AMCOM team pursues metrics for supply management

By Dan O'Boyle (AMCOM Public Affairs)April 30, 2012

AMCOM team pursues metrics for supply management
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"All we want are the facts, ma'am," said police Sgt. Joe Friday during the classic "Dragnet" television series. Gathering the facts is also a first step for supply chain managers.

The classic process for supply chain management is: Find out the facts, come up with the plan, execute the plan and evaluate the results.

AMCOM Integrated Materiel Management Center's Tiffany Johnson and her 22-member team are using that formula to help improve the supply chain.

"The Metrics Integrated Process Team is responsible for generating metric requirements in a dashboard, or automated analysis tool, that will improve situational awareness and empower decision making at differing levels of management," Johnson said. "The Metrics Integrated Process Team wants to ensure that we identify leading indicators that will produce a healthy supply chain.

"We have been benchmarking with other commands and the private sector to examine their metrics and automated solutions so that we will be able to identify key requirements needed to achieve a successful AMCOM solution. This dashboard should provide an end-to-end view of the command's total supply chain with metrics focusing on cost, efficiency and effectiveness."

Identifying the appropriate metrics to accompany future state business processes will

leverage the Logistics Modernization Program as the data source, and also align the command's supply chain metrics with those of the Army Materiel Command.

The development of enterprise-level supply chain metrics will also answer the following questions:

• Who is this metric helping?

• Who does this metric affect?

• What does this metric tell us?

• When does this metric need to be run?

• Where will we house this metric?

• How can we drill down to identify the root cause of trends?

The answers to those questions, in turn, will identify and define the functional metrics for the 17 Supply Chain Management Enterprise Teams as well as develop end-to-end supply chain metrics, and a path forward for the sustainment metrics to support the AMCOM dashboard.

"It's similar to what a project manager does every day, in terms of focusing on the key factors of cost schedule and performance to make informed decisions at the strategic level," IMMC's Brian Wood said. "With the establishment of a centralized and clearly defined set of drill-down capable, strategic enterprise level metrics, we envision enabling effective, efficient and proactive management of the AMCOM supply chain.

"What's more, our metrics will improve situational awareness and empower decision making at differing levels of management and business areas, including, importantly, item management."

Members of the metrics team include Johnson, Jennifer Vogeltanz, Chris Ricketts, Chad Reaves, Mark Pearsall, Olivia Cowart, Roger Gray, John Keck, Tara Holman, Kenya Rucker, Lori Harting, Jana Childers, Karen Balch, Eric Moton, Dennis Sturdivant, Carolyn Vaughn, Narda Johnson, Belinda Leak, Louise Carter, Willie Gaddis, Terry Green, John Haley and Tom Ray.

All members of the AMCOM work force are encouraged to visit the Supply Chain Management Enterprise "War Room" on the second floor of building 5301, as well as visit http://transformingamcom.redstone.army.mil.