As soldiers serving in Operation Joint Endeavor move south to base camps in Bosnia, maintaining a viable materiel distribution system has become critical to their success. The flow of materiel must be adjusted to accommodate their movements. Logisticians have to track this materiel flow while maintaining visibility of where the receiving units are located. The supply pipeline supporting the Bosnia mission stretches nearly 4,600 miles back to the small town of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.
New Cumberland hosts the consolidation and containerization point (CCP) for the air lines of communication supporting the multinational Implementation Force in Bosnia. The CCP is part of Defense Distribution Depot Susquehanna, Pennsylvania (DDSP); the depot is under the command of Defense Distribution Region East (DDRE), which is headquartered at New Cumberland.
CCP: Consolidating Supplies for Bosnia
Since January, the CCP has prepared an average of 26 pallets per day for shipment to Bosnia. That's 182 pallets per week of food, clothing, medicine, and mechanical and electrical parts-everything necessary to conduct a military operation. Much of this materiel is shipped to the CCP from depots in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia, as well as a number of depots in the western United States. The CCP then consolidates the materiel and prepares it for shipment on air pallets.
When a customer in Bosnia-usually a unit-needs a particular item, the supply request is sent to the theater Army materiel management command. The request then is forwarded to an inventory control point (ICP). The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, operates ICP's throughout the continental United States. After it receives the request, the ICP issues a materiel release order (MRO) to the depot that stocks the item. To control costs and ensure delivery of materiel to the right customer, most items are shipped from the depots or from commercial vendors to the CCP to be readied for oversea movement.
Instead of sending supplies to a unit in single, separately shipped packages, which would strain unit reception and distribution capabilities, the CCP places several packages into one container destined for a specific customer. Consolidating packages requires a two-fold effort: containerizing the materiel and tracking its movement through the supply pipeline.
Technology for Tracking Shipments
Most logistics problems at this stage of Operation Joint Endeavor require the involvement of a transporter. Army transporters believe that "nothing happens until something moves." Transporters coordinate how freight gets into Bosnia, they know where the freight is in the pipeline, and they get it to the right unit.
The computer technology that links one site to another along the logistics pipeline helps transporters find those critical parts that are urgently needed in the field. Many transporters were working in the transportation field before today's computer systems were even imaginable, but most would agree that computerized tracking technology is extraordinary. They also would agree that their functional and historical knowledge is needed to point the computer's "eyes" in the right direction.
Mike Wagner, a transporter with DDRE, is the civilian representative for the transportation operation in Bosnia serving with the DLA contingency support team. Under what many would consider difficult weather conditions, Mike works to solve transportation problems; that means he locates freight and gets it to the customer in Bosnia.
For example, a fuel pump was urgently needed by the 1st Armored Division. Using advanced computer technology, Mike was able to work with transporters in New Cumberland to locate the fuel pump and expedite its movement through the pipeline. He had to find answers to such questions as: Where is the fuel pump in the pipeline right now? In what air pallet is it contained? What can be done to get the product to the customer now? When Mike found the item, 1st Armored Division commanders were able to decide how quickly they needed it, and DLA was able to respond to their needs.
Mike works with the distribution management division at DDRE-a group of people who have worked in many logistics functions during their Federal careers. They track requests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their challenge is to find the freight that is within the pipeline between DDRE and the customer in Bosnia and provide the customer an answer to any query in 2 hours.
"DDRE has tracked thousands of MRO requests from soldiers serving in Bosnia by using a variety of tracking systems to search the pipeline to identify where the materiel is," says Jack Barmore of the distribution management division. A grocery store checkout counter bar-code machine provides managers with a variety of information about their inventory. Likewise, DLA's distribution standard system (DSS) is used to coordinate all phases of a distribution depot's materiel management functions from receipt of order to shipment of stock, including inventory management, item care and preservation, management of stowing materials, and stock selection and packaging. With DSS, transporters can begin their search by "tapping into" the depot's computer system to track their materiel.
More Than Systems Are Needed
However, while the military began consolidating its distribution depots in 1991, not all of those depots currently use DSS. When transporters use other systems, they must request a depot to research the status of the item they are seeking. The variety of available distribution management systems poses an additional challenge for DDRE personnel.
To overcome gaps in automation capabilities, DDRE brought together people with a variety of experience. One of them was Trudy Wilkerson, who has worked as a transporter for 28 years. If asked where her experience was put to the test, she'll tell you it was during Operation Desert Storm, when she worked wherever she was needed.
One of the people with whom Trudy worked in the early stages of Operation Joint Endeavor was Master Sergeant Jerry Packer, who was serving with the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia. Sergeant Packer needed to expedite shipment of ranger body armor from a contractor to waiting troops in Bosnia. Trudy worked with the contractor and tracked the armor through the CCP to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, and on to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "Trudy's effort greatly enhanced the force protection posture of the troops down in the Bosnia area," Sergeant Packer noted.
