DLA Research & Development's Logistics Technology Research program supports DLA business functional units through applied research of advanced technologies to improve business processes and operational methods. The LTR program leverages the application of leading-edge logistics “out-of-the box” concepts using business tools driven by disruptive technology to provide global logistics support.
The LTR program focuses on:
Business Processes
To create a more agile and resilient supply chain; DLA can revitalize its core business processes. By moving beyond manual operations and legacy technologies, DLA can inject greater accuracy and efficiency into key decision points like inventory planning, vendor on-boarding, and material acceptance.
Supply Chain Risks
DLA confronts a dynamic risk environment daily to protect the integrity of the supply chain. This includes addressing threats from dwindling manufacturing sources for legacy platforms, preventing the introduction of substandard components, and combatting bad actors who introduce counterfeit parts.
Commercial Industry Opportunities
By embracing advances from the commercial sector, DLA can unlock significant efficiencies. This strategy leverages proven market capabilities to facilitate a swift process transition and ensure immediate improvements upon full-scale deployment.
Innovation & Technology
- Data Integrity & Governance
- Applied Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
- Distributed Ledger Technology
- Predictive Supply Chain Risk Management
- Commercial & “As-a-Service” Solutions
- Digital Twin Implementation
Strategic Thrusts
- Strategically integrating emerging technologies to transform and optimize DLA’s business processes.
- Proactively identifying and neutralizing threats to ensure end-to-end supply chain integrity.
- Accelerating modernization by adopting best-in-class commercial strategies.
Challenge
Our strategic challenge is to maintain complete mission readiness on legacy systems while simultaneously integrating advanced technologies to forge the supply chain of the future.
Solution
The LTR program spearheads modernization by deploying advanced technologies to transform business processes and ensures a secure and resilient supply chain throughout the DLA enterprise.
Benefits
- Directly supports Warfighter safety and peak weapon system performance by ensuring the reliability of DLA-provided parts and fortifying the supply chain against risk.
- Creates a decisive operational advantage by fusing big data, predictive analytics, and automation to forecast and fulfill Warfighter needs with greater speed and accuracy.
Partners
- Commercial Industries
- Federally Funded Research and Development Centers
- University Affiliated Research Centers
- Services and Federal Agencies
- Naval Research Laboratories
- Academia
Accomplishments & Ongoing Efforts
- Automated Digital Platforms: Implementing secure digital platforms to automate and streamline the capture and management of vendor data.
- Supply Chain Risk Analytics: Deploying advanced applications to proactively identify, analyze, and mitigate supply chain risks.
- Predictive AI/ML Initiatives: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to significantly improve demand forecasting, lead time estimation, and backorder prediction.
- Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Applications: Pioneering DLT applications to create a more secure, transparent, and efficient data-sharing ecosystem.
- Future-State Quantum Planning: Assessing quantum computing capabilities to strategically prepare for the next generation of computational power.
- Advanced Anti-Counterfeiting Measures: Integrating emergent technologies to actively detect and eliminate counterfeit items from the supply chain.
- Data Quality & Metadata Management: Establishing robust platforms to enhance data quality and optimize metadata management across the enterprise.