Photo By Natalie Cole | Soldiers, Sailors and Marines discuss issues facing container managers and logistics...... read more read more
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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait - Soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and civilians came together for the Third Army container management conference on Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, Nov. 3 -4. Personnel traveled from Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, camps in Kuwait and the United States to discuss current operations, pool best practices in container management and set conditions for future logistics work.
Containers – the 20-foot metal boxes that circulate through and sometimes rest at forward bases – are essential to military logistics operations because units use them to ship their gear.
Brig. Gen. John O’Connor, Third Army director of logistics and Central Command container management executive agent, asked everyone in attendance to actively work together to spur new ideas and make meaningful improvements. “There’s a customer out there who demands his container. … We can’t afford to let stuff just sit there. Some unit out there needs it.”
On the first day of the conference, visiting agencies briefed their operations and shared their successes and struggles. On the second day, attendees split into two working groups, one for Iraq and one for Afghanistan, to discuss mission-specific details.
To some, container management may seem like a ho-hum business. However, container control authorities work through a web of factors to push containers throughout Southwest Asia as quickly as possible, according to O’Connor. Holidays, terrain, diplomatic clearances, customs, weather, enemy fire and differences in collation and joint-force procedures are all issues logisticians face. “It’s a difficult environment, but when you apply all the capabilities we have in our hands, we can get through it,” O’Connor said.
Adding to the complexity is the increased movement stemming from the draw down in Iraq and surge in Afghanistan. Col. Dale Critzer, with the Joint Staff, Distribution Division, traveled from Washington, D.C., for the conference. He pointed out that the number of forward operating bases in Iraq has dwindled from 400 to about 90 today. “We have been successful up until this point,” he said adding that now container managers are working under pressure to clear out the battlefield. “Now, there is an end-sate that has to be met.”
One focus of the conference was reducing ‘detention’ -- the term for the daily fees the government pays commercial carriers for each day the government uses a container. The detention fees start racking-up after a grace period of 10 to 15 days.
Staff Sgt. John Warthan, operations non-commissioned officer for global container management for the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command described how container management expert’s influence cost effectiveness. “Six, seven years ago, detention was up over $20 million a month, now it’s down to $2 million because of the efforts of the CMEs and the people’s awareness in container management, so it’s not (just) a matter of moving stuff from A to B in a box. It’s a matter of making sure that box gets to where it goes, gets emptied and (is) given back,” he said.
O’Connor said the improvements in detention reflect progress, but he prompted those at the conference to strive for more. “That says a lot about what we’ve done,” he said. “I’m challenging you to go back (and) drive detention down through the $1 million mark. We can do this.” He added, “You gotta make it a personal endeavor.”
Sandra Gorba, chief of Army Intermodal Distribution, Platform Management Office, traveled from Tobyhanna, Penn., for the conference. She said because of the continual rotation of personnel, sharing knowledge at the conference was a way of “maintaining continuity as we move forward.”
Warthan also said continuity of training for both instructors and inspectors on the ground is an important issue. “The training needs to be sustained because what we do now is going to be looked at in the future,” he said.
Yolanda Santiago is a non-standard equipment analyst, specializing in non-rolling stock (including containers). She works for the Responsible Reset Task Force, Army Materiel Command, on Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Santiago sat in on a discussion in the Iraq-Breakout Group about gaps between inventory information entered into tracking systems and the actual number of containers on the ground. “We at R2TF, we pull our number from data bases - 100 percent inventory and total accountability are very important,” she said.
Santiago pointed out that everyone working in logistics must balance accuracy in reporting while working under pressure. “Especially the units. They know they have a timeline (and) these folks want to get home,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff on the table right now.”
According to Gorba, the exchange of ideas, opinions and experiences gives leaders the information they need to “take lessons learned and apply them to future ops (operations).”
As he challenged participants at the conference to form take-away lessons and seek solutions, O’Connor acknowledged the importance of container managers’ mission. “This is not easy government work by any means. You don’t have to be on the battle field to make a difference.”
| Date Taken: | 11.04.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.04.2010 11:17 |
| Story ID: | 59411 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 255 |
| Downloads: | 8 |
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