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Show November 8, 2007 9 nF Above, Volunteer stylist Patrick Wentworth gives homeless Vietnam War veteran Allan Shanks a haircut at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City on Friday. Right, Volunteer Ray Stewart sorts through donated clothing at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City. Photographs by Matthew Hatfield Standard-Examiner Above, Veterans wait for service at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City. Right, At the VA Hospital on Friday in Salt Lake City, social worker Joan Hatch (right) talks to a homeless veteran about post-traumatic stress disorder. Volunteers from Hill Air Force Base and others helped during the Homeless Veteran Stand Down, an opportunity for homeless veterans to get needed supplies and services. Streamlining improves supply-chain management BY JOANNE RUMPLE Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs W RIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Supplychain management: a boring subject? Before deciding, consider that, without repair parts, tanks don't run, boats don't sail and planes don't fly ... and no one secures a country or wins a war. Plans, training, tactics, dedication, readiness and heroism all have a place, but it's hard to be effective without the armor, weapons and communications equipment, an axiom Air Force Materiel Command understands in depth. The command — which provides research, development, test, evaluation, acquisition, modernization and sustainment of aerospace weapons systems — has been improving supplychain management, modeling successful processes for the entire Ah' Force. Streamlining begun in 2004 is now bearing fruit, said Lorna Estep, deputy director for supply in AFMC's Directorate of Logistics. AFMC has laid in a 10 percent reduction in its $2 billion supply-chain budget, the amount the command expects to save between now and 2011. That's when related initiatives — to streamline centralized asset management; deploy a new "information superhighway" for the supply chain; establish a single, Air Forcewide repair network; and stand up centralized, global "end-to-end" supply chain management — should be fully operational. "We have trend data showing that, over the last few years, we've done a better job of reducing MICAP (mission impaired: cause awaiting parts) rates," Estep said. "Our purchasing and supply-chain management commodity councils have reduced acquisition lead times through strategic contracts. For example, the communications and electronics commodity council reduced acquisition lead time from 81 days ... to 20 days actual under one strategic contract. "We wanted to support Air Force Expeditionary Logistics for the 21stcentury (eLog21) initiatives in a way that would work for everyone, so we took a two-pronged approach." First, AFMC took a strategic view, analyzing the market and forming strategic partnerships with major suppliers and the warfighter. Estep said these partnerships allow the government to establish performancebased agreements with suppliers to improve engineering and reliability of parts. They also enable joint initiatives to improve the overall supply chain. "Then we started streamlining processes, an activity that never really stops, and implementing new information technology that gives us better data and connectivity with our suppliers and customers," Estep said. To ensure new processes will actually work, everyone connected with the process at all AFMC bases is receiving "immersion education" to learn about best practices from industry so they can start applying those to Air Force supplychain management, she said. "We want to make sure AFMC will meet Air Force eLog21 goals — not just the 10 percent reduction in cost, but also the 20 percent improvement in reliability across the board for readiness and a 34 percent improvement in supply rates," Estep said. Together, these initiatives are changing the face of supply-chain management. "While many of these changes impact the supply chain at our air logistics centers," Estep said, "they also impact every base, wing, group and squadron across the Air Force." AFMC is working with other major commands, as well as the Defense Logistics Agency, all of whom are making related changes. "In the process, AFMC is actually easing the burden formerly borne by other major commands," Estep said. "We're assuming responsibility for financial management of the entire logistics pipeline for the Air Force, as well as taking on all supply chain management through AFMC's new Global Logistics Support Center. Make gifts at Hill classes M ake gifts for friends and loved ones at the Hill AFB Arts and Crafts Center. Classes starting soon include: • Make-and-take holiday quilting projects, for kids, $6 ages 5 and older, 10-11 a.m. Saturday, Autumn Banner, Nov. 17, Harvest Swag. 776-5349. • Basic quilting class, make a maple leaf table runner, 9:30-11 a.m., four sessions starting Tuesday, $50, including kit. • Beginning tole painting class, by appointment, four-week session, $30, 5-8 p.m. Thursdays. • Woodworking classes, by appointment, $80, one day, four hours; workshop/studio time, $20 for two hours; Woodworking Beginning Boxes, $45 plus materials, four weeks or 10 hours; Desk or Mantel Clocks, $45, four weeks, 10 hours. • Developing woodworking equipment skills, $30 plus materials, two weeks, five hours, by appointment. 774-6232. • Introduction to glass eye class, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, $50. • Basic leathercraft class, 5-7 p.m. beginning Tuesday, four sessions, $40. • Scroll saw class, 5-7 p.m., beginning Nov. 15, four sessions, $20. • Basic wizard mat-cutting class, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 17, $60, prerequisite is basic framing. • Oil-painting classes, 4:307:30 p.m., beginning Nov. 19, and Wednesday, Nov. 21, four sessions, $30, supplies not included. |