PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — A revitalized training program is going to assist Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Clothing and Textiles employees with all facets of their jobs, the program’s sponsor says.

C&T University, which was started to provide employee-requested training, offers a course on time-phased inventory planning. It will also soon offer a course on value engineering, said Rich Miller, who sponsors C&T University and is the chief of DLA Troop Support Clothing and Textiles’ Other Customer Division.

DLA Troop Support C&T managers used their own observations and feedback from colleagues to design the program and pick topics, he said.

The first course, covering time-phased inventory planning training, was offered to supervisors, Jan. 19. This was the highest priority for the supply chain, Miller said. The class was also presented to a group of employees, Jan. 26. C&T leaders plan for all the organization's supply planners to eventually take the 90-minute course.

Jim Kane, the supervisor of C&T’s demand planning division, who attended the first C&T University session, explained that time-phased inventory planning is “a critical tool used by management to review an item’s requirements, assets and contract status.”

Wilber Ruiz-Alago and Juan Sanchez, C&T supply planners, presented the first class. The two are experienced with Manugistics software, which is used to record and forecast transactions in the 400-plus procurement group codes that cover the thousands of items managed by C&T.

Cheryl Reynolds, a supervisor in C&T’s Planning Division who attended the Jan. 19 course, said she saw long-term benefits for supply planners from the short-term effort required to use the new time-phased inventory planning approach.

“It will make it easier for (supply planners) to tell the story of their items and thereby help us spend our money more wisely,” she said.

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