FORT Belvoir, Virginia –
Senior leaders from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Logistics Agency and the military services discussed efficiencies in the DLA budget and ways to deliver value to customers at lower costs during the Cost Summit at the McNamara Headquarters Complex March 7.
The fifth DLA Cost Summit gathered service customers and DLA senior leaders to tackle cost-effective solutions through the 2018 program budget review and talk about ways to better support customer needs economically.
Director of DLA Finance Tony Poleo and Deputy Director of DLA Logistics Operations Mike Scott emphasized building on the foundation and direction of previous Cost Summits in their opening remarks.
“The spirit of these from Cost Summit 1 and on has been full transparency,” Scott said.
Poleo echoed the transparency sentiment, adding that feedback from prior sessions was also important in developing this and future cooperative cost-saving efforts.
“I’d like to continue to focus on collaborative efforts … and for you to help us figure out where to lower your costs at the end of the day,” Poleo said.
Discussion began with 2018 program budget review, where Director of Enterprise Financial Operations summarized the theme of the review as reaching toward “a leaner, flatter, more efficient combat support agency committed to continuous process and performance improvement.”
Efforts concerning delayering the organization were another focus of the summit, as well as highlights of initiatives from DLA Distribution, Energy and Land and Maritime. The primary-level field activities reported on ways they were working to shorten delivery times, reduce storage costs and improve supply chains.
As with previous Cost Summits, customers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps had the opportunity to provide direct feedback on areas that could improve both their operations and their budgets.