Defense logistics sharpen focus on mission readiness with analytics

Defense logistics organizations provide essential support to the military. From enabling humanitarian relief efforts following natural disasters to sustaining troops in wartime, mission success depends on efficient and cost-effective delivery of supplies and equipment where and when they’re needed. 

Military supply chains are arguably some of the most complex in the world, comprised of many disparate sub-chains that collectively create a logistics ecosystem. No single organization owns them all, yet they must all work together. Managing multiple supply chains in multiple domains is a huge challenge for defense logistics organizations of all sizes, but particularly for the largest expeditionary forces, like the United States, whose supply chain is the world's largest and has more SKUs than the biggest global retailer. Decreased operational effectiveness and reduced readiness can result if the proper resources aren't at the right place at the right time.

Logistical challenges are numerous and complex. Demand patterns are unpredictable. Standard logistics processes can be slow and cumbersome. Processes are not transparent, and visibility into assets, supply chains and resources is limited. And the sheer size and complexity of the intricate supply network that serves the logistics mission hinder effective and timely logistics support. New strategies for optimized supply chain operations are critical to balance operational readiness with cost effectiveness.

The IT perspective
Over the last decade – or longer – many defense forces have sought to modernize their logistics systems and processes. Several have even taken this to a higher level by pursuing massive defense logistics transformation programs that take years to implement and cost billions of dollars. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) models became the standard, and many European forces quickly adopted ERP systems and started focusing on modernizing their financial systems. The United States took the transformation route and made massive investments to overhaul the sprawling logistics ecosystem supporting Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps logistics. 

Now that some of these programs are entering production or, in other cases, maturing, many countries are realizing that ERP is not the be-all, end-all solution they anticipated. One expected outcome of an ERP implementation is the ability to make better decisions. But are these newer systems enabling better decisions? Are decision makers, planners, supply officers and commanders able to do their jobs more efficiently and better complete their missions? The results are mixed at best.

Data, data everywhere
You can't make good decisions without good data.

Whether data is created and stored in newer ERP systems, locked in legacy systems, or maintained in desktop files such as spreadsheets, logistics and complementary support systems are awash in data. Some of it is useful – but some is little more than a waste of disk space. What's more, there is a lot of potentially useful data being collected, but nobody knows how to make sense out of it.

"Understanding how the data is going to be used becomes a critical factor in applying technology," says former IDB Executive Fellow Lt. Gen. Claude V. "Chris" Christianson, USA (Ret.), who was the director for logistics, J-4, until he retired in 2008. "Just collecting the data by itself isn't good enough. It needs to support a decision-making process and enable people to make better decisions."

Accessing the right data – and only the right data – to make the right decisions can be one of the biggest challenges. Currently, logistics data is stored in all kinds of formats, but is often incomplete or of bad quality. Some data is structured and neatly stored in relational databases or other organized formats. Other data, such as unstructured data from log books, is harder to incorporate into decision making.

In the end, good decisions in logistics affect readiness and operational effectiveness. Until recently, readiness was a measurement that seemed to be mutually exclusive from cost. However, as defense forces have continued to cut costs, readiness at any cost is no longer acceptable.

"If I have and can use the data to improve the reliability of a system, then I will not have to buy so many spare parts, and the cost comes down," said Vice Adm. Walter B. Massenburg, USN (Ret.), a current Executive Fellow at the Institute for Defense and Business (IDB), whose last assignment was Commander of Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent, MD.

Decision-making challenges
ERP systems have consolidated many proprietary legacy systems that once operated in silos. However, even today, gaining access to good, complete data is still a challenge because so much data still exists in disparate locations, formats and quality.  Good decisions still depend on good and complete data. Forward-looking defense logistics organizations are moving past reactive historical reporting and adopting proactive stances for planning and operations. They use the data they have more effectively to make supply chains and logistics operations more efficient. Given today’s economic climate, most governments want new ways to become more efficient and reduce costs without getting involved in high-cost, high-risk IT projects. Data integration and business analytics solutions that complement current systems can yield affordable results and quickly demonstrate significant ROI. Here are some examples of how SAS is helping military organizations address logistics challenges:

Management of materiel in transit
Gaining visibility into materiel in transit is a very big challenge in expeditionary forces. Not knowing the status of materiel or when it can be realistically expected can cause all kinds of unintended consequences – mostly related to the lack of confidence in the system.  Bad habits have developed over time, and hoarding of supplies/spare parts used to be common place. One retired government official once said that good supply officers order three of everything – one for stock, one in case the other one doesn’t arrive, and one to trade. A very expensive way to do business!

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the UK wanted to improve management, planning, and tracking of essential supplies and equipment from the UK to its operations deployed around the world. The goal was to provide front-line commands with the ability to plan procedures with greater certainty. 

“Together with HPES (EDS), SAS is helping provide the MoD logistics community with detailed information on how each step in the supply chain is performing and helping to identify areas for improvement – at a level of detail not previously possible,” said Roy Martin, a SAS employee and former Information Systems Strategy officer in the UK MoD’s Defense Logistics Organisation.  “Reduced duplication provides a clear cost and efficiency benefit. There is also a clear military effects benefit arising from the increased confidence in delivery for front-line commanders who can use that to plan for a higher tempo of operations.”

Maintenance forecasting and planning
Maintenance expenditures consume a large part of defense budgets. Current conflicts are drawing limited resources from proper maintenance and recapitalization of battle-weary equipment. Too often, maintenance is either reactive after a costly failure or routine – whether it’s needed or not. 

"Forecasting for maintenance capabilities is a complex, multi-disciplined, cross-organizational task," says John Wenke, retired Department of Defense executive and president of Blue Heron Services, a small logistics engineering consulting firm. "This is especially true in environments where multi-mission military equipment is used in different theaters of operation with significantly different environments and operational requirements. A great deal of valuable information about equipment is collected over its life cycle by operational, maintenance and supply organizations. But the full value of the data is often not realized to the extent possible."

SAS helps maintenance planners exploit the full value of their data and achieve their goals of enhancing the material condition and maximizing the flightline availability of aircraft. Using data mining and advanced analytics, maintenance planners can now explore data in unique ways to expose new insights. This results in higher systems availability, lower support costs, and more efficient maintenance forecasting and planning. 

Total asset visibility
Along with the drawdown of troops in Iraq goes the responsibility for properly resetting and disposing of equipment. Ultimately, equipment will either be redistributed within theater, retained with prepositioned stocks, transferred to other locations engaged in military operations, donated to foreign governments, or disposed of. Remaining equipment gets returned to the home country for repair and refurbishing.

Gaining visibility into equipment stores that include 60,000 to 80,000 containers, 50,000 vehicles and approximately 3 million different pieces of equipment is an enormous effort. SAS helps a military logistics organization support the reset of this equipment by helping commanders see equipment locations and conditions so they can decide what to do with it. Should they return it back to its home base or send it to the repair depot? Should they deploy it into another geographic area, leave it behind, or destroy it? In past drawdowns, losing track of equipment – permanently – was not uncommon. This effort goes a long way toward improving the military's stewardship of taxpayer funds.

Bio: Gail Bamford is an Industry Marketing Manager with SAS and has over 25 years experience helping IT companies develop marketing and sales strategies to address complex problems in the public sector, including defense logistics and national security.  She is actively involved in collaborative efforts to respond to the cyber-security challenges that confront government agencies.