Courtesy Photo | Defense Logistics Agency Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson discusses the important...... read more read more
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FORT BELVOIR, Va. -- A July 22 visit brought Defense Logistics Agency Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson to the military’s largest distribution operation: the Eastern Distribution Center at Defense Logistics Agency Distribution Susquehanna, Pa.
The center supports military customers on the U.S. East Coast, Europe, Africa, South America and Southwest Asia.
DLA Distribution Susquehanna houses 38 percent of DLA-controlled assets, has just under 10 million square feet of covered storage space, houses more than 975,000 national stock numbers, and processes almost 8 million receipts and issues annually.
The Eastern Distribution Center measures 30 football fields, or the equivalent of a nine-hole golf course, and is the hub of Susquehanna’s operations. It accounts for 67 percent of Susquehanna’s issues.
“Approximately 25 percent of our mission is performed in Consolidation and Containerization Point and are the items going outside the United States,” Ed Visker, deputy commander for DLA Distribution Susquehanna, explained during the walking tour. “The other 75 percent of our mission is receiving, storing and issuing commodities.”
Visker highlighted some of the technology currently in use as Thompson observed the organization’s most active items in the EDC’s walk and pick area.
“We are using radio frequency identification, as well as barcode scanning,” Visker said during his demonstration. “Once materiel release orders are received in this area, employees move the mobile cart to the item location, scan the release order, scan the item, prepare the item for shipment, and it is either sent to the Automated Weigh and Offer System for shipping via the small parcel shipping process or to the CCP for consolidation.”
With more than 20,000 materiel release orders received daily at Susquehanna, staying ahead of technology is key to continued success, especially within the fast moving area of walk and pick, Visker said.
“We are currently benchmarking with commercial industry and looking at the use of voice technology to further enhance our productivity,” he said.
The director observed the small parcels moving through the organization’s Automated Weigh and Offer System area where small parcel shipments are automatically weighed, scanned and pushed to a commercial carrier’s shipping lane with use of the Distribution Standard System, the distribution and warehouse management system.
“DSS determines the best carrier for shipment based on the data read and moves it to the appropriate shipping lane,” Visker explained. “More than 60,000 pieces are processed through AWOS weekly.”
Moving through the outloading area, Thompson viewed the staging lanes to include “dedicated truck.” Dedicated truck is the direct delivery of shipments to specified locations to meet a pre-established delivery date and time. The process provides the customer direct delivery services from the shipper’s location to the customer’s door.
“Susquehanna is currently providing dedicated truck service to 48 military installations on 26 routes with 136 stops,” Visker said. “Where small parcel costs approximately $2.50 per package, dedicated truck delivery saves money at approximately 15 cents a pound.”
Thompson said the systems at Susquehanna enable direct shipments to warfighters.
“As these items are prepared for shipment, the entire Susquehanna team is all over it as effectively and efficiently as possible,” he added.
Thompson praised several Susquehanna employees for their hard work and dedication supporting the nation’s men and women in uniform.
“DLA Distribution Susquehanna is critical to our military services both here at home and abroad,” he said.
During the windshield tour, Thompson viewed the areas where Susquehanna performs special logistics operations to include Medical Kit Assembly and Air Delivery, which is home to DLA’s own airborne riggers.
“In 2010 alone, our Air Delivery operation shipped more than 8,000 contingency cargo parachutes designated for live drops to Southwest Asia,” Visker said.
Thompson also observed warehouse facilities soon to officially open.
“As part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure directive, two additional warehouses are set to open next week and will increase our storage capability by almost 600,000 square feet, the equivalent of another 11 football fields,” Visker said.
The BRAC project has significantly impacted Susquehanna’s resources not only by requiring a realignment of stock currently in storage, but also in taking responsibility of an anticipated 3 million cubic feet of additional stock prior to opening.
“The material is being received from our distribution centers in Tobyhanna, Richmond and Norfolk,” Visker said. “This has aided them in achieving their BRAC reduction goals.”
After the final movement of this stock, Susquehanna will hold more than 1 million national stock numbers in its inventory.
Looking forward, Susquehanna continues its efforts to ensure best-value service to its customers.
“We continue to become more effective and efficient through employee involvement, our continuous process improvements efforts and building quality into those processes, and increasing productivity with the proper resource alignment,” Visker said.
Thompson said the tour was very enlightening.
“[There is] a lot of great work going on here at Susquehanna – a great workforce and a great leadership team,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.28.2011 16:45 |
| Story ID: | 74490 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 88 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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