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The Defense Logistics Agency buys $31 billion worth of stuff a year for the Defense Department, including food, fuel and clothing. But until recently, acquisition management took a back seat to the agency's core supply chain management function.

That changed last year when Army Lt. Gen. Robert Dail took over command of DLA and decided to create a single directorate within the agency focused on acquisition management and tapped Claudia "Scottie" Knott, a member of the Senior Executive Service, to run the new organization as director of acquisition management.

Knott, who previously had served as deputy director for logistics policy and acquisition management, said Dail created the new organization to elevate the status of acquisition management in the agency and make it a core competency for the outfit, which has had its business almost double from 2002 when it bought $18 billion worth of supplies.

The steep increase resulted in part from the demands of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Knott said, but it also reflects the fact that the military services have come to increasingly rely on DLA to conduct supply acquisitions they use to handle themselves.

Spending that much money requires ensuring integrity in the acquisition process, which Knott described as her No. 1 job. "It's my responsibility to ... make sure we follow all the federal acquisition regulations and rules and get fair and reasonable prices so we can be good stewards of taxpayer dollars," Knott said.

Her second priority is real simple, Knott said: ensure that the 2,500 members of the DLA acquisition workforce are trained and capable of meeting the requirements of her No. 1 job.

Knott said her final job gets to the core of the DLA mission: She must fashion acquisition strategies that serve as a bridge between customer requirements and supplier capabilities.

This includes, she said, continuing to capitalize on DLA's ongoing strategic sourcing with key suppliers -- such as Oshkosh for truck parts or Boeing for aircraft fasteners -- designed to reduce administrative overhead and speed delivery. The strategic sourcing program has cut the time from when DLA receives a customer requirement to a contract award from 27 days to roughly two, Knott said.

Top Job

Acquisition oversight and management at the four DLA supply centers will be managed by top-ranking SESers, Knott said, an indication of how serious the agency is about increasing the visibility and clout of the new acquisition management directorate.

Nancy Heimbaugh serves as the acquisition management chief for the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia, which purchases food, clothing, textiles, medical supplies and construction equipment. She previously served as DLA senior procurement executive/component acquisition executive and competition advocate.

Yvette Burke has a similar role at the Defense Supply Center in Richmond, Va., which manages repair parts for 1,300 aviation weapons systems. Burke was director of the Business Systems Modernization Directorate at the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia before moving to Richmond.

DLA already has filled, but not announced, the SES acquisition job at the Defense Energy Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Va., which buys all the petroleum supplies for Defense. But Knott said DLA is still looking for someone for the senior acquisition job at the Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio, which manages the supply for land and marine weapons systems. Sounds like a good job for someone who knows all the words to "Buckeye Battle Cry" or "Hang on Sloopy."

From Intel to Health IT

Harris Corp. has a wealth of experience moving and managing large imagery files for the intelligence community, and Jeremy Wensinger, vice president of Harris Government Communications Systems, told me he believes the company can parlay that expertise into the medical imagery field through the company's new Healthcare Solutions division, which Harris formed last year.

Jim Traficant, vice president of Harris Health, said the company's broadcast division, which sells gear to the commercial radio, TV and cable industries, also can provide its expertise with digital content management to medical imagery.

Harris plans to showcase its capabilities at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference, which will be held Feb. 24-28 in Orlando. Harris will showcase its "Operating Room of the Future," Traficant said. The display will show how Harris can pull information from disparate sources, including imaging systems and monitoring devices, and display it in a way to help surgeons perform delicate operations.

Harris Eyes Lead Role In Defense/VA Health IT Work

Harris would like to parlay its systems integrator expertise into work on key contracts in the Military Health System and the Veterans Health Administration, including work on the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange, which is designed to exchange information between health IT systems operated by the two departments.

Last month, Harris hired Dr. Bart Harmon as chief medical officer for the Healthcare Solutions division and Traficant views Harmon, who recently retired as chief medical information officer and director of information management for the Military Health System, as a key hire in working with both Defense and the VA.

It's going to be hard for Harris to make a dent in the lock that Northrop Grumman has on MHS health IT work - a fact that Harmon should know well.

Maybe an Enchilada Cyber Command After All

Last week I speculated that the State of New Mexico would have a hard time stealing the Air Force Cyber Command away from Louisiana because Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., had inserted a $4 million earmark into the 2008 Defense appropriations bill, with the proviso that those funds be spent only at Barksdale Air Force Base -- which is in close proximity to Shreveport, La.

Capt. Robert Krause, a Barksdale spokesman, said the earmark will have no effect on where the Air Force locates the Cyber Command, a hot property that Colorado and Virginia are also wooing.

Neither state understands the difference between red or green chile.

COMMENTS

• The workload has doubled while the WORKFORCE has shrunk! The statistics quated about 27 days to 2 are for high priority items that are grounding aircraft or making a weapon system non mission capable. The routine requisitions take up to 6 months to get awarded which by that toime there are many high priority requisitions against the item causing the same status of aircraft and weapons syatems. With the coming retirement tsunami we will seriously understaffed in a few short years as we do not have enough interns in the pipeline now to cover the retirement eligibles within the next 2 years. Ah well, GEN. Dail will be gone by then and pass this problem off to his relief.... panman Posted February 5, 2008 3:40 AM