Logistics Transformation: Next Steps to Interoperability and Alignment

Research Study

Policy and vision documents declare interoperability to be the “foundation of effective joint, multinational and interagency operations.” Achieving that vision has been challenging and logistics leaders have raised a number of issues in discussing next steps to achieve jointness in logistics.

Fifteen logistics transformation experts shared their views on the ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ states in joint logistics transformation. They are all leaders and senior managers with both broad policy perspectives and often deep technological and business process knowledge, along with decades of logistics and war fighting experience. The fifteen experts discussed the following topics:

Programmatic Topics
• A historical view in the progress of logistics coordination and interoperability
• Barriers of existing funding mechanisms
• Barriers of Title 10 to joint logistics support systems and interoperability
• The need for Office of Secretary of Defense leadership and standards
• Organizational restructuring

Constructive Topics 
• Lessons from Operation Iraqi Freedom – scalability issues
• Interoperability and Data Integration – challenges and cases
• Centralized versus decentralized approaches for joint logistics transformation

Operational Topics
• The warfighter’s view of logistics transformation
• Training, lost learning and succession planning
• Change management

Several participants recommended that a ‘4 Star’ Logistics Combatant Command (USLOGCOM) be created to consolidate DoD logistics and supply chain functions, even if this requires clarifying Title 10. They also recommended that interoperability be funded and required as part of the logistics systems acquisition process. A central business process model of the ‘as-is’ logistics enterprise is required, but different war planning scenarios may require multiple ‘to-be’ logistics business process models. The USLOGCOM, once created, will need to act as an ‘honest broker,’ and sometimes as a ‘sheriff’ among individual Services and Agencies, to enforce interoperability and business process alignment.

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