re doing that right now,” he said.
DLA has successfully piloted a program that has potential to automate the technical data “kill chain.” This innovative system allows the latest technical data from product lifecycle management systems within the services to be automatically pushed to a central DLA repository, accessible digitally at any time.
Watson underscored the paramount importance of this shift, stating, “Having that tech data accurate, ready and being passed digitally back and forth is absolutely essential to how we’re going to do business. That in a nutshell is what the [technical data management transformation] is all about.”
Shweta Kumar, managing partner and senior technical director for RGBSI Aerospace and Defense, elaborated on the importance not only for DLA’s procurement activities, but also for suppliers.
“You’ll possibly get all your information at one time, but if you don’t, you’re able to collaborate on that particular model on that data with the ESAs within the system,” she said. “Our goal is to provide as much detail as we can, where you can utilize the 3D technical data package with manufacturing characteristics metadata around logistics supplies, anything that we can provide so that you can make that product faster – that's the intent.”
Watson said the first phase is projected to go live in November. The initial phase will connect TDMT with DLA's enterprise business systems.
He added that while TDMT is a significant leap forward, it will necessitate continued coordination and cooperation from the military services. This is due to the inherent differences in their various product lifecycle management systems, which TDMT will integrate to centralize and leverage comprehensive weapon systems management information for building complete technical data packages.
He highlighted that the transformation is agencywide, not just DLA Land and Maritime, but emphasized that Class IX may be more challenging due to the variation of items and DLA Land and Maritime and Aviation will be “joined at the hip” when the system goes live in November.