SDMI achieves record cut in customer-wait time.

A new record reduction in customer-wait time for surface transportation has been achieved by the Strategic Distribution Management Initiative.

Customer-wait time has been cut by 20 percent worldwide to the Commanders-in-Chief geographic areas, said Maj. Jay Schaeufele, Deputy Director, of MTMC's Distribution Analysis Center. Schaeufele made the announcement in a session of the 2002 Training Symposium, in Dallas, on March 26.

February data indicates a new record in cutting customer-wait time, said Schaeufele. While the average time required for global surface shipments in 2000 took 49 days, in February the rate plunged to 39 days--a record 20-percent drop.

"Many MTMC initiatives are assisting in the reduction of customer-wait time," said Schaeufele. The initiatives include: Putting cargo on the first available ship sailing, preparing advance documentation, speeding one-time-only contract awards, and arranging for more direct bookings.

"Our initiative, and enhancements contained in the Universal Services Contract, are really paying off," said Schaeufele.

The Strategic Distribution Management Initiative is a joint effort by the U.S. Transportation Command and the Defense Logistics Agency to speed worldwide military freight shipments.

The initiative represents "a new approach to all customers in the Department of Defense supply chain," said Maj. Pam Donovan, of Operations & Logistics Directorate, U.S. Transportation Command.

"We seek speed, reliability, cost and visibility. Our vision is an integrated global defense distribution system."

The initiative has separate elements within air distribution, surface distribution, stockage management and finance management.

Specific measures, said Donovan, include prepositioning stocks, using dedicated truck service and minimizing port handling. Reductions in customer-wait times between 1999 and 2001 included: Bosnia, 37 percent; Kuwait, 32 percent; and Saudi Arabia, 17 percent. More efficient transportation to the United Kingdom has resulted in a switch from air freight to truck movement--resulting in a 70-percent transportation cost savings.

"The Strategic Distribution Management Initiative is a way of business for all customers," said Donovan.

For Charlie Nye, Director of Strategic Planning, Defense Distribution Center, New Cumberland, Pa., the key to faster shipments is stock positioning.

Nye said that an efficient and effective distribution system starts with having stock in the right place, which allows distribution centers to consolidate large volumes of freight for major customers; it also provides the opportunity for scheduled synchronized deliveries and low-cost transportation.

The current Department of Defense distribution system is hampered by each military service and defense agency that has its own paradigm and policies on where to place stock in the system, he said.

"We're using the same distribution network in multiple ways," said Nye. "This leads to inefficiency and unnecessary customer-wait time."

Participating in the Strategic Distribution Management Initiative, The military services have made progress in redistributing fast-moving material found to be misplaced in the system. So far, some 30,000 of the agency's stockage items have been redistributed, said Nye. Most of the items selected, he said, are in plentiful supply and frequent demand. This redistribution has been a factor in a 15-percent reduction in customer-wait time in 2001 global surface transportation movements to the Commanders-in-Chief geographic regions.

"We need to work like a corporation," said Nye. "We need to take the freight out of the air at a dollar a pound and move it to surface transportation, where a pound costs just pennies. Basically, it boils down to readiness."