Courtesy of AMC Public Affairs

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (USTCNS) --- America's warfighters are receiving needed equipment and supplies more quickly and predictably, thanks to Defense Logistics Agency and Air Mobility Command efforts to improve their processes for packaging and transporting military cargo.

Beginning this summer, all Department of Defense shipments originated and controlled by the Defense Logistics Agency have been prepared at DLA Consolidation and Containerization Points, instead of sending items to individual Air Force aerial ports for preparation there.

"We're consolidating and aggregating materiel at these CCPs so that it can then flow directly through the distribution process," said Brig. Gen. Loren M. Reno, AMC director of logistics. "The truck will drive right up to the back door, materiel will flow right through the aerial port, right through the front door and right out to the aircraft. It won't have to be broken down and rebuilt, retagged, rebagged, recapped and reloaded."

This marks a significant change from the way business was conducted before, when lots of small packages would arrive at an aerial port over a long period of time from many sources. Personnel at individual aerial ports would hold cargo until it could be sorted, combined and palletized. "We've moved that back to the DLA facility," General Reno said. "Now we can use the aerial port for the movement of already-prepared-for-air shipments."

This effort is an initiative of Gen. John W. Handy, commander of U.S. Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command.

The day after a May 13 meeting of the Distribution Transformation Council at the Defense Distribution Center in New Cumberland, PA., General Handy told General Reno of his plan to move the processing of these shipments from the aerial port to DLA CCPs. He also wanted information on these shipments loaded into computer tracking systems at the CCPs. Within a week, teams from the DLA and AMC were meeting to implement these changes.

"The results have been significant process changes, not just problems fixed," General Reno said. The process changes will increase the speed and predictability of warfighter sustainment support and improve the visibility of that support earlier in the pipeline. "This whole process is about efficiency and effectiveness," added the general.

"It's optimizing the CCPs," he said. "It's managing cargo from CCP arrival, instead of waiting until it gets to the aerial port three or more days later. It's more cargo to fewer locations. It's pack it once and unpack it once.

"It's the opportunity to right-size our transportation resources. It's fewer trucks carrying larger packages, instead of a lot of trucks carrying a lot of small packages. It's better insight of the transportation resources we have in the United States and in the theater," the general added.

Now small packages and depot shipments controlled by DLA are sent directly to the CCPs. Computer systems for tracking shipments are being integrated, with information entered at the CCPs. The DLA has also completed its plan for processing direct vendor delivery shipments at the CCPs instead of aerial ports.

The reaction from the Army, DLA's biggest customer, has been very positive. "From what I have heard from Army officers, this is more than expected , happening faster than they thought possible," General Reno said. "They're totally embracing it."

Members of AMC and DLA held an integrated process team meeting here Sept. 22 to discuss next steps that can be taken in the process. The team developed standardized metrics to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of shifting cargo pallet building to the CCPs. Other questions addressed included whether different types of shipments should first be consolidated, and if so, where; and how to handle special cargo requirements such as hazardous materials and outsized and oversized cargo.

The DLA Office of Operations Research and Resource Analysis (DORRA)is developing a tool to predict the number of pallets that will flow from a CCP to an aerial port over a 48 to 96-hour period. This will not only allow the aerial ports to schedule their workloads, but may eventually be used by the Tanker Airlift Control Center to forecast and schedule aircraft, said Lt. Col. Steve AuBuchon, chief, Cargo Management Branch of AMC Logistics' Air Transportation Division. "This predictor is based on actual material requisition orders and known processing times, so this system can be proactive."

"The ideal is that aircraft and pallets will arrive at the port essentially at the same time," he said. Under the current system aircraft are usually dispatched after a surge appears. Since it can take some time to arrange for airlift, often aircraft arrive days later, creating cargo backlogs at the ports. "We are working closely with DLA and DORRA to reduce variability in processing times and ensure the model takes into account the way our process works," Colonel AuBuchon said. "Results are preliminary but promising."

"As we work through this and come up with optimum solutions to these questions, we need to think about the impact," General Reno said. "We need to think about the impact on the distribution process owner, the channels and supply system, pipeline times and related costs. We want a common process for peace and war."

While no decisions are being made in isolation, the general said, the issue is not being "studied to death."
"We have the right people working this who understand it the best," he said.