How DLA's Supply Performance Affects Air Force Readiness

Security Journal, 2013

Very few endeavors in life are individual. The sum of knowledge and experiences come from the people with whom we have the privilege to interact, especially those that enrich or enlighten by their advice and experiences. To those friends and colleagues that have provided support, feedback and candid criticism over the years, I am eternally grateful! And to my professors, who exhibited immense patience and flexibility through military deployments and the demands of a full time career while enrolled in this program, I thank you. Completing a program leading to a Ph.D. while trying to balance research, studies, work, and family commitment is, to say the least, challenging. Your support, commitment, and understanding are sincerely appreciated. v Abstract of Dissertation Disruption Management in the Defense Ammunition Industrial Base Since September 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has focused a lot of attention on its capabilities to fight and prevail in multiple, simultaneous global conflicts. To successfully meet the demands of such a mission, a consistently responsive Defense Ammunition Industrial Base (DAIB) that delivers unique supplies through a secure supply chain is essential. Military supplies frequently have unique functions that are not widely used elsewhere; often, only one or limited numbers of producers of this materiel exists, many of which are single points of failure (SPOF). Examination of current DAIB systems reveals that the critical importance of this aspect of DOD success is often poorly addressed. In addition, methods for evaluating threats to what should be a secure supply chain are shown to be inadequate. If DAIB facilities are destroyed or severely damaged by acts of terrorism, natural or manmade disasters, what would occur? With limited alternatives for replacements, what recourse does the military have for acquiring these one-of-a-kind supplies? If ammunition is the lifeblood of the fighting forces, then having the appropriate types available in the required quantities is essential to combat effectiveness. This paper focuses on the DAIB by taking a closer look at its history and the risks to existing facilities, which are created by their current locations and facility vulnerabilities. Within this discussion, several possible solutions arise, with developing a redundant capability within the DAIB being the most viable.

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California THESIS, 2002

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Logistics Support plays an important role during development and utilization of a fighter aircraft. In the past, the logistics support activities had been mainly managed through paper based solutions. The shift to a computer based logistics support system assisted in quick analysis of the logistics record for supportability assessment and plan for alternatives. During the same time, the evolution of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions provided framework for exchange of engineering knowledge through effective configuration control, facilitating reduction in development/induction lead time. The need to reduce the developmental cycle time and the total cost including maintenance and support, and enhance the performance and reliability of the product led to the collaboration between PLM and logistics support systems. The PLM systems were extended to knit the engineering knowledge closely with the knowledge of logistics support, bringing the total lifecycle of an aircraft under configuration management. The integrated approach, also termed as Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), helped to define the performance and reliability objectives in the early stages of the program for the development of a maintenance friendly fighter aircraft with necessary support in place. The increased operational reliability thus led to innovations in the military aircraft contracting. The recent past has been witness to a novel contracting methodology known as Performance Based Logistics (PBL). Under PBL contracting, the Mission Capable Rates are defined at the design phase itself, and the obligation to keep the equipment in the operation ready state, over its serviceable life, rests on the manufacturer. This paper presents the requirements that must be considered for implementing ILS. Furthermore, the paper presents a conceptual PLM based enterprise framework that records failure data, analysis undertaken and the corresponding corrective actions. The suggested conceptual model has provisions to record the logistics support related data, i.e. Logistics Support Analysis Record (LSAR), in the format compliant with the standards followed worldwide. LSAR would draw its input from engineering activities as much as from logistics support activities. A systematic and comprehensive analytical study, i.e. Logistics Support Analysis (LSA), can be conducted on an iterative basis on the LSAR data, through all lifecycle phases of the product development to achieve the laid down availability and maintainability objectives. The proposed ILS will allow the subject experts in the areas of design, manufacturing, maintenance planning, maintenance execution, provisioning, support equipment and personnel training to

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The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) conducts Logistics Support Analysis (LSA) studies in various engineering and logistics efforts on the myriad of air defense weapon systems. In these studies, inventory spares provisioning, availability and sustainability analyses are key focus areas to ensure asset sustenance. In particular, OPUS10, a commercial-off-the-shelf software, is extensively used to conduct reparable spares optimization in acquisition programs. However, it is limited in its ability to conduct availability and sustainability analyses of time-varying operational demands, which are crucial in Operations & Support (O&S) and contingency planning. As the RSAF seeks expansion in its force structure to include more sophisticated weapon systems, the operating environment will become more complex. Agile and responsive logistics solutions are needed to ensure the RSAF engineering community stays abreast and consistently push for deepening competencies, particularly in LSA capabilities. This research is aimed at the development of a model solution that combines spares optimization and sustainability capabilities to meet the dynamic requirements in O&S and contingency operations planning. In particular, a unique dynamic operational profile conversion model was developed to realize these capabilities in the combined solution. It is envisaged that the research effort would afford the ease of use, versatility, speed and accuracy required in LSA studies, in order to provide the necessary edge in inventory reparable spares modeling. v Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my Wife and soon to be born Son for their patience and understanding throughout my time at the Air Force Institute of Technology. vi Acknowledgments My most sincere thanks go to my family for their patience and understanding throughout my AFIT experience, but especially for the many endless hours I spent developing this research. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Alan Johnson for his valuable guidance, complete trust and autonomy shown to me, without whom I could not have imagined putting this research together in a short span of time. Likewise, I would like to acknowledge my thesis reader, LtCol. (Dr.) Joseph Huscroft, for his frequent and pertinent advice throughout my research and coursework in AFIT. In addition, I wish to acknowledge the friendship and hard work of my fellow logistics management students, who have made my journey this one year all the more meaningful. Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues in both Air Engineering and Logistics Department and Defence Science & Technology Agency who provided the valuable support which I so crucially required in the course of this research.