The Tracker's Tools: LIF and GTN
The computer system initially used by transporters like Trudy to research materiel status is the logistics intelligence file (LIF). LIF is an Army data base that provides the data needed to begin researching materiel status, such as the depot from which the materiel was ordered and the quantity and priority of the shipment; LIF can confirm for the user that the materiel was shipped. By supplying a requisition number, transportation control number (TCN), Department of Defense activity address code (the address of the materiel's destination), or project code, a transporter can use LIF to view the status of current and past requisitions managed by the Army.
The next system accessed at DDRE is the global transportation network (GTN), which is managed by the U.S. Transportation Command through TELNET. The GTN system identifies when the materiel was shipped. After the researcher determines when the materiel was flown overseas, he can use LIF to find its date of receipt by the customer.
Typically, ICP's will fax copies of all MRO's that DDRE needs to track. By comparing the ICP listing and the LIF data, a researcher at DDRE can determine the depot to which the MRO was released. Through a series of screens provided by LIF, he then can determine the location of an item within a depot and if that item has been palletized or is sitting in the packing lane ready to be palletized. If the item already is on a pallet, LIF will furnish the item's pallet number and pallet identification, the container on which it was loaded, the van number, and the bill number. With that information in hand, a transporter can obtain the pallet TCN, which is needed to find the item in the pipeline. Inputting the pallet TCN will result in a list of everything that is loaded on that air pallet.
The transporter needs to use GTN when he knows the item in question has been shipped to the airport and his task is to find the shipment in the pipeline. He is not only responsible for the materiel leaving the depot but also for tracking it until it reaches the customer. Entering the pallet TCN into the GTN system will show where the shipment is.
Gaining Intransit Visibility
Keeping a close eye on materiel in transit involves two forms of technology: optical laser cards (the automated manifest system), which detail pallet contents, and radio frequency (RF) transmitters, which are used to track shipments. Each shipment is documented using laser cards and tracked on its way overseas by means of a satellite-monitored RF tag attached to the shipment. This technology has greatly improved DLA's ability to track and identify individual shipments.
Another tracking device is international transportation information tracking (INTRANSIT). This is a proof-of-concept, satellite-based transportation tracking system that records messages and positions from moving vehicles. INTRANSIT reads the RF tags and stores the information in a data base. This data base shows a list of the pallets that were built at the CCP. By using the INTRANSIT data base, a transporter can identify the date the pallet was built, the date it was shipped, its carton control number, and its contents. RF tags are matched to the pallet ID. INTRANSIT not only tracks misplaced materiel but also the current status of all materiel.
Transporters use interrogators (handheld scanners) to read the RF tags for each air pallet at the point of receiving to obtain bar-coded information affixed to each container. The bar codes contain shipping and content information. Transporters can know exactly when a shipment left and when it reached its destination.
The INTRANSIT machine actually shows where the pallet is in the pipeline-even as the pallet passes through an installation gate. There is no human intervention; INTRANSIT reads data picked up by RF tag readers throughout Bosnia and other points in Europe and feeds them to DDRE. DDSP has a reader, and Dover Air Force Base and Ramstein Air Base have some as well. As soon as a truck goes by a reader, the data are fed back to the INTRANSIT machine.
"When a customer calls and says he didn't get his materiel, but all research indicates he has it, the INTRANSIT machine will pinpoint exactly where the pallet is sitting," notes Mike Wagner. "Seems odd that a guy in Pennsylvania can say, 'Run 20 yards down and you will find your pallet.' But it is not odd. The technology is better than the conditions. These soldiers serving in Bosnia have competing concerns. Our job is to reduce their manpower needs to find materiel."
At the End of the Pipeline
Daily reports between DDRE and Bosnia serve as an exchange of information. One such report is the 9EV Air Pallet Report, which allows DLA to see what cargo is in the distribution pipeline from the CCP through Dover to Tuzla, Bosnia, and Taszar, Hungary. Many of the reports generated by DDRE are used at all levels in the theater of operations.
The 21st Theater Army Area Command commander and the lst Armored Division Support Command in Bosnia have been impressed by the information DDRE provides on the pallet reports. The troops working at the air bases and support camps are able to use the reports to determine what type of vehicle assets and equipment are required to move cargo to customers. Once they know how many pallets are coming and for which customer they are destined, the troops can put together a convoy to deliver the items and thus meet customer needs.
"During the early stages of Operation Joint Endeavor, the air base at Tuzla became backlogged with air pallets due to lack of documentation and various other problems related to the weather," observed First Lieutenant John Long, officer in charge of the Army transportation movement control team. "The [team] requested DLA provide assistance to help organize the field. DDRE was able to accomplish a smooth transition by monitoring the movements and making the necessary changes to ensure the units received their materiel."
Operation Joint Endeavor continues to offer DDRE a good opportunity to improve its use of technology to better serve the soldier in the field. As John Yost, a 25-year veteran of transportation management at DDRE, observed, "DDRE continues to refine its tracking and distribution processes so that lessons learned in support of such operations are put to good use." ALOG
Philip D. Lucius is a public affairs specialist with the Defense Logistics Agency's Defense Distribution Region East at New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. He served for 2 years with the Army Depot System Command in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, as a public affairs intern before joining his current organization. He is completing a master's degree in communications studies at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.