Courtesy Photo | Defense Logistics Agency Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek pins the Defense...... read more read more
Subscribe
NEW CUMBERLAND, Pa. - Army Brig. Gen. Susan Davidson relinquished command of Defense Logistics Agency Distribution to Brig. Gen. Richard Dix in a ceremony May 29 in New Cumberland.
Despite cool temperatures and a steady rain, more than 400 attendees listened as DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek praised Davidson and the DLA Distribution workforce for their work over the past two years.
“Everybody here knows how important DLA Distribution’s mission is to our agency, our warfighters in Afghanistan and everywhere across the globe. The distribution team does the heavy lifting; and for two years, Susan has taken whatever crazy idea I came up with and made it happen.”
Supporting the admiral’s strategic goals of decreasing material and operating costs, reducing inventory, improving customer service and achieving audit readiness, Davidson aimed DLA Distribution at several efforts that sought savings to be passed on to the agency’s customers. One of those efforts included container utilization.
“Sometimes we ship some pretty empty containers just to make sure supplies get somewhere right away. In early 2012, the average container we shipped went out less than two-thirds full. Under Susan’s leadership, that rate has increased substantially to 85 percent,” Harnitchek said. “That brought our shipping costs down from 40 cents a pound to less than 26 cents. That 14-cent difference might not sound like a lot, but multiply that by millions of pounds and you’ve got a huge chunk of savings. It sounds simple, but it took Susan Davidson’s tremendous leadership to make it happen.”
Under Davidson’s leadership, the distribution organization was instrumental in reducing the agency’s storage footprint.
“We gave Susan and her team a goal of getting rid of 2.3 million square feet of storage, and they’ve almost doubled it,” Harnitchek said.
DLA Distribution turned over more than 4.1 million square feet of storage space, which included shifting all operations from its Sharpe, California, site to Tracy, California. The movement of those operations was accomplished in record time, Harnitchek said.
Harnitchek also praised Davidson and the organization on its packaging initiative.
“We were paying a lot of money to buy something from industry, and then put it in special packaging before shipping it to our customers. It was unnecessary [and] cost way too much, so we just stopped doing it. Susan played a huge role in changing almost everything over to commercial packaging, sending 93 percent of our products this way and saving $120 million a year.”
Additionally, the organization took the initiative a step further by using government transportation to get products to its customers.
“That saves a ton of money, because by combining shipments, we can ship it cheaper than the vendors can individually,” Harnitchek said.
DLA Distribution’s humanitarian relief efforts were highlighted during the admiral’s remarks as he reflected on the devastation of Hurricane Sandy.
“People were really suffering in the Northeast, and when they needed DLA, we were there, and DLA Distribution made sure they got what they needed.”
More than 6 million commercial meals, 4,000 cases of meals, ready to eat, 96 unitized group rations, 150,000 blankets, 5,000 cots, and 24,000 feet of wire, in addition to lighting kits, cables, and flatware, were delivered within days of the superstorm making landfall in New York and New Jersey.
“In some cases, the organization was stuffing as much as it could into Black Hawk helicopters on their way to the worst-hit areas,” Harnitchek said. “That’s significant actions, urgently executed.”
Davidson was presented with the Defense Superior Service Medal for her service as commander of DLA Distribution. Taking the podium, she reflected on the accomplishments of the past year and what serving as commander for the organization meant to her.
“Leading a global team of more than 10,000 civilian, military, foreign national and contractor employees is easy when you have the best team of professionals in the Department of Defense,” Davidson said. “The accomplishments Admiral Harnitchek outlined earlier are not my accomplishments; they’re the accomplishments of the DLA Distribution workforce, and I couldn’t be more proud to have led such a great team.”
Davidson called her time at DLA Distribution the highlight of her career.
“Admiral Harnitchek will have to pry the flag out of my hands, not only because this is a dream job for logisticians, but because serving as the commander of DLA Distribution has been the best tour of my career,” she said.
Harnitchek confirmed to the DLA Distribution team that the organization is in good hands with Dix.
“Rich has had command and staff time at just about every level along his way in the Army, so of course we’re going to pull him over into the joint world and let him put that big green experience into good use for the total force.”
Dix comes to DLA Distribution from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Logistics, where he served as the director of strategy and integration as well as the executive officer. Excited for the opportunity to lead the DLA Distribution team for the next two years, Dix addressed his workforce.
“I am thrilled to be in Central Pennsylvania, and I am truly honored and blessed to be part of the Distribution family, he said. “Together, I look forward to taking our mission support to the next level.”
Dix is DLA Distribution’s 10th commander.
| Date Taken: | 05.29.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2014 16:10 |
| Story ID: | 132212 |
| Location: | NEW CUMBERLAND, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Davidson relinquishes command of DLA Distribution, Dix takes the helm, by Stacy Umstead, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
