Army Materiel Command: Proud to Serve

Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness-technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, reset and sustainment-to the total force across the spectrum of Joint military operations. If a soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, communicates with it or eats it, AMC provides it. Our focus is on the soldier. But when we say soldier, we mean soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. AMC has many Joint functions and provides significant support and materiel to DoD and the services.

AMC is located at 149 sites around the world, including 43 states and 55 countries. We have elements that are continental United States-based as well as expeditionary/operational elements deployed to support military operations. We have a core workforce of more than 61,000 servicemembers and civilians augmented by a worldwide network of contractors.

The command's complex missions range from cutting-edge research and development of sophisticated weapons systems to repair and maintenance of materiel, worldwide distribution and logistical support. They cover the full range of logistical services from concept to distribution and sustainment.

AMC is postured as an enterprise organization with multiple facets addressing both Joint warfighter requirements and strategic initiatives. AMC is composed of 10 major subordinate commands (MSCs), including the four life-cycle management commands (LCMCs): Tank-automotive and Armaments; Communications-Electronics; Joint Munitions and Lethality; and Aviation and Missile. The other MSCs are the Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM); the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC); the Army Sustainment Command (ASC); the Army Contracting Command (ACC); the U.S. Army security Assistance Command (USASAC); and the Chemical Materials Agency (CMA). We also support a second chemical weapons demilitarization office-Program Manager for Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (PM ACWA).

The soldier-focused life-cycle management concept integrates significant elements of acquisition, logistics and research/technology leadership. It allows for a closer relationship between AMC's major subordinate commands, the program executive offices, and Research, Development and Engineering Command, all enhanced by our direct face to the field, embedded in units-the Army Sustainment Command's field support brigades. This enterprisebased process gets the products to the soldier faster, improves quality, minimizes cost, increases operational capability and improves reliability and operational readiness. A primary example of this is our prototype integration facilities (PIFs) connected to our research development and engineering centers connected to each life-cycle management command. These PIFs can take a design for an urgent issue, build a prototype, test it and go into limited production for field testing quickly.

Using the life-cycle management concept, AMC industrial facilities partner with myriad players-the Defense Logistics Agency, program executive offices, the Army acquisition executive, industry, academia, other military services and government agencies-to develop, buy, sustain and maintain materiel for the warfighter. Indeed, AMC's partnership with industry is an essential factor in meeting the needs of the soldier in the field. We work together to improve delivery and production by visiting other facilities and sharing the best industry and AMC practices.

Our entire organization has been focused on improving our processes and procedures using the principles of Lean Six Sigma and Value Engineering. Our focus on continuous process improvement has generated streamlined techniques and processes resulting in major annual savings for the Department of Defense. This is a learning process, however, and the challenge we have is to continually improve in quality, quantity and efficient use of scarce resources. Throughout all of these changes and process reengineering efforts, workplace safety has been our highest concern. We are very proud to have been awarded the fiscal year 2007 Army Headquarters Safety Award for having achieved a 29 percent accident reduction from the 2002 baseline and significantly reducing costs due to accidents.

Our depots alone have earned more than 17 Shingo Awards (12 in 2007), more than any other organization in the Department of Defense. This highly acclaimed industry prize is awarded for outstanding quality production efficiencies and increases. Numerous AMC labs maintain International Standards Organization certification in the areas of quality and environmental management, aviation maintenance, occupational health and safety administration and international aerospace quality systems standards. In 2007 the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center received the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, given by the President of the United States for achievements in quality and processes, but our highest awards are the comments we receive from our customers in the field-the men and women of the Army and their chains of command.

Our complex network of research and development facilities, ammunition plants, depots, arsenals, and maintenance and repair facilities supports the warfighter today, tomorrow and into the future. In this period of persistent conflict, AMC's reset and recapitalization efforts keep the Army running while at the same time enhancing and upgrading major weapons systems by inserting developing technologies to make them more effective with increased reliability.

In an effort to realign, reengineer and right-size the enterprise to more effectively and efficiently support the warfighter, AMC has undergone a great deal of change. In the past few years, there has been much growth in production requirements from the depots and arsenals as well as major transitions in essential staff positions. A total of 11 commanders have rotated in the headquarters and the Army field support brigades (Germany; Korea; Fort Lewis, Wash.; Iraq; Kuwait; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Bragg, N.C.) and contracting support brigades (Southwest Asia, Europe, Korea and the Americas). During this transition, AMC production has risen to more than $56 billion in revenue. AMC has evolved into an agile organization able to meet each task, continue to support the warfighter and address transitioning requirements such as workforce training, management of left-behind equipment, the rapid deployment of materiel and command restructuring through Base Realignment and Closure.

Recently, AMC was given another major new mission: It was selected to take the Army lead in transforming Army contracting and building the bench with trained, experienced, and resourced military and civilian contracting professionals. This decision was made after serious problems and issues were identified in the current Army contracting system by the Gansler Commission, established by secretary of the Army Pete Geren under the direction of Dr. Jacques Gansler (former Under secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics).

