After years of combat operations and decades of using standard Army information management systems to sustain readiness, the Army has taken the initiative to leverage enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and technology to improve and condense sustainment operations and processes. The Army is fielding ERP systems that modernize automated logistics at both the national and field levels.
At the national level, the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) is being used by all the Army Materiel Command (AMC) life cycle management commands and their supporting depots and arsenals. At the field level, the Army is in the process of fielding the Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-Army) to its tactical formations.
LMP and GCSS-Army will improve supply and maintenance business processes with the intent of making the logistics tail more efficient and effective from the factory to the foxhole. The ultimate goal of this effort is to improve sustainment and reduce the cost of supporting readiness.
DATA MANAGEMENT AT LOGSA
This ERP effort includes the creation of new business intelligence tools to synthesize the data that the Army stores, making it more useful to senior Army leaders and commanders. This is the business of "big data," which are data sets that are too complex for traditional data processing applications. Turning this big data into information that leaders can use to make the right decisions at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels is the role of AMC's Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA).
Some Soldiers think of LOGSA as the home of the Logistics Information Warehouse (LIW), where more than 65,000 users get asset visibility, equipment readiness information, and technical manuals. LOGSA's value goes well beyond the data in LIW. At its core, LOGSA's true value lies not with the data but with the Soldier and civilian experts who work on supply, maintenance, and transportation business processes.
At LOGSA, data is treated as a precious commodity that is just as important as any weapon system. Thanks to the multibillion-dollar acquisition effort that the Army has undertaken to field LMP and GCSS-Army, the resulting information, which is portrayed through a business intelligence capability, helps the Army see its readiness posture in ways that were never before possible. These business intelligence tools enable commanders at all levels to make the proper decisions to improve Army readiness. Improving readiness adds to the combat power of the Army.
LMI DST
In 2011, LOGSA developed the Lead Materiel Integrator Decision Support Tool (LMI DST) to enable commanders to more effectively and efficiently maintain and increase equipment-on-hand percentages. LMI DST is an unclassified, web-based materiel management tool that uses LIW data to enable stakeholder collaboration on the distribution and redistribution of Army materiel. With this tool, leaders can identify shortages and surpluses of property across all commands. DST streamlines property disposition among units.
LMI DST's predictive features help leaders to visualize equipment demand and supply sources. This enables leaders to make the best use of equipment by analyzing the second- and third-order effects of the decision plans. The tool considers factors such as location and transportation costs that would result from a pending decision. When equipment movement is directed, DST allows automatic tracking of lateral transfers and turn-ins. Finally, with a feature called Blue Sky Planning, DST provides the capability to create and modify force structure and authorizations in order to run what-if scenarios and analyze the effects.
M-COP
LOGSA is delivering tools that will enable Army leaders to make more influential decisions to support readiness. These tools affect equipment readiness because leaders at all levels gain visibility of equipment and performance in ways never before possible. The most recently introduced is the Materiel Common Operating Picture (M-COP).
Through M-COP, LOGSA provides and maintains dashboards for an array of logistics activities, to include maintenance and supply statuses, asset statuses, and logistics services. M-COP can provide decision support from an organizational perspective (build, sustain, reorganize, and reduce), from an operational perspective (sustain, deploy, shape operations, and retrograde), and from a life-cycle management perspective (field, sustain, modernize, and divest). Actionable logistics information helps users at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.
M-COP provides timely data to support critical decisions and integrates data from the Army's ERP systems, such as LMP, GCSS-Army, and the Army Enterprise Systems Integration Program, with data from ERP-enabling systems because not all logistics business processes are scheduled to migrate to the ERP systems.
LOGSA's M-COP serves as a functional integrator to provide a holistic picture across the enterprise. M-COP dashboards offer descriptive and diagnostic capabilities and inform leaders of current equipment statuses. Future enhancements to the system will offer predictive and prescriptive information that will forecast readiness issues and offer leaders solutions to improve readiness.
READINESS ENABLERS
Through the use of readiness enablers, LOGSA has achieved great success in supporting the Army's readiness posture. Readiness enablers provide unique capabilities that ERP systems, the Army, and joint forces cannot. These enablers are the Army Oil Analysis Program (AOAP); the Army Airlift Clearance Authority (AACA); "PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly" magazine and technical manuals; the Packaging, Storage, and Containerization Center (PSCC); the Expert Authorized Stockage List (ASL) Team; and acquisition logistics tools.
AOAP. The AOAP supports unit maintenance readiness. It is part of an effort across the Department of Defense (DOD) to determine impending component failures and lubricant conditions through periodic laboratory evaluation of used oil samples. Currently LOGSA's AOAP labs process more than 300,000 samples annually.
AACA. The AACA validates all Army-sponsored air eligible cargo, helping to ensure prudent use of second destination transportation funds. AACA determines modal requirements based on cost, weight, national stock number, class of supply, and other transportation characteristics as defined in the Defense Transportation Regulation. As of August 2016, the AACA provided a cost avoidance of $83.7 million for the Army second destination transportation funding.
"PS" AND TECHNICAL MANUALS. "PS" is a Department of the Army technical bulletin that provides information for equipment operators, unit maintainers, and supply personnel. It is a commander's tool for enhancing the combat and materiel readiness of equipment. LOGSA also manages and maintains Electronic Technical Manuals Online, the Army's official electronic technical manual repository. More than 12,500 electronic technical manual files are updated periodically and maintained in the repository.
PSCC. The PSCC provides worldwide logistics and engineering assistance for packaging, storage, hazardous materials, automatic identification technology, distribution facilities modernization, standardization, and packaging applications testing. PSCC provides its services to AMC, other Army commands, DOD components, and other federal agencies.
EXPERT ASL TEAM. The Expert ASL Team is the sole source of retail-level stockage determination products. It provides responsive, specifically tailored or ad hoc ASL recommendations, professional assistance and site visits, web-based information repositories, and other products for improving demand- or consumption-supported supply performance.
ACQUISITION LOGISTICS TOOLS. LOGSA supports the acquisition domain by developing and maintaining Product Support Analysis standards, guidance handbooks, and tools that ensure the DOD acquisition community implements consistent processes during development.
LOGSA has led the way in managing big data and providing actionable information management through the development of business intelligence and decision support capabilities. LOGSA uses institutional knowledge to deliver readiness enablers that fill ERP gaps. Army service component commands, Army commands, the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology have entrusted LOGSA to deliver readiness solutions.
As the Army's trusted source of logistics readiness solutions for tactical, operational, and strategic customers, LOGSA will ensure that logistics commanders and Soldiers have the tools and readiness enablers to sustain warfighters today and well into the future.
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Maj Gen. Steven A. Shapiro is the deputy chief of staff for logistics and operations at the Army Materiel Command. He is a graduate of the Ordnance Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Army Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College.
Jonathan W. Pierce is a retired Army master sergeant and the supervisory editor of PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Wilkes University.
Jenny Trainer is the project manager for the Materiel Common Operating Picture at the Logistics Support Activity. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration in marketing from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
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This article was published in the November-December 2016 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.
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