Logistics support officials take the lead in transforming supply

  • Published
  • By Michael Lee
  • AFGLSC change management lead
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFNS) --  For more than a decade, Air Force supply chain leaders and their commercial industry peers have met with nearly identical objectives: finding ways to enhance the Air Force supply chain to improve support to the warfighter.

Recently, Air Force Global Logistics Support Center officials along with government and industry partners, met to respond to challenges that demand new and innovative approaches.

Maj. Gen. Gary T. McCoy, AFGLSC commander, hosted the three-day AFGLSC Visioning Conference recently, highlighted by keynote speaker Lt. Gen. Terry W. Gabreski, vice commander of Air Force Materiel Command, and executive-level speakers from IBM, Caterpillar and Toyota.  In attendance were 24 AFGLSC leaders; 12 major command logistics leaders; eight Department of Defense supply chain partners including officials from the Army, Defense Logistics Agency, Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense and U.S. Transportation Command; two of the nation's leading supply chain professors; and industry leaders from Caterpillar, DHL, FedEx, IBM and Toyota.

Industry leaders shared their past, present and future supply chain challenges and the strategies and solutions implemented to overcome them. These speakers attributed innovation and improvements to processes and business models as keys to eliminating these barriers to success.

General McCoy said continuous process improvement is a critical tool for industry and military organizations making incremental improvements. However, what Air Force officials need is generational improvement, drastic transformation that will allow them to make generational leaps to reach the efficiency and effectiveness of best-in-breed industry peers.

General Gabreski stressed one of the most important roles of the AFGLSC is to be the Air Force's supply chain integrator, enhancing support to the warfighter in these extraordinary times. She also emphasized the vital need for AFGLSC officials to fulfill their mandate as the Air Force's single face to supply chain customers.

The conference also featured an interactive discussion with a panel of Air Force logistics leaders representing Air Combat Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, Air Mobility Command, Air Education and Training Command, Air Force Space Command and AFMC. They praised AFGLSC's support and the open dialogue uncovered many challenges looming on the logistics horizon and how the supply chain enterprise must posture itself to be ready to succeed.

Despite the gravity of the challenges, the panel of Air Force logistics leaders forged a joint commitment to work with AFGLSC representatives on logistics transformation. General McCoy marked this as an opportunity to "synchronize our efforts with other DOD supply chain stakeholders" because in the end it's about "collaborating in an unprecedented manner to support all of our brave men and women serving around the world."

"In any strategic meeting of this magnitude, supply chain customers, peers and partners don't want to hear what we do right," General McCoy said. "They want to hear that we understand what we can do better, that we care how it affects them and that we are committed to fix it; because in the end, it's the difference between victory or defeat and life and death for the warfighter.

"And that is the purpose of this conference, to move from a reactive way of business to a new era driven by being predictive," he said. "The AFGLSC will not be judged or measured by what we 'own' but our ability to influence and integrate the supply chain to improve weapon system readiness, sustainability and availability; how well we reduce cost; and our ability to support the warfighter anywhere, anytime.