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AFIT EWI Fellows attend 2019 Logistics Officers Association Conference

Posted Tuesday, November 26, 2019

 


Log Pro Team: Left to Right- Capt Anton Martyn, Capt Will Fine, Capt Kori Johnson, Maj Rob Schlagel, Capt Nick Spivey, Mr. Steve Cunha, Mrs. Carrie Burton, Capt Jack Blaess, Capt Gabe Byrd (Courtesy Photo).


By Maj. Rob Schlagel
AFIT, Education with Industry Fellow Amazon


OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Air Force Education with Industry 21X and civilian fellows attended the annual Logistics Officers Association hosted by the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City, OK. The conference is a must see for logistics professionals and is dedicated to enabling interactive exchanges among logistics, acquisition, and technology professionals from across the Department of Defense, defense industry, and academia. The mantra for this year’s symposium focused on “Increasing Lethality Today, Readiness for Tomorrow’s Fight.” With many key players in attendance across the aforementioned groups, this year’s symposium was packed full of educational and informational briefings, demonstrations, and technology designed to ignite logistics and acquisition professionals throughout the field.

The events spanned over several days, however for brevity’s sake, our EWI fellows focused their efforts on those briefings and events that would aim to enrich our time with our industry partners. This year we were fortunate enough to have nearly all of our 21X and civilian logistics EWI fellows in attendance which gave us a unique opportunity to digest all of the information presented at the conference through two separate, but overlapping lenses. This conference gave us a glimpse into the future of our career field and how our time with industry might directly feed into that future.

Day 1 at LOA presented a host of different educational briefings and guided discussion options for our EWI fellows presented by LOA University. Some of the events attended included “Logistics Planning at the Operational Level”, “Integrated Supply Chain Management Fundamentals”, “Data Analytics and Supply Chain Visibility”, and “Modern Spares Theory” to name a few. The crowd favorite, however was the “Theory of Constraints” course led by Dr. Mandyam Srinivasan from the University of Tennessee. Dr. Srinivisan addressed how TOC, when properly adhered to, can solve even the most complex of problems. He briefed about how properly utilizing TOC pillars (Inherent Simplicity, Every Conflict can be Removed, Don’t Blame Others, and Never Say I Know the Answer), can provide any organization a very solid foundation towards eliminating a constraint. This was very unique for our EWI fellows in that, at all of our respective companies, TOC is not only used, but lived by.

Also on the first day, two of our EWI students (Capt Fine & Capt Martyn) were selected to participate in a HAF/A4 led Think Tank project focused on improving Comm-Out Procedures in Logistics and Sustainment.

Day 2 was kicked off by Lt. Gen. Warren Berry, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, who delivered the current state of logistics. Lt. Gen. Berry stressed the importance and need for relevant change across our logistical enterprise and maintaining a “Bias for Action” in our everyday decisions. He identified several ways that the Air Force is trying to innovate the way it conducts business and reiterated the need for increased data analytics to aid in our decision making process.


Lt. Gen. Berry addressing LOA attendees on current state of Logistics (Courtesy Photo).

Directly following Lt. Gen. Berry’s state of logistics, groups then broke out into several sessions and panels diving deeper into ongoing initiatives to bring our logistical support structure into the 21st century. One such breakout session covered the unique logistical and acquisition challenges of adaptive basing through a new exercise; Rapid Forge. This exercise was hosted by the 4th LRS out of Seymour Johnson AFB and was executed in the European theater. The purpose of the exercise challenged a small conglomerate of multi-skilled Airmen to rapidly refuel, rearm, and generate sorties within Europe from a MOB and remote air bases within Europe. This innovative approach tested the capabilities of USAFE and the 4th AW normal way of operating within a ‘safe and secure’ main operating base and traditional airmen accomplishing one job specific to their AFSC. The intent of this multi-skilled, agile team is to keep our near peer adversaries guessing where we will attack from next and gives the Combatant Commander another small footprint offensive tool. Among other guest speakers and panelists, EWI students were also fortunate enough to listen to the Honorable Robert McMahon, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, on how much the world around us is changing and we need to think differently and approach problems differently than we used to.

Day 3 was more panels and breakout sessions. Some panels addressed the civilian workforce specifically and covered the many broadening programs that are available to our civilian brothers and sisters in arms. Other breakout sessions revolved around new initiatives and finding more efficient and cost effective ways to manage our supply chain. One brief that truly captured the audience was presented by Brig. Gen. Linda Hurry, Director of Logistics, Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection, Headquarters U.S. Air Force and AFIT alum (M.S. Transportation Management, 1995), and two recently graduated EWI fellows Maj. Garrett Smith-Hernandez and Capt. Kelsey Smith. Brig. Gen. Hurry roused the audience by encouraging the need to optimize scheduled maintenance, building a proactive and resilient supply chain, expand our integrated repair network, and continue to build on predictive analytics through the use of CBM+. Maj. Hernandez and Capt. Smith proceeded to give their Tesseract roadshow brief, encouraging the logistics pro’s in the audience to find new ways to integrate technology into our Airmen’s jobs and bring our logistical framework into the 21st century.

The final day of the conference consisted of closing remarks from the outgoing LOA President Ms. Carol Howitz, as well as the findings from the Day 1 Think Tank sessions. Maj. Gen. Allan Day, Director of Logistics Operations for the Defense Logistics Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va., also spoke to maintaining our core values as we move in a new direction of questioning the status quo in order to keep up with ever advancing technology and industry standards.


Ms. Mai Krier";Rosie the Riveter" (center) pictured with Ms. Carrie Burton and Mr. Steve Cunha (Courtesy Photo)

The final parting words of wisdom were delivered by Ms. Mai Krier, the original “Rosie the Riveter”. She spoke to the importance of celebrating our heritage as a service as we attempt to tackle age old problems using modern day solutions.

The event was lauded by all EWI fellows as a success and gave us a reinvigorated look at how we can best leverage our 10 month experiences into real solutions to logistical challenges in today’s Air Force.

 

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