Iraqi military leaders learn about logistics management from DLA

FORT BELVOIR, Va. -

America's logistics combat support agency showcased its warehousing, distribution and property disposal processes for senior military leaders from the Kurdistan region of Northern Iraq Sept. 25 at the McNamara Headquarters Complex.

The visit to the Defense Logistics Agency is part of a weeklong trip to the U.S. by the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.

"Today's engagement with DLA leadership provided MoPA with access to the best logistics thinkers in the country, their best practices, lessons learned, innovative approaches and tools for how they execute the mission," said Army Maj. Frederick Tarantino, a representative from the Office of Security Cooperation - Iraq who helped facilitate the visit.

Such engagements between the U.S. and Iraq enable a sustainable logistics enterprise in Kurdistan, supporting front-line brigades in the Iraqi-led defeat of ISIS, he added.

DLA was created to manage common supplies used by all branches of the U.S. military and has had over 60 years to mature and develop how it meets the Defense Department's requirements, said Kevin Kachinski, director of operations and sustainment for DLA Logistics Operations.

"We don't make anything; we don't have factories or production lines. We supply our forces by buying material from our industrial base and storing some of it in our warehouses around the world," he said. "The rest is sent out to customers directly from our vendors."

DLA is considered DOD's executive agent for buying food, medical material and construction equipment and for managing logistics information, which refers to how data is stored and passed through numerous information systems throughout the supply process.

Jim Stanford, director of network integration for DLA Distribution, described the agency's storage and distribution missions. DLA conducts periodic inventories to ensure material is stored at the right locations in the right quantities. Items are picked from the shelves and prepared for transportation as orders arrive through electronic ordering systems. The agency also provides "push packages" to replenish some routine items such as field rations or parts.

Transportation teams at all DLA warehouses coordinate distribution to customer locations by the U.S. Transportation Command, which delivers using commercial contracts with companies like FedEx and UPS as well as military airlift and sealift.

Kachinski noted that successful warehouse operations start with standard operating procedures and good data systems that share everything from order statuses to material location and quantity.

Answering a question on whether U.S. combatant commands have access to DLA data, Kachinski said DLA partners with the department and services to maintain common operating pictures with details including weapons system readiness.

"We manage material and commodities that we're responsible for, but the military services do the same thing for items they oversee. The biggest objective is to share the data between DLA, the services and others so we can all see the same thing," he said.

DLA's new Warehouse Management System helps improve visibility by allowing users to drill down into specific aspects of ordering and distribution, added Christy Meighan, chief of the WMS deployment team.

Describing how DLA handles equipment that's reached the end of its lifecycle or is no longer wanted, Mike Johnson, DLA Logistics Operations' disposal management chief, said the services decide when an item is turned in for disposition.

"We then first determine whether there's any useful life left in the material or if it's what we consider just scrap that's valued only for its raw material," he said.

Material that's still good is made available to other military units and sometimes other federal agencies.

"We have a reuse system where the military can go in and see what's old or used in our inventory. If there's material they need or want, DLA will transfer it to them at no cost because our goal is to find new uses for it rather than dispose of it," Johnson said.

Excess material can be a supply source for units using old systems that are no longer in production.

"It's not uncommon for items to be requisitioned from us just to be taken apart for pieces to repair other equipment," he said, adding that material not needed by other customers is stripped of military capabilities and may be made available to other federal agencies, used for scrap or destroyed.

MoPA representatives also asked how DLA provides fuel. DLA Energy is DLA's biggest MSC in revenue, as it buys fuel for everything from Navy ships, Army tanks and ground vehicles, as well as specialty fuel for NASA, Kachinski said.

"The military services have ground vehicles, tanks, aircraft, ships and many of them take the same kind of gas. If each military service contracted for their own fuel, we'd be competing against each for that fuel. But since DLA buys it for all the services, we get better buying power as a result," he added.

MoPA Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Issa Azeez Mohammed asked whether U.S. military fuel is sourced by commercial industry or the government. Kachinski said it comes from commercial sources, many of whom also store it at customer locations, although DLA manages the fuel and tests it for purity. The companies DLA buys fuel from are also vetted by the U.S. government as legitimate sources, he continued.

"One of the other ways we support military aircraft flying and landing at commercial airports all over the world is a fuel card program," Kachinski said. "We issue the card to the pilots and when they need gas at commercial sources, they just use that card to pay for the gas and it's all centrally managed here at DLA."

For tactical use, DLA contracts deliver fuel to the services, which then distribute it to forces in the field and forward operating bases.

The group also visited organizations including the Army Sustainment University and Joint Chiefs of Staff logistics directorate.

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