Photo By Jennifer Lovett | DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek speaks to Air Force, government and...... read more read more
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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - Logistics flexibility is crucial to responding to emerging challenges in an uncertain global environment, Defense Logistics Agency Director Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek told Air Force, government and industry representatives Sept. 16 in National Harbor, Md.
“We’re dealing with a very uncertain world. What are the logistics implications and what do you need to have?” he asked.
Harnitchek spoke about DLA’s relationship with the Air Force during the Air Force Association’s Air and Space Conference. He focused on the responsiveness of logistics networks that can increase and decrease operations when needed. He pointed to the 2010 earthquake and resulting humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which happened during the “surge” of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, as an example.
“Because of the rapidly configurable network we’ve built, we were able to pull C-17s out of the Afghan pipeline and point them to Haiti, and both missions were still successful,” he said. “You have to be ready for anything and remove as much uncertainty as you can.”
Harnitchek said infrastructure and assets are large challenges and that having options is critical to solving them.
“We want to create as many options as we can to get access and infrastructure, so that we have all the leverage. If we only have one option, we have no leverage. And it needs to be simple. If we don’t design it to be simple, then it won’t be.
The Northern Distribution Network, a “land bridge” running through Europe and Asia into Afghanistan, is one example of having options in a logistics network, Harnitchek said.
“We had one ground route to Afghanistan through Pakistan, but we were able to create seven or eight routes out of that through or over the Baltics, the Caucasus and Siberia,” he said. “It’s important to give the commander options.”
Commanders and logisticians need to be prepared to accept risk when operations are rapidly unfolding, Harnitchek said. He used DLA’s response to Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm that made landfall in New Jersey in October 2012, as an example.
“It’s also important to be half right and on time than 100 percent right and late,” he said. “Hurricane Sandy is a great example. We needed stuff in place and fast. Our system allows us today to go big or small when needed. It’s responsive [and] flexible to meet all our needs. And we can configure it to do that.”
Harnitchek said that as budgets get leaner, logistics needs will largely remain the same, so it’s important that DLA is judicious in how it spends the military services’ money. He said partnering with industry through the agency’s Captains of Industry meetings has helped DLA find $145 million in savings.
“So how is DLA doing it? We are creating a culture of judiciousness. Get ready for about 15 years of lean times, but that doesn’t mean the logistics need is going to go away. We’re working with industry to save money,” he said. “I’ve given my aviation supply chain three guidelines: buy enough, buy on time and make sure the contract delivers. We’re taking a real focus on making the system highly responsive.’
One attendee asked Harnitchek whether DLA is concerned with tracking where all its items are. The admiral said DLA has that under control.
“We have more asset visibility than we know what to do with,” he said. “We know about asset visibility out the wazoo.”
Another attendee asked what DLA is doing to combat counterfeiting.
“That’s a huge deal,” he said. “There are state actors that organize, train and equip their folks to do this stuff, and we deal with it in two ways. One, by only buying from people we [trust]. We have a system to detect anomalies, kind of like when American Express calls you to find out if you’re in New York spending a lot of money on your credit card. Our system does the same thing to help detect counterfeit items. The second thing we do is plant a failsafe imprint of botanical DNA into every microcircuit we ship. That imprint gives us the pedigree of the microcircuit as well, [telling] who made it and when.”
Harnitchek closed with a challenge to the audience.
“Don’t wait. This is our time here to ask yourself, ‘If I’m not going to do it, then who is?’ The answer is, ‘You are going to do it.’”
| Date Taken: | 09.16.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.18.2014 15:26 |
| Story ID: | 142587 |
| Location: | NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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