Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, USN Commander, Military Sealift Command

Commander's Perspective

Making supply-chain logistics seamless

When you're up to your neck in alligators, it's sometimes hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp. That old saying has been around for a long, long time, but it's just as true today as it was when they were working on the Panama Canal. You see, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture when you get bogged down in details, especially when the details bite!

Sometimes, we at MSC get bogged down in the details of transporting combat gear to U.S. forces where it's needed, when it's needed. Transportation involves details. But, the big picture is seamless logistics — getting the needed piece of equipment or repair part from the factory or the fort to the folks who need it in the field or foxhole in the most efficient and most effective manner possible.

In-transit visibility

One of the best methods to help achieve this seamless distribution is in-transit visibility — knowing where each piece of equipment, each vehicle, each tank of fuel is at any given time and when it will reach the war fighter.

During the first Gulf War, an enormous amount of material was delivered to the Gulf — more than 40,000 containers alone. And more than half of those had to be opened to see what was in them before the contents could be distributed to the field commanders who had actually called for the material. We just hadn't developed a system to track all that cargo reliably and in real time.

Process ownership

That's one of the reasons U.S. Transportation Command, or TRANSCOM, was designated the distribution process owner, or DPO, for defense transportation and distribution in 2003. It's not just about transportation anymore — it includes collection, distribution and supply-chain visibility. As a result, we now have better in-transit visibility as TRANSCOM and its components introduce new technology, such as radio frequency identification, or RFID, to not only tell the war fighter where a container is within the supply chain, but what's in the container.

The DPO has precipitated some organizational changes also, such as implementation of the Joint Deployment and Distribution Operations Centers, whose mission is to support regional combatant commanders' operational objectives by synchronizing and optimizing strategic and multi-modal resources to maximize distribution, force deployment and sustainment. The ultimate goal is to maximize each field commander's combat effectiveness through improved end-to-end distribution and total asset in-transit visibility.

The Army component command for TRANSCOM changed its name from Military Traffic Management Command to Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to more fully encompass the idea of seamlessness. As this new paradigm matures, perhaps TRANSCOM will change its name to more accurately reflect its ownership of the entire defense distribution process.

As TRANSCOM executes its mission to synchronize the distribution of personnel and equipment from factory to foxhole by eliminating existing seams between current distribution processes and standardizing the policies, vision and performance goals in the defense supply chain, we will continue to refine our processes and methods. We'll make sure that when a soldier needs bullets or a tank mechanic needs a set of bearings, it won't make any difference that they're on the other side of the world - he/she will get those critical supplies when and where they need them.

Classic example

Here's a classic example of how the DPO concept has been working since its inception in 2003. The war fighters recently called TRANSCOM and asked for a specific class ship to be on berth to pick up 150 vital combat vehicles with a delivery 30 days hence. MSC was tasked to activate the ship. However, the MSC team immediately asked the question — how many of these vehicles are being produced at the factory on a weekly basis? The answer was 150. So, the MSC team countered with "wait one more week and we'll activate one of our fast sealift ships and deliver 300 vehicles on the required date instead of just 150." Without TRANSCOM's authority as the DPO, we would not have necessarily asked that question.

Industry partnerships

We'll also take full advantage of our partnerships in the maritime, transportation and logistics industries. If UPS or FEDEX can do next day delivery and let the customer track the shipment, maybe there's potential for us to leverage that knowledge and ability.

Retail comparison

For example, compare your favorite local retail outlet to a U.S. infantry battalion somewhere in the world. Your local retailer must have a stock of goods to sell to customers and supplies to run the store, much the same as the battalion needs expendable stock and supplies to complete its mission.

The retail store's headquarters buys goods and supplies and has them shipped to the local store. So does the battalion. Most local stores don't have warehouses for storing large amounts of stock. Neither does an infantry battalion. So, both rely on timely delivery of the material they need.

Both systems use multi-modal transportation — land, sea, air —and both attempt to forecast their needs, but need a reliable method of monitoring the progress of deliveries to do a good job of forecasting

Now, here's the difference: When your local retailer needs supplies, they deal with one entity to forecast, order and track the goods through the supply chain.

The military unit, however, before TRANSCOM assumed ownership of the distribution process, may have had to search for answers through a multitude of agencies and information systems. That is now changing, and America's war fighters will be better able to execute their mission.

Third party logistics

There's an entire industry out there — third party logistics — that revolves around seamless delivery of products from manufacturer to consumer. Management of the distribution process is at the core of the industry. If you look at some of the players, you'll find many parallels with what TRANSCOM does. You'll also find the parallels for MSC, SDDC and Air Mobility Command as components of the defense transportation and distribution system.

One of our missions during the MSC transformation is to review the processes that we use to complete our mission with an eye toward making them better, more effective and more efficient. Seamless integration of transportation and distribution with total supply-chain visibility is a guiding factor. The lessons we can learn from third party logistics companies in the maritime/transportation/logistics industry can be of considerable value to us. That means we can be of more value to our customers - the war fighters.

God bless,

D.L. Brewer III
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy
Commander, Military Sealift Command