The 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) (Airborne) deployed four companies and a battalion headquarters to Poland and the Baltic states in April 2014 to conduct combined training with NATO allies in Operation Atlantic Resolve. Several months later, the brigade participated in Exercise Saber Junction 14, a training exercise involving 17 nations operating under the leadership of the Lithuanian Iron Wolf Brigade.
Both events presented major logistics tracking challenges, which provided the opportunity to perform a comparative analysis of the Battle Command Sustainment Support System (BCS3) and traditional Microsoft Excel-based logistics status tracking methods.
THE MISSIONS
In April 2014, a company-sized 173rd IBCT paratrooper contingent arrived in Poland to begin training with Polish troops. Other companies from the brigade arrived in a time-phased deployment to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve, a long-term partnership for training on logistics, situational awareness, and planning. The 173rd used BCS3 to track logistics for this operation.
In August 2014, the 173rd and multiple units from across Europe converged on Hohenfels, Germany, for Saber Junction 14, one of the largest multinational training events conducted in U.S. Army Europe. The G-4 element of the Lithuanian Mechanized Infantry "Iron Wolf" Brigade and the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion's (BSB's) support operations section (SPO) bore the responsibility of tracking logistics for three battalions of the 173rd IBCT, a U.S. engineer battalion, a Slovenian mechanized battalion, and a Czech mechanized battalion.
The Iron Wolf Brigade's standard operating procedures required the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This exclusive reliance on Excel for logistics status reporting provided an opportunity to observe the effectiveness of logistics tracking without BCS3.
POINTS OF COMPARISON
These two missions provided comparable environments in which to analyze the effectiveness of BCS3 and Excel spreadsheets to track sustainment. This article will discusses the issue along five main topics:
• The advantages of using an Excel spreadsheet to track and report logistics for Exercise Saber Junction 14.
• The disadvantages of using an Excel spreadsheet to track logistics in Exercise Saber Junction 14.
• The advantages of tracking and reporting logistics using BCS3 during the 173rd's Operation Atlantic Resolve mission.
• The disadvantages of using BCS3 during the 173rd's Operation Atlantic Resolve mission.
• Conclusions regarding the effectiveness of BCS3 and Excel spreadsheets in tracking logistics.
ADVANTAGES OF EXCEL
In both missions, the process of logistics reporting began with a logistics status report (LOGSTAT) sent by each of the reporting units. A representative from each company created a daily LOGSTAT to show the status of each relevant class of supply.
This report included administrative data, such as number of personnel, unit, location, and date-time group. It then listed each relevant class of supply and the pertinent items in each category. The last section of the report included additional information pertinent to the LOGSTAT.
During Saber Junction 14, once each LOGSTAT was created, a designated representative emailed it or brought it on a disk to the 173rd BSB's SPO. After consolidating the reports, the SPO forwarded them to the Iron Wolf Brigade G-4. The Lithuanians received the LOGSTATs, added the columns from each of the reports to produce a compiled LOGSTAT with the total numbers for each class of supply, and then sent it to the division headquarters.
The deputy SPO took the same data from the LOGSTATs and used Excel spreadsheets to produce the SPO's desired information, which was converted to a PowerPoint presentation featuring a map of the fictitious country in which the multinational brigade operated. The deputy SPO then produced three slides that depicted class I (subsistence), class IIIB (bulk petroleum, oils, and lubricants), class V (ammunition), class VII (major end items), and class VIII (medical materiel) levels for each unit by geographic location.
Units often design their own Excel spreadsheets to track commodities in order to address details that their commanders deem significant. The ability to enter data in a spreadsheet that uses preset formulas to immediately produce valuable information is a powerful tool for a SPO.
Once a spreadsheet is created, it can be used in any environment to track logistics and can be adjusted as required for future operations. An Excel spreadsheet, tailored to the needs of a logistics officer, can be an effective tool for increasing a unit's combat capability.
Another benefit of using an Excel spreadsheet is that an Internet connection is not needed to enter the data.
DISADVANTAGES OF EXCEL
Although using spreadsheets offers short-term advantages by providing a logistics officer with specific information, in the long run it doubles the data-entry workload. For example, in Saber Junction 14, which used exclusively Excel spreadsheets, the 173rd BSB SPO and the Iron Wolf Brigade G-4 used separate spreadsheets to produce information that their respective commanders considered critical. This meant that data had to be manually entered twice to produce the desired reports.
Populating Excel spreadsheets offline in an austere environment where Internet connectivity is not guaranteed is advantageous. However, at some point even the data on a spreadsheet will need to be sent to a higher level unit that is beyond walking distance.
For example, suppose a unit in an isolated area never had Internet connectivity and was not scheduled to receive it. If the unit's supply clerk entered LOGSTAT data into an Excel spreadsheet, this data would still need to be transferred to a higher echelon. Once the LOGSTAT reached an echelon that had connectivity, the data could be entered into BCS3.
The very small aperture terminal and other portable communications devices in the Army's inventory allow a unit to connect anywhere in the world. An alternate solution is for the LOGSTAT to be sent over VHF radio. While this would be time-consuming the first time, after the transmittal of the first report, only changes in existing numbers would need to be reported.
