SDDC Symposium-Distribution Process Owner: Transportation Command is driving distribution change.

As the Distribution Process Owner, U.S. Transportation Command is driving change in military transportation.

That was the message of Col. Randy Helms, of U.S. Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

"We now have one command who synchronizes the distribution process," said Helms, division chief of strategic initiatives, J-5 (Policy, Plans and Programs). "It encompasses the entire supply chain."

"We offer warfighters one point of contact."

Helms was one of a quartet of panelist who spoke at a panel March 23 on distribution initiatives mad challenges at the 2004 SDDC Training Symposium, in Denver, Colo. The panel was hosted by Bill Lucas, SDDC's Deputy to the Commander.

Warfighters, said Helms, desire a quartet of dimensions to transportation operations:

* Simplicity

* Single point-of-contact

* A Visibility

* Reliability and speed

"Transportation Command is now responsible for onward movement throughout the theater," said Helms. "The command has increased responsibility from the port forward to the foxhole."

"Transportation Command's Distribution Process Owner mission is a major focus in the Department of Defense right now," said Alan Estevez, assistant deputy under secretary of Defense (Supply Chain Integration).

Radio Frequency Identification tags will produce big changes in Department of Defense Transportation in the near future, said Estevez, who works in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Logistics and Material Readiness), in Washington, D.C.

"The Department of Defense has used Radio Frequency Identification tags for the last 12 years," said Estevez. "They have been used sporadically. Every time we went to war we relearned how to use it."

Estevez distinguished between "active" Radio Frequency Identification tags that radiate information in a localized area to "passive" tags that may be read by an electronic portal.

"It has got to be embedded in our training and our systems," said Estevez. "It has to be how we do business."

Currently, active tags cost about $95, he said, while passive tags cost $1. The latter tags will even cost less with mass production and are excellent ways to perform inventory management.

"In January 2005, vendors and suppliers will have to apply them (passive tags) to cases and pallets that come to us," said Estevez.

Upon delivery, the military customer can conduct an immediate electronic inventory.

"The warfighter gets what he needs," said Estevez. "We decrease inventory. We decrease duplicate movements. We operate more efficient distribution."

Terry Head, president, Household Goods Forwarders Association of America, Inc., of Alexandria, Va., urged user training before the new Radio Frequency Identification tag policy is adopted.

"We've got to get the knowledge down to the street level," said Head. "The policy makers know about it. The techies know about it. We've got to share that knowledge or we'll have the same experience as we did with bar codes."

Estevez said policy meetings were scheduled to determine how to address that need.

Meanwhile, Estevez said experimental tests have been conducted with satellite transmitters on containers aboard trucks in Iraq. He said transporters would evaluate the cost of the systems with the value they provide.

"Radio Frequency Identification tags are one tool in the tool box," said Estevez. "Ultimately, commercial systems will be the solution.

"We will put that in our business processes."

Security was the topic of Steven Froehlich, director of liaison operations, Transportation Security Agency, Washington, D.C.

"We have a unique challenge in that roughly 85 percent of the maritime and land infrastructure is privately owned--essentially an extensive private network of national security assets, said Frochlich, of the agency's Office of Maritime and Land Security. "The movement of cargo unites and ties together our transportation system. Every major mode, with the exception of mass transit, carries some form of cargo, whether by rail, over highways, through pipelines, across our skies, or via our inland and oceanic waterways."

To enhance security, the agency is in the process of developing standards and policies that will allow us to manage risk in a consistent, coordinated and integrated fashion, he said.

"By coordinating security across all the modes," said Froehlich, "we can minimize weak links that might allow terrorists to gain a foothold."