Logistics supply chains: supply chain management: analyzing industry and Air Force Metrics Global Logistics Support—the GLSC: operational supply chain management

Air Force Journal of Logistics, Fall, 2007

Supply chain management (SCM) transformation is among the top initiatives for government and the private sector alike. The ultimate objective is an integrated supply chain which perfectly synchronizes supply and demand, so that the rate of supply matches the rate of demand along the entire supply chain.

The Air Force has embarked on a sustainment vision that transforms the purchasing and supply chain management functions to better support the warfighter. The task at hand is to provide world-class materiel support at the best possible price. To do this, most would agree that an overhaul of the supply chain management process is needed. In "Supply Chain Management: Analyzing Industry and Air Force Metrics" Mr Marshall presents a comparative analysis of industry and Air Force supply chain metrics along with an assessment of the measures to determine the effectiveness of Air Force SCM transformation. The assessment provides several recommendations to improve the current suite of metrics used to manage the Air Force supply chain. Supply chain management is a complex process and no single research effort will yield all of the answers to the suite of metrics that should be used. This article summarizes those best practices that seem to indicate successful SCM implementation and operation.

A major change in the world of Air Force supply is the Global Logistics Support Center (GLSC). The GLSC has three primary functions:

* Enterprise-wide planning of the Air Force supply chain, including planning for material, maintenance, and distribution.

* Providing a single point of contact for customers to resolve immediate Logistics issues at the point of execution.

* Providing the single point of entry and authority for enterprise supply chain information management. This will include the management of business rules, processes and procedures, providing functional requirements for supply chain systems and measuring, assessing, and taking action to improve supply chain performance through enterprise metrics and analysis capabilities.

In "Global Logistics Support--The GLSC: Operational Supply Chain Management" Mr Reusser discusses the organizational structure and organizational locations of the GLSC.