REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Army Materiel Command’s ongoing efforts in posturing, synchronizing and optimizing supply chain management continue as the command realigns its workforce.
AMC and its major subordinate commands – including the Lifecycle Management Commands – are in the process of standardizing and streamlining the way it manages the Army supply chain through an initiative called Supply Chain Optimization.
The Supply Chain Optimization seeks to improve effectiveness by ensuring supply chain management is both data-driven and efficient. The optimization efforts will impact more than 2,000 professionals working within supply chain management across the AMC enterprise. Position descriptions will be standardized across the field to better align the workforce with best practices, while keeping the uniqueness of each command intact.
"Supply Chain Management is becoming more and more complex," said Deacon Maddox, AMC's supply chain management director. "We have to adapt our processes and organizations accordingly. We are trying to drive our decision making across the supply chain with more standardized operations and a strong data platform to facilitate them.”
AMC is expecting major improvements to demand forecasting, procurement, supply planning and how the command manages its orders in the Logistics Modernization Program.
Demand planning, supply planning and sourcing are all responsibilities that fall within the supply chain management workforce’s purview. Over the years, the workforce has been overtasked with competing priorities, leading many to become generalists, according to Dr. Daniel Parker, AMC’s Chief of Supply Integration.
Supply Chain Optimization aims to better support these professionals, realigning their focus areas, and offering additional training opportunities and career enhancement. For some, this may mean assuming a new role or responsibility.
“This is not a reduction of force effort, this is an alignment effort,” Parker said. “As the focal point of the job changes, one of the things we want to ensure is the individual that is impacted has the opportunity to train in their new responsibilities.”
In the coming weeks, AMC will begin conducting mission briefs and send a survey to the supply chain management workforce to collect input for the Supply Chain Optimization plan. The Individual Activity Assessment survey will be sent to personnel and supervisors that are involved in any step of the supply chain process, between material planning and supplier payment.
The survey will allow personnel to note how much time they spend on certain tasks and on additional tasks outside of supply chain management. Parker said it’s an opportunity for these professionals to provide honest and open feedback to support Supply Chain Optimization.
“It's not to ding them for a weakness,” Parker said. “It's to look at skills, time required to do different things, and how to best position the resources we have to garner best business practices.”
It will also highlight areas where additional training is needed, and as a result, the workforce can expect in-stride, virtual training opportunities in areas including data analytics.
In conjunction with the Organic Industrial Base Implementation Plan, the overall goal of Supply Chain Optimization is to improve visibility into the supply chain to achieve consistent outcomes and further support Army readiness.
“In tandem with OIB modernization efforts, we are installing modern practices and data systems in LCMCs in order to perform sustainment functions better,” Maddox said. “It’s really about seeing ourselves and making better decisions with data.”
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