Efforts speed up cargo shipments to warfighters

  • Published
  • By Capt. David Huxsoll
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) --  America’s warfighters are receiving necessary equipment and supplies more quickly and predictably, thanks to Defense Logistics Agency and Air Mobility Command officials’ efforts to improve their processes for packaging and moving military cargo.

Beginning this summer, all Department of Defense shipments originated and controlled by the agency have been prepared at its consolidation and containerization points instead of sending the items to individual Air Force aerial ports for preparation there.

“We’re consolidating and aggregating materiel at these (points) 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 many small packages would arrive at an aerial port throughout several days from many sources. People 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.”

After a meeting of the Distribution Transformation Council at the Defense Distribution Center in Susquehanna, Pa., Gen. John W. Handy, commander of U.S. Transportation Command and AMC, told General Reno of his plan to move the processing of these shipments from the aerial port to DLA consolidation and containerization points.

He said he also wanted information on these shipments loaded into computer-tracking systems at the points. Within a week, teams from the command and DLA were meeting to begin 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 support.

“This whole process is about efficiency and effectiveness,” General Reno said.

“It’s optimizing the (DLA points),” he said. “It’s managing cargo from … 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,” he said. “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.”

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

Officials at the DLA office of operations research and resource analysis are developing a tool to predict the number of pallets that will flow from a DLA point to an aerial port during a 48- to 96-hour period. This will not only allow aerial port staffs to schedule their workloads, but may eventually be used by Tanker Airlift Control Center officials to forecast and schedule aircraft, said Lt. Col. Steve AuBuchon, chief of the cargo management branch of AMC logistics’ air transportation division.

“This predictor is based on actual materiel requisition orders and known processing times, so this system can be proactive,” Colonel AuBuchon said. “The ideal is that aircraft and pallets will arrive at the port essentially at the same time.”

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.

Colonel AuBuchon said officials are working toward reducing variability in processing times. “Results are preliminary but promising,” he said.

“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.” (Courtesy of AMC News Service)