2009

The Department of Defense (DOD) prepositions equipment at strategic locations around the world to enable it to field combat-ready forces in days, rather than the weeks it would take if equipment had to be moved from the United States to the locations of conflicts. DOD's prepositioned stock programs 1 support the National Military Strategy and are an important part of its overall strategic mobility framework. Through their individual programs, each of the military services maintains preconfigured groups of related materiel and equipment, known as "sets," in geographic locations around the world. These prepositioned materiel and equipment sets have played an important role in supporting ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, sustained operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a toll on the condition and readiness of military equipment. Over the last few years, we have identified a number of ongoing and long-term challenges regarding DOD's prepositioned stocks. 2 In 2008 we testified that some of the Army's prepositioned stocks have been depleted and that it was unclear when those critical reserve stocks would be replenished or how much the total cost to do so would be. 3 Although the services have estimated the cost and time frame to replenish their stocks in DOD's report to Congress, the services are currently reviewing their prepositioning programs to address new requirements to meet future needs. DOD has reported to Congress that the services are committed to resetting 4 prepositioned materiel but must balance these resetting efforts with the 1 While the Army, Marine Corps, and Navy use the term Prepositioned Stock program, the Air Force uses the term War Reserve Materiel program. For purposes of this report, we use the term prepositioned stock program or prepositioned stocks for all services.

Military Operations Research, 2000

Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) is a crucial stage in the process of acquiring a new system for the DoD. AoA is essentially a multi-criteria decision process that involves several stakeholders. An AoA is an analytical comparison of the operational effectiveness, cost, and risks of proposed materiel solutions to gaps and shortfalls in operational capability. Two of the three criteriaeffectiveness (what can the system do and how its capabilities fit the operational requirements) and comparative costs of potentially viable solutions draw the most attention in such studies. The third set, risks, which typically draws somewhat less attention in an AoA than the other two, is concerned with the technical, operational, and programmatic implications for each alternative. More precisely, we describe operational risks as the long-term readiness, sustainment, and logistics requirements for the specified alternative. In this paper we study in detail the content of this set of criteria, focusing on the factors that affect the long-term viability and usefulness of an alternative, and propose Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as the analytic framework for evaluating alternatives with respect to the criteria in this set.

1988

: The inability of the armed services to accurately forecast their spares requirements has been an ongoing and widespread problem. This Note considers a regression methodology for spares requirements forecasting, It contains a nontechnical description of current forecasting approaches, presents the approach suggested by the authors, and details the methods used to calculate the requirements for the C-5, the F-15, and the F-16 aircraft. The authors conclude that, even after eliminating collections of parts whose costs are difficult to predict, costs for the remainder of the requirements are difficult to predict with the needed accuracy. Keywords: Forecasting, Spare parts, Regression analysis, Military aircraft, Fighter aircraft, Data bases.

Handbook of Military Sciences

Military logistics can be seen as a set of processes that supports military organizations in their development into a capable and functional sustaining military force. Thus, the objective of this chapter is to bring to the forefront and elaborate on some of the foundational premises of military logistics as it is portrayed in its body of literature. To guide this presentation, a generic model is presented which relates logistics’ process and structure sides to its generic and mission specific sides. After these generic foundations, two deep dive themes are explored: strategic alignment of resources and logistics management and strategic defense supply chain security management. Recent historic cases illustrate the two themes. The chapter concludes with new ideas on military logistics innovation and draws attention to innovation and performance challenges in the context of military organizations cooperation.

2002

The Air Force uses the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) to fund all elements of its logistics supply chain at appropriate levels. The PPBS process has difficulty doing this well. The authors of this report propose strategic and policy changes to help the ...

2008

School of Business, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. He is experienced in teaching a range of operations management and management science courses in the Executive and Fulltime MBA programs. Areas of Apte's research interests include managing service operations, supply-chain management, technology management, and globalization of information-intensive services. He has published over 30 articles, five of which have won awards from professional societies. His research articles have been published in prestigious journals, including Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, IIE Transactions, Interfaces, and MIS Quarterly. He has co-authored one book, Manufacturing Automation and has completed work on another co-authored book, Managing in the Information Economy.

2010

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Congressional Research Service, 2021

This CRS In Focus describes Department of Defense (DOD) Pre-Positioned War Reserve Materiel, or PWRM. This report is intended to be a primer for those who are interested in the fundamental statutes, policies, and worldwide locations for PWRM, including Service-specific stock materiel and intended coverage areas, and considerations for Congress. *Updated November 26, 2021. w/Lt. Col. Maureen Trujillo, U.S. Air Force Note: The original version of this report was produced by former CRS Analyst Tyler Hacker. It has been revised to reflect current policy, practice, and law.