In October 2007, the Gansler Commission issued its report. Only 91 days after receiving the Gansler report, secretary Geren issued a letter directing the establishment of Army Contracting Command and aligning the former Army Contracting Agency with the ACC under AMC. Forty-three days after this letter was issued, AMC celebrated the stand-up of a new Army provisional command, the first major step to begin pulling the resources together while we worked on the concept plan with the Army Staff. Efforts under the ACC include working to establish a reach-back capability for contracting actions, creating a virtual contracting enterprise, and establishing a new and critical contracting warrant officer branch. Each of these efforts represents a significant improvement to Army contracting that you will hear much more about in the future. AMC is committed to making contracting a core competency of the Army, focusing on customers and structuring to better serve the warfighter.

AMC has addressed all of the elements of the recommendations and is proving every day that diligence and expedience save taxpayer dollars. We have acted deliberately, paying close attention to detail to demonstrate, through our motto of "faster, more agile, less bureaucratic," that AMC can produce America's best value in military contracting. Our initial efforts are making a positive difference in the overall contracting process. There are many steps ahead, but we are on a path to greater value.

The ACC, with its subordinate Installation Contracting Command and Expeditionary Contracting Command, joins an organization with the parallel goal to produce the best for the warfighter, our ultimate customer. Both AMC and ACC have the attitude that we will do whatever it takes to legally, ethically, morally, efficiently and effectively get the job done. One specific comment of the Gansler Commission was that the Army's contracting employees were "understaffed, overworked, undertrained, undersupported and, most important, undervalued." We are working to change this right now.

While the stand-up of the ACC was a significant initiative of AMC over the past year, AMC continues in high operating tempo in support of our warfighters and allies. Thanks to timely supplemental funding last year and our constant efforts to improve our processes and procedures, our depots and arsenals were able to maintain extraordinary production, repair and maintenance levels. Our life-cycle management commands continue to manage the Army reset program in support of the Army Force Generation process, making sure that warfighters receive what they need, when they need it and where they need it. We have a world-class workforce that is focused on getting the job done right the first time.

AMC is a unique command with both continental United States-based and expeditionary elements. The faceto-the-field Army field support brigades and contracting support brigades, working with and through ASC, are embedded with the field units to ensure that the operational units are equipped to accomplish their mission. The synergy between the combatant commanders, the operational commanders and the soldier on the ground is an invaluable asset to the process of materiel management. Weekly video teleconferences are conducted between HQ AMC and field units to monitor operations down to the level of individual parts. If issues or problems are discovered, they can be identified and addressed in real time while managing the line of accountability. These bidirectional, candid forums prove to be a lifeline to the soldier.

The finest production in the world would not make any difference if we could not get it to the warfighter in time. U.S. Transportation Command's development and implementation of world-class global deployment/deliveries as carried out by the SDDC is second to none. SDDC gives AMC a complete factory-to-foxhole picture of the flow of materiel to the theater and back for repair. SDDC deploys and sustains more than 90 percent of DoD equipment and supplies by leveraging the capabilities of commercial industry and other military services. The addition of SDDC to AMC has tremendously improved our tracking and management of products. SDDC not only manages the ships, rail and trucks that get the materiel around the world, it also manages the Army port operations that move goods from ship to shore.

AMC also has a critical mission in supporting our international partners, allies and friendly governments. USASAC has been called the Army's "face to the world" and manages the foreign military sales program for the Army. It also has an office of security cooperation that works closely with governments around the world on security assistance issues. The work that USASAC does makes a tremendous contribution to international cooperation and communicahon.

AMC is completely focused on supporting the warfighter, today and in the future. Innovation, research, creativity and forward thinkers at Research, Development and Engineering Command are our connection to that future. Integrated into every aspect of AMC operations, RDECOM provides the scientific and engineering expertise to solve the challenges encountered today while infusing new technology to upgrade and enhance the materiel and services to the warfighter of the future-from concept development to prototype realization. Science is the art of the possible; RDECOM is our investment in the scientific future.

Another essential major subordinate command, which, fortunately, is not heard from very often is the Chemical Materials Agency, which (along with its sister organization PM ACWA) works to safely store and eliminate our chemical weapons stockpile. The members of this MSC are unsung American heroes. Working with some of the most dangerous chemicals ever produced, they are steadily and safely eliminating this hazard. In June of this year, Pine Bluff Arsenal safely eliminated the last VX nerve agent in its inventory, months ahead of schedule. The importance of what these people are doing cannot be overstated.

Army logistics is an extremely large and complex undertaking. It takes many very talented and educated people to "make it happen and not just let it happen." Our numberone priority is to support the soldier. We must never lose sight of the outstanding work that all of our professionals are doing, 24/7, to support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other units around the world. Our challenge is to ensure we have adequate structure, policy and personnel who are trained to do the job in the right place at the right time.

AMC's workforce is a team of multiskilled professionals who are working hard to support the national defense initiatives and to maintain the confidence and trust of the American people. We are what we are today because of our outstanding workforce. We do what we do because of our commitment to our outstanding men and women serving this nation around the world today, tonight and into the future-protecting our freedom and way of life.

In the words of our AMC command sergeant major, "What can AMC do for you and your warriors?" We are proud to serve.

© 2008 Association of the United States Army Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.