Defense logistics agency issue - KMI Media Group

company primarily works with DLA to provide
parts for the Air Force’s F100 engine,
which powers the F-15 and F-16 fighter.
“We have a long-term strategic contract
with DLA that enables us to more effectively
and efficiently meet customer requirements
in the shortest time possible,” said Mitchell.
She noted that having the contract in place
has helped reduce lead times from 120 to 45
days or less.
“The long-term contract really enables
DLA to get more parts on order because
they include, typically, long multi-year
prices,” Mitchell told MLF. “Long-term strategic
contracts are a key initiative for DLA
[and are] really an improvement for us as
well. [They] really have helped save time but
speed up the supply process as well.”
Jansson said that reducing lead times
from partner providers has been a combination
of efforts by both his agency and the
provider, including allowing suppliers to
develop qualified product lines. As a result
of such efforts, he said, Honeywell increased
reliability from 67 percent to 80 percent
last year.
For DLA Aviation, this has meant expediting
processing times to ensure items
meet compliance specs and allowing suppliers
to better manage their deliverables
by anticipating requirements based on historical
need, including buying raw materials
in advance. This remains particularly
important with parts for which production
involves long material lead times.
But such effort amounts to much more
than shorter wait times for delivery. Jansson
pointed to several efforts that have accomplished
this along with saving taxpayer
dollars. “One of our top priorities is to have
more affordable acquisitions,” he said.
For instance, he noted that DLA is introducing
more competition into the process
for some parts by allowing for reverse engineering
of existing sourced parts from new
sources, as well as other means of implementing
competition for contract sourcing.
At times, the firm is also reaching out
directly to the manufacturer of parts that
were previously supplied from major integrators.
This comes after years of limited
competition for these parts by sole-sourcing
components from major suppliers.
“We will work with some other small
business contractors to reverse engineer
components,” explained Jansson, noting
that collected data for some products allows
for the introduction of new manufacturers,
leading to greater efficiencies. “We have
been successful in reducing prices.”
In one recent case, he said, competition
surrounding FA-18 rewiring provided
an approximately 20 percent reduction in
prices from newly contracted alternative
sources.
“We have saved $26 million for items put
on long-term contracts, reducing lead times,
and by increased competition,” he said.
Even with the move toward more
competition for part supplying, DLA Aviation
appears to remain committed to the
major traditional sole source parts provider.
Recently, the agency awarded contracts
to several prime suppliers for structural
Demand Planning and Forecasting is easier with ILS solutions...
• Support BOM forecasting with supply and demand trend data.
• Build costs projections with catalog and historic quote pricing
points.
• Locate critical obsolete parts with the ILS global supplier
network.
• Discover alternate part numbers and procurement sources
through the ILS Government Research Tool.
components by whittling down those seeking
contracts to four prime military contractors
under a competition to provide
around 2,000 parts for primarily Air Force
use. One portion of that effort allows for
several suppliers to provide landing gear
collectively, providing $37 million in savings
over the previous sole-sourced vendor
contract.
But military part procurement contracting
is not the sole purview of major manufacturers
or smaller firms who can replicate
parts in their place. Memphis, Tenn.-based
Inventory Locator Service LLC was founded
in 1979 with the aim of matching buyers
and sellers of aviation parts and ground support
equipment.
John Angelbeck, senior manager,
defense solutions for the firm, said that
their proprietary searchable database allows
people to input commercial part numbers
or a keyword to find all the supplies listed in
their database. The database provides information
including the number of parts available
from an individual supplier, whether it
is new or overhauled, and the plane from
which it was removed. The database also
shows whether the potential supplier is government
certified so it can easily do business
and meet DLA shipping specifications.
Also listed is government cross reference
information to allow for more sourcing
options when parts are used in more than
one type of military aircraft.
Represented in about 115 countries
worldwide, Angelbeck said the company
“works heavily” with DLA Aviation,
Inventory Locator Service, ® LLC
1-901-794-5000 (Worldwide) • 1-800-233-3414 (North America) • marketing@ILSmart.com • www.ILSmart.com
MLF_April2012.indd 1 3/19/2012 3:10:28 PM
www.MLF-kmi.com MLF 6.5 | 27