DOD wants to fix creaky distribution systems

Defense officials are seeking new methods, tools and philosophies to improve the Defense Department's creaky distribution program, the Defense Logistics Agency’s Defense Distribution Center has announced. That program is a collection of loosely knit systems cobbled together by the individual services and joint efforts, resulting in a fractious and complex system that routinely is not optimized, according to the DLA. The distribution center said Oct. 31 it wants to evaluate new products or services, or improvements to existing products or services. Any new tools or system must let the DLA distribute the one supply chain and encompass all classes of supplies, the center said, adding that the tools should eliminate duplicative efforts across the supply chain. The tools should also use commercial best practices of tiered distribution and synchronized and scheduled delivery, the agency said. The system should also provide an architecture flexible enough to incorporate additions to the distribution network, and it should integrate supply and transportation information technology systems to providing end-to-end visibility, the agency added. The project's first phase will be an independent study of the Defense Distribution Depot Susquehanna Pennsylvania in New Cumberland, Pa., that will focus on identifying processes as candidates for continuous process improvement.