Air force print news (Sept. 10, 2004): logistics transformation roadmap takes shape.

WASHINGTON -- In less than 18 months, Air Force officials are seeing the benefits of "eLog21," the Service's logistics plan for the new century.

"We've only just begun, and we've made great progress thus far," said Lt. Gen. Donald J. Wetekam, deputy chief of staff for installations and logistics. "We're more into it; there is more meat on the bone, relative to structure."

Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century--eLog21--was introduced at the February 2003 Corona meeting of Air Force senior leaders. It outlines the logistics community's plan for supporting the warfighter.

"Through our work in eLog21, we will for the first time have a fully integrated enterprise view of our logistics processes," the general said. "Our enterprise approach links our supply, maintenance, and transportation processes to truly focus our support to an expeditionary force."

Wetekam said logisticians will use state-of-the-art technologies to replace outdated systems and will use "lean" process improvements to eliminate waste.

"ELog21 is not about new technology, while that is certainly a critical enabler," the general said. "It is about new ways to conduct business and, more important, the way we think about work."

The Air Force is already seeing significant in-depot and phase-maintenance efforts.

At the Ogden Air Logistics Center's F-16 Fighting Falcon wing shop at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, workflow days have been reduced from 64 to 27, and on-time delivery has improved by 67 percent. C-5 Galaxy depot maintenance at the Warner Robins ALC at Robins AFB, Ga., has been cut from 339 days to the low 200s, while workers at the Oklahoma City ALC at Tinker AFB, Okla., have cut KC-135 Stratotanker flow days from more than 400 days to about 200.

"I'm a process guy," Wetekam said. "When you look at how we expend resources ... there is a much larger amount of waste than we recognize. That's hard for some people to accept ... but the truth is, after 30 years in this business, I've come to realize it's true. It's because we haven't given our people the tools to identify the waste and tell them how to get rid of it."

The lean portion of eLog21 will give airmen those tools, Wetekam said.

"We've been using lean, particularly in Air Force Materiel Command, with significant results," he said. "We're just starting to scratch the surface. The good news is we have a structure, [with] several pilot [programs] to expand it. The challenge ... is hitting the right balance--you need to build momentum and have successes, but you don't want to outstrip your capability to manage change.

"It's a tough balance," he said.

Besides improving logistics processes, a key part of eLog21 is leveraging information technology through the Expeditionary Combat Support System.

"ECSS is an enterprise resource planning tool that will update many of our old legacy systems and integrate many of our resource planning activities in the logistics business," Wetekam said.

Under ECSS, logisticians will register their information technology systems to get a handle on how much money is spent on the technology.

"It's the first time we've made everyone register their systems and understand what their budgets are," he said. "We're doing that within the existing budget line, and that will be an important lever as well as we seek to improve our logistics capability."

Purchasing and supply chain management is another waste-finding aspect of eLog21.

"Reforming our supply processes is absolutely crucial," Wetekam said. "The idea is [to] build strategic sourcing agreements with our key suppliers and manage by commodity grouping. There's potentially a great savings there, and it will allow us to significantly reduce our cycle times."

Logisticians will not be the only ones working with lean process improvements, the general predicted.

"The principles we're operating under apply to everything the Air Force does," Wetekam said. "From the process-improvement standpoint, this is applicable to everything."

by Master Sgt. Scott Elliott, USAF