KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command is exploring ways to use advanced data analytics systems to streamline and optimize operations, including in the warehouse at the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center-Europe.
Data science and advanced analytics — new capabilities under AMLC’s Integrated Logistics Support Center, or ILSC — provide the power to process vast amounts of information and produce valuable insights to help boost total asset visibility and ordering efficiency through USAMMC-E for its customer base.
“Data science contributes to the mission by supporting the development and application of new analytical methods to predict and visualize requirements to perform various missions and functions throughout AMLC,” data scientist Tajesvi Bhat said.
Members of the ILSC’s Logistics and Technical Support Directorate, or LTSD, traveled to the center in Germany to provide training and create a virtual dashboard to track orders of medical materiel as they move through the USAMMC-E warehouse.
“The dashboard tool will help USAMMC-E plan their efforts in picking, packing and preparing items for transport,” said Joel Cook, lead technical information specialist for the LTSD. “The final product provides increased visibility into warehouse processes and orders and will assist the team’s readiness.”
Cook and Bhat were joined by LTSD Director Arthur Braithwaite and data scientist Julia Contarino for the seven-day visit in late May.
Bhat and Contarino led on-site training sessions with USAMMC-E leaders on how to automate data pulls and analyze it through a cloud-based software called Army Vantage, which can provide useful insights of information in the fast-paced world of medical logistics.
Vantage allows USAMMC-E to visualize their data on “a big picture level,” while also allowing them to drill down into the details to answer specific questions they may have in the data and consider ways to close efficiency gaps, according to Contarino.
Lt. Col. Todd Schwarz, USAMMC-E’s deputy commander for support operations, said the dashboard helped to connect and simplify multiple disparate data streams in use by warehouse operations teams, helping to improve awareness on customer orders, trends, opportunities and obstacles.
“While we’re still working toward the final product, it has been a wonderful experience being exposed to what the ILSC team can do and what they can assist with,” Schwarz said. “With customer-based medical materiel support, data is everything.”
One specific challenge, as noted by the data science team, was how the USAMMC-E warehouse team processed and prioritized the constant stream of orders.
Rather than addressing them on a first-come, first-served basis, the team implemented a route-based approach where orders were prioritized based on delivery routes due out within the next three days. Doing this would streamline the picking and packing process, ensuring deliveries were accurate and on time.
Bhat said the dashboard optimizes that process, identifying the priority of orders based on their route schedules and displays orders that should be processed that day.
“Once the order is marked as packed, it often disappears from the system,” she said. “The dashboard was able to resolve this issue and retain order status until the moment it physically departed the warehouse, effectively providing end-to-end visibility into the warehouse process from the moment the order was placed until the order departs the warehouse.”
USAMMC-E leaders said the training and data analysis tools also would help free up additional time for the team to prioritize other work around the warehouse.
At the same time, LTSD members said the face-to-face interaction and one-off meetings held with different leaders at USAMMC-E during the week enabled more discussion on various issues where ILSC teams can provide additional support.
“The visit provided valuable firsthand insight on the USAMMC-E mission and operations that greatly assisted the LTSD team in correctly interpreting and validating their understanding and assumptions which were instrumental in the team’s understanding to support their product design and development,” Braithwaite said. “Additionally, it provided an opportunity to share with the USAMMC-E team some of the other work the AMLC ILSC LTSD is doing on behalf of the MEDLOG community.”
USAMMC-E, one of AMLC’s three direct reporting units, serves as the theater lead agent for medical materiel, or TLAMM, providing integrated medical logistics management in multiple theaters, including U.S. European Command, U.S. African Command and Department of State activities in the region.
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