Troop Support enhances supply chain management with data-driven intelligence tool

A visual data-driven intelligence tool is enhancing the supply chain visibility of military clothing items Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support provides to the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.

The Clothing and Textiles supply chain collaborated with the Business Process Support office to develop a prototype supply chain management tool using Microsoft's Power Business Intelligence application.

"The objective was to develop and implement a tool that would give us supply chain management proactivity with AAFES' partnership to improve forecasting, strengthen our partnership and identify any shortfalls that we can see in advance," said C&T's Director of Customer Operations Angela Gonzalez.

Gonzalez presented the tool to AAFES leadership during a senior executive meeting Sept. 25, along with Troop Support Executive Director, Contracting and Acquisition Management, William J. Kenny, C&T Director Army Col. Bernard K. Monroe and BPS Lead Demand/Supply Chain Analyst Nicholas Weidman.

"AAFES provided positive feedback on the dashboard's user-friendly interface and recognized the importance of their data accuracy for maximizing the tool's effectiveness," Gonzalez said.

The discussion focused on understanding AAFES's current business processes, including its manual demand forecasting methodology and store-specific ordering patterns, Gonzalez continued. AAFES's performance metrics, such as shelf-fill percentages and sales, were discussed and compared against DLA's current supply fulfillment metrics.

"If we're in a good stock position, we should be able to support AAFES immediately and this tool will allow us to see that in one snapshot," Gonzalez said.

The tool currently tracks all AAFES locations and items, and the goal is to use the tool for all military clothing stores across the services, Weidman said.

Initially developed in late July, C&T team members are currently testing the tool to improve future use.

"It's a first-time project," Weidman said. "We're working closely with C&T on this effort, consolidating complex data into clear visuals, allowing leadership and the supply chain to make faster evidence-based decisions."

What started with an excel spreadsheet is now validated with live code, or a reloaded script, that refreshes data automatically to streamline the data management process, Weidman said.

Tracking performance trends in real-time provides data on key performance indicators that support strategic objectives and ensure daily operations align with long-term mission outcomes, including supply fulfillment, reducing backorders and increasing vendor performance, he continued.

"We're able to see what's actually on-hand at the stores versus what we forecasted," Weidman said. "So, it just gives greater insight on if forecasts need to be adjusted due to demand and different things like that."

The goal of the tool is for anyone along the supply chain to be able to see the health of each item, said Daniel Clark, BPS demand/supply chain analyst for C&T and the Construction and Equipment supply chain.

"Another benefit of the application is that it gives [DLA and AAFES] an entire view of the supply chain itself, so you can see the individual items and sizes that are on order, when they're scheduled to come into our warehouses, any outstanding sales orders for those items to be shipped to the AAFES stores, and open backorders.," Clark said. "In the case that there are backorders, it helps to identify where the flaw in the supply chain was."

Jorge Valentin, a C&T supervisor in the customer planning division for operational combat and individual equipment items credits Weidman and Clark for their data expertise in building the tool.

"C&T had a need to this customer, and Nick and Dan took that, and we explained what we wanted to provide to the customer, and with that they quickly developed the visuals [from] the data to fulfill that need for C&T," Valentin said.

Next milestones for the tool include formalizing data-sharing protocols with AAFES and collaborating via SharePoint, Weidman said.

The BPS team also plans to implement the tool beyond its current supply chain use.

"We're branching it out to other [Troop Support] supply chains too, and each supply chain has different needs so we're developing a different dashboard for each of their specific needs," Clark said.