RMA Software Revolutionizing Military Medical Supply System

Program Manager, July-August, 2001 by Mark Gindele

RMA has the potential to transform the medical supply chain, and has already demonstrated a unique ability to take advantage of existing data sources and technology. By offering customers a single application for medical logistics, DSCP can expand its collection and analysis of usage data. With new business intelligence, DSCP can create an enterprise Web-based organization to offer new products, partner with new companies, and optimize its ability to offer value-added services. Simply stated, RMA works, and the military's supply chain partners should be implementing it now.

While the requirements defined at the beginning of the RMA program envisioned a user community and purpose, no one counted on the success of RMA to introduce new requirements in the quantities now being received. Developing a program with multiple information sources and providing solutions to widely recognized inefficiencies will invariably lead to unexpected users and new demands. Program Managers need to recognize these new demands as a byproduct of their success, and count the new requests as the price of expansion.

Editor's Note: The author welcomes questions or comments on this article.

Gindele is an adjunct professor of e-Business at Bucks County Community College, Pa.