FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
Defense Logistics Agency senior leadership conducted a mid-year review of the annual operating plan at the McNamara Headquarters Complex on April 10.
DLA Director Army Lt. Gen. Mark Simerly and DLA Senior Enlisted Leader Army Command Sgt. Maj. Petra Casarez met with DLA Energy Commander Navy Rear Adm. George Bresnihan and his team to assess the agency's progress toward its strategic objectives.
“We all recognize that what we’ve done in past conflicts is not sufficient for the challenges that we have ahead of us in terms of the war fight and how we're going to sustain it,” Simerly said. “Today, as we describe objectives for the command, the key results that you all are responsible for and the progress we’re making.”
The review focused on objective key results, discussions of resource allocation and the deployment of grassroots innovation. DLA Vice Director Brad Bunn, who visited DLA Energy on April 3, emphasized the importance of empowering the workforce with modern technology.
“Our (Information Technology department) has enabled this whole agency with tools that allow citizen developers to create innovations at the grassroots level,” Bunn said. “We can see in real-time how the fruits of your labor are paying off.”
DLA Energy briefed several tools designed to automate repetitive tasks, freeing the workforce for high-level problem-solving. A request for proposal generator uses artificial intelligence to generate initial contract proposals by analyzing historical contracting data, reducing manual drafting time. Another application is a data visualization platform that allows leaders to monitor the overall health and operational status of the agency across the enterprise in real-time.
Prior to the briefings, Simerly recognized several team members for their contributions to mission success. The visit concluded with an open-dialogue session allowing DLA Energy employees to engage directly with senior leadership.