Go Live! Army Depot Fires Up LMP

By Daphne MartinMay 21, 2009

Go Live! Army Depot Fires Up LMP
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Al Gonzales, Corpus Christi Army Depot LMP Site Lead, reveals the activities inside CAD's LMP Command Center to Brig. Gen Tim Crosby, PEO Aviation, Col. Neil Thurgood, PM UH-60 A/L Program while Dennis Williamson, CCAD Assistant Deputy for Maintenanc... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Go Live! Army Depot Fires Up LMP
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Go Live! The Logistics Modernization Program team joins Col. Joe Dunaway, Commander Corpus Christi Army Depot, in celebrating the very moment LMP is fired up replacing their 35-year-old logistics Standard Depot System used to manage operations. Photo... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Corpus Christi, TX - The Corpus Christi Army Depot went live here at 5 a.m.

May 14, with the Logistics Modernization Program, an innovative enterprise

resource planning package specifically designed for the Army.

In partnership with Computer Science Corporation, CCAD replaced their

35-year-old logistics Standard Depot System used to manage operations.

This was the largest SAP deployment worldwide to date, which added 5000 users.

It's the second implementation by Army Materiel Command - CCAD's major

command.

"This has truly been a team effort, and we are all a part of a historical,

momentous event," said Melody DeMaris, CCAD LMP Division Chief. "It's because

of this team that we made such great progress."

CSC joined with AMC to pursue modernization objectives in logistics chain

operations and increase operational efficiencies and decrease overall costs.

They provide consulting and solution delivery services to facilitate optimal

performance.

"This is my biggest implementation and is among the smoothest transitions out

of the 15 [implementations] I've been a part of," said John Blakowski, CSC

Site Lead and Industry Expert. "I credit the success so far to great planning

and execution to that plan."

LMP enables vertical and horizontal integration at all levels of logistics

across the Army enabling better planning, forecasting, and faster order

fulfillment. It's designed to process an inventory of up to 6 million items or

$40 billion in goods and services annually when fully deployed.

"As we're pulsing through our LMP business processes, we're putting more and

more data into the system and moving further into production," said Al

Gonzales, CCAD LMP Site Lead. "As expected, we're seeing some issues, but

we're working through them with no interruption to production."

Since 2007, CCAD has been preparing for LMP Go-Live with a team of more than

170 CCAD employees, partners and CSC representatives to ensure a well-planned,

prepared implementation with minimal impact.

The team participated in in-depth education and training regimens, data

accuracy efforts, along with intense examinations of system functionality,

changes to processes, procedures, policies, roles and responsibilities,

organizational structures, measurements, reporting and end user training.

Training nearly 2,000 end users was the most challenging pre-Go-Live effort

for the Depot team.

The CCAD team reviewed and developed training material, attended CSC

instructor-lead end-user courses addressing CCAD-specific concerns and

provided CCAD specific expertise for future end users.

The team conducted Rehearsal of Concept (ROC) Drills to prepare for

implementation. The drills rehearsed activities required to conduct business

and perform transactions immediately after Go-Live.

Using scripts and scenarios, participants practiced functions, then, as issues

arose they would call CCAD's Call Center for guidance and solutions.

"The preplanning has definitely paid off," added Gonzales.

LMP was first deployed in July 2003, to end users at the Army's

Communications-Electronics Command, Life Cycle Management Command, Defense

Finance and Accounting Service, Tobyhanna Army Depot and other Army Locations.

Upon full deployment, LMP will be used by more that 17,000 logistics and

financial professionals integrating business processes across all of the Army's

logistics systems.

"