BENEFITS OF BCS3
One key advantage BCS3 offers is the relatively easy process for creating a template. For the Operation Atlantic Resolve deployment, the SPO noncommissioned officer-in-charge and the BCS3 field representative created a unit task organization (UTO) for each of the four deployed companies. Once they had prepared this template, they added items from the baseline resource item list to create a tracked items list (TIL). After creating the TIL, they began entering the LOGSTATs sent by the companies.
In Operation Atlantic Resolve, a designated representative located in each of the four countries produced a LOGSTAT similar to those used at Saber Junction 14 and emailed it to the deployed battalion S-4 officer. The S-4 officer then emailed the four reports to officials at home station in Vicenza, Italy, including the brigade S-4 and company commanders of the deployed units. This daily email included the four LOGSTATs as attachments and comments on changes in the supply situation, movement of equipment, and planned upcoming supply shipments.
An additional benefit of using BCS3 was the uniformity in tracking logistics at echelons above brigade. All of the units could share logistics information rapidly and easily because they all sent their LOGSTATs to a central location for processing into the BCS3 system.
Similarly, if every unit in the Army used BCS3, this would dramatically increase compatibility among different organizations. Particularly, a stateside unit preparing to rotate to Operation Atlantic Resolve could use BCS3 to monitor its predecessor's logistics requirements, which would help it anticipate its own requirements during deployment if the units had similar tables of organization and equipment.
A final positive aspect of BCS3 is its ability to provide leaders at all levels a real-time view of logistics information from their Department of Defense (DOD) computers. A leader could view logistics data using the Logistics Reporting Tool or the Combat Power Tool. With access to a BCS3 system, a person could view color-coded reports for classes III, V, and VII and personnel.
DISADVANTAGES OF BCS3
One potential disadvantage of using BCS3 is that the higher headquarters, which must dictate the template for logistics reporting, needs access to BCS3. Another problem is that reporting units that do not have BCS3 have to use an alternate reporting method. Subordinate elements that do not possess BCS3 can still participate in logistics tracking using an exportable Excel spreadsheet.
BCS3 contains an exportable spreadsheet so that a partner nation unit can enter data onto a non-DOD laptop. This spreadsheet, once forwarded from an allied nation unit to an element with BCS3 or the BCS3 logistics reporting tool, could be imported for logistics reporting. However, without a reliable Internet connection, BCS3 cannot connect to the server to upload data.
With the U.S. Army increasingly operating in a multinational environment, it would be beneficial to use training exercises to introduce our partner nations to BCS3 in order to improve interoperability among countries in logistics tracking. Proactive efforts to introduce multinational partners to BCS3 could reduce obstacles to using BCS3 in logistics tracking.
A minor obstacle encountered in Operation Atlantic Resolve involved the original creation of the UTO and the TIL. Unlike an Excel spreadsheet that can be easily restructured and reused for different exercises and operations, a new UTO and TIL must be created in BCS3 for every operation. However, they are relatively simple to establish. Even if there are no BCS3-trained users, a field service representative can access BCS3 remotely to assist in setting up the UTO and TIL.
In addition, when the units supporting the operation rotated out and were replaced by other companies from different battalions within the brigade, a new UTO had to be created. This was difficult because it required migrating all of the equipment from one set of unit identification codes to the newly created unit identification codes for the transfer of authority between the companies.
When the new UTO was created, all of the information from the old template had to be transferred to the new template. This was accomplished by exporting all of the data into Excel and then importing it to the new UTO. However, as with the original UTO and TIL, the BCS3 field service representative accessed the unit's BCS3 and performed this process remotely in several hours.
BCS3 VERSUS EXCEL CONCLUSIONS
After personally observing an operation that exclusively used BCS3 and an operation that exclusively utilized Excel spreadsheets, I conclude that the decision to use Excel or BCS3 must be made on a case-by-case basis depending on several factors.
Is the unit operating in a multinational environment? If so, then if the headquarters element does not have BCS3, it is most likely to dictate to its subordinates that LOGSTATs be submitted in Excel format.
Do higher echelons of command and theater sustainment elements have an interest in viewing supply levels? For Saber Junction 14, higher echelons did not have an interest in viewing supply levels, but in Operation Atlantic Resolve, BCS3 was used partly because many leaders wanted to have real-time access to logistics information. In a deployment to a war zone with geographically dispersed units and many levels of leadership with a vested interest in maintaining supplies above certain levels, it also would be advisable to use BCS3.
How long is the operation? In an 11-day exercise like Saber Junction 14, it would have taken at least a day to set up the UTO and TIL because of the complexity of the operation. (This includes the time it takes to gather information from units.) Consequently, it may not be beneficial to go through this process for a short-term field training exercise.
I strongly recommend that units train as many of their logistics personnel as possible on BCS3. Units should also install all of the necessary updates on their BCS3s so that a decision to use the system will not be hindered by software issues or a lack of training.
However, for training value purposes, it could still be beneficial for BCS3 operators to go through the process of setting up the UTO and TIL for a short-term operation in order to build and reinforce operator skill sets. For ongoing operations such as Operation Atlantic Resolve, I highly recommend implementing BCS3.
Both BCS3 and Excel spreadsheets have their own set of benefits and drawbacks. The decision to use one tool or the other depends on the requirements of the mission, its leaders, and the unique set of challenges presented by the operation.
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Sgt. 1st Class David Williams is the support operations noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion in Vicenza, Italy. He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame and a juris doctorate from the University of Southern California School of Law.
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This article was published in the May-June 2015 issue of Army Sustainment magazine
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