FORT LEE, Va. - A Defense Contract Management Agency Lean Six Sigma team recently presented its final results to senior-level leadership on standardizing how the agency identifies and predicts supply chain risks, and captures that information consistently across the agency.
“The team’s work moves the agency to the next level in providing our customers with consistent, reliable and timely supply chain intelligence across all agency functions so they can make smart decisions at the right time to improve their program outcomes,” said Charlie E. Williams, Jr., DCMA director.
The team of agency cross-functional and LSS experts completed three draft instructions, a data dictionary and a tool requirements list for upgrades of existing tools during the Develop phase of DMEDI – Define, Measure, Explore, Develop and Implement – a modified LSS process used for the project.
DCMA’s senior-level leadership endorsed all three instructions for policy advisory board review, a process used to approve all agency policy.
The three draft instructions address supply chain predictability at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.
The first instruction, Supplier Risk Management through Standard Contract Surveillance, standardizes risk management and surveillance processes throughout the agency. It defines a DCMA supplier risk rating methodology, consisting of both a criticality risk index and a performance risk index. This instruction facilitates the consistent collection of data, which will not only help the operational and strategic elements of the agency perform further analysis but also help prioritize future information technology projects to automate data collection.
The second instruction, Enterprise Supply Chain Analysis and Reporting, provides a basis for DCMA operational/strategic analysis which will enhance the agency’s visibility into the Department of Defense supply chain. It defines an authoritative structure at the operational and strategic levels within the agency and establishes a process for enterprise-wide assessments of selected suppliers, which have the greatest impact on the department.
The final instruction in this series, The Surveillance of Supply Chain Management Processes, defines activities at the contract management office level for performing surveillance of prime contractors’ supply chain management processes. It prescribes criteria when supply chain management surveillance should be conducted. It also provides a structure to develop supply chain maps to identify first and sub-tier supplier risks, which may impact criticality and/or performance. This effort will also assist in enhancing DCMA’s delegation responsibilities.
Senior-level leaders also authorized the team's tool requirements list, which identified upgrades to the agency's already existing eTools. The upgrades, which secure the capabilities set forth in the instructions, will take place during the next several years.
As part of the Implement phase of the project, The Surveillance of Supply Chain Management Processes instruction will be piloted at selected CMOs in the next four to six months.
The DCMA Engineering and Analysis Executive Directorate will be the office of primary responsibility to champion and lead implementation on all three instructions over the next few years.
“EA is poised to lead the agency’s efforts as we continue to implement the tools and training to support the new instructions and refine the supply chain predictability process oversight,” said Karron Small, DCMA Engineering and Analysis executive director and the project’s champion.