One of the most challenging tasks for Defense Logistics Agency aviation teams supporting Air Force industrial customers at industrial retail sites is determining what materials to have on hand, quantities to be stocked, requirement lead times and ensure demand and supply planning factors within DLA. business systems are positioned to maintain supply pipelines for items with consistent demands.

For DLA Aviation in Oklahoma City, most of these tasks fall to the Planning and Support Division who work proactively with the Air Force client to ensure the agency has the right equipment on the shelves. and in the right quantities to meet production requirements. The division uses demand consensus events to align DLA planning with customer needs.

DLA Aviation customer support managers work with representatives from program offices and maintenance organizations at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City, to identify Air Force end items for maintenance. consensual review of the application. DLA Aviation Facilitators and Demand Planners lead DCEs with a cross-functional team comprised of Air Force and DLA stakeholders and subject matter experts. The process is formalized and documented

DCEs are item-by-item reviews of DLA-managed items required by the customer to accomplish a multitude of maintenance operations performed at the Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base. These reviews ensure that the agency is planning and purchasing the right items, in the right quantities to support depot production.

“These meetings are an analysis of the DLA managed element support capability needed to meet Air Force managed end element maintenance requirements from a planning perspective,” said Chuck Kaminski, who is the head of the planning and support division. “The goal is to validate customer requirements by looking at demand signals and planning factors for existing parts needs, then comparing them to actual usage or needs.”

Kaminski said wherever there is a discrepancy between the data points, the team questions the scheduling factors and drivers causing disconnects. The team then determines which logistics cataloging factors or data points need to be adjusted or corrected, and then initiates the necessary corrective actions. Actions such as advising the customer to enter a collaborative forecast, adjusting an existing forecast, adjusting retail inventory levels, or updating support assessment tools.

During these reviews, the DLA team often takes the opportunity to educate Air Force participants on the actions required by them as requirements owners to ensure that DLA receives the correct request signals to assist. the agency to procure and store materiel to support Air Force maintenance.

Planning and Integrations Branch Chief Jennifer Abel said that when the COVID pandemic began, the planning and support team strategized and explored options for hosting the events. Initially they moved them to a training room on Tinker which provided the space to maintain mandatory social distancing protocols, but this quickly became problematic as Air Force personnel could not access the necessary systems, thus reducing the effectiveness of events.

Abel said that after some trial and error, the team was able to restructure the process and move events to a virtual environment. The change was a success, reducing the number of days for events, allowing some action items to be fixed during events, and increasing overall attendance.

Since moving ELDs to a virtual platform in April 2020, they have conducted 23 events virtually, reviewed 4,000 national item IDs and generated 2,612 action items.

Kaminski said that since they began running the events in May 2019, they have facilitated a total of 71 DCEs, reviewed over 11,000 NIINs and generated 8,138 actions, including updating designation coding. of the weapon system and the removal of obsolete national identification numbers from the bill. Equipment.