by Senior Master Sgt. Paul Dean
Air Force Public Affairs Agency
8/31/2011 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Millions of hardcopy forms and information products distributed by the Air Force will be delivered to customers at half the cost beginning fiscal 2012.
Air Force officials are contracting with Army officials to move all of the service's warehoused printed material from the Air Force Publishing Distribution Center in Baltimore to an Army-managed facility in St. Louis. The move is expected to save the Air Force more than $800,000 in the first year alone.
"This change will be transparent to our customers," said Jessica L. Spencer-Gallucci, the Air Force Departmental Publishing Office director at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington D.C. "In fact, all of the (professional military education) materials, one of our most important products, have already been moved without any hiccups."
With the closing of the Baltimore facility, the origin of the product is the only visible change users may notice, she said. Navy officials also have a similar agreement with the Army facility in St. Louis, and Spencer-Gallucci said she hopes this may lead to even more cost savings.
"If we are replenishing something that more than one of us use, then we can use localized bulk buying power," she said.
Although many of the documents Airmen use are available electronically, some forms, technical orders and publications are required to be available in print, she said.
More than 45,000 orders were shipped from the Baltimore facility in fiscal 2010. First-year savings include the cost of transporting the inventory from Baltimore to St. Louis and administrative transition costs, officials said.
