BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
Agency personnel in Germany recently met for a tour and conversation meant to bolster the operations-level cooperation and ties between two of the Defense Logistics Agency’s major sub-commands.
In early June, DLA Disposition Services reverse logisticians were on hand at the DLA Distribution warehousing facility in Germersheim, Germany, to perform a “Receipt In Place,” or RIP, that put an excess $600,000 Rough Terrain Container Handler onto the property books of the MSC. The RIP helped the agency avoid an estimated $20,000 in shipping and handling costs and brought personnel together to better familiarize themselves with how DLA conducts business.
“Receipt in Place provided a great mechanism to handle this unique material,” said Property Disposal Specialist Nicholas Lulay. “It reduced the transportation and handling costs for both organizations, provided a practical means of accountability, and promoted customer engagement between the two DLA major sub-commands.”
DLA Disposition Services Kaiserslautern Operations Chief Shawn Mock said the reverse logisticians there are piggybacking on DLA Distribution Europe’s established shipping processes to send customer excess and surplus property requisitions across the globe. Additionally, military property turn-in customers in Europe are using DLA Distribution’s same process to ship property destined for DLA Disposition Services.
Mock said that every week, DLA Disposition Services Kaiserslautern receives a truckload of excess property from DLA Distribution, and about every other week, DLA Disposition loads that truck back up with reutilization customer shipments that DLA Distribution then sorts and ships out across the globe.
The RTCH receipt in place provided both MSCs with a chance for customer-facing Disposal Services Representatives from Kaiserslautern to meet with DLA Distribution personnel and get a better understanding of their processes.
“I’ve seen firsthand how our collaboration and knowledge sharing among the MSCs strengthens DLA’s critical role in the DOD supply chain,” said Operations Chief Shawn Mock. “I believe that K-town’s DSRs now have enough functional knowledge of DLA Distribution’s processes to make efficient disposal decisions with the warfighters we support outside of our local area. We’ve also increased our understanding of how both major sub-commands contribute to the DLA Strategic Plan.”
Mock said another point of collaboration between the MSCs and the whole DLA Europe and Africa team involve monthly meetings with the Army’s 21st Theater Sustainment Command and subordinate logistics units across the continent – an ideal venue for DLA to directly address customer concerns and gather information on future operational needs in the region.
“These efforts optimize our strategic positioning of support to the services and combatant commands and align us with DLA’s goal of providing resilient logistics in contested environments,” Mock said.