The 2011 Director's Guidance, released this week by Defense Logistics Agency Director Vice Adm. Alan Thompson, refocuses the agency's goals with an emphasis on increasing efficiencies and savings in accordance with Defense Department requirements.
"DLA is putting its full support behind Secretary [of Defense Robert] Gates' requirements to reduce the department's overhead so that more money can go to troop development and force modernization," Thompson said. "Initiatives are included in the fiscal 2011 guidance that ensure DLA will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our processes. That's just good business and part of DLA's obligation to its customers."
The 2011 Director's Guidance includes perspective from DLA's Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2010-2017, DoD's recently published Logistics Strategic Plan and other DoD guidance. The guidance includes 19 initiatives, some of which are being continued from the fiscal 2010 Director's Guidance. The fiscal 2011 guidance continues to emphasize DLA's three strategic focus areas of Warfighter Support Enhancement, Stewardship Excellence and Workforce Development.
In the area of Warfighter Support Enhancement, the initiatives focus on support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, improving business operations and contracting to better serve warfighters, and developing logistics efficiencies that better serve customers and save money. In the area of Stewardship Excellence, the initiatives focus on pursuing price reductions, improving detection and deterrence of counterfeit material, and meeting Congressional and DoD inventory management and overall supply chain performance. When it comes to Workforce Development, the initiatives focus on ensuring workforce capabilities match present and future mission requirements, supporting diversity and enhancing DLA's performance-driven culture.
"As we move into the new fiscal year and begin to work on the focus areas and initiatives in the 2011 guidance, we'll apply what we learned in the past months to our operations," Thompson said. "We'll continue to provide best-value logistics to the armed forces as we anticipate and meet the requirements of the coming years. DLA will keep looking beyond the near horizon to the future, and we'll continue to develop and implement cutting-edge capabilities and products for our customers."
In the 2011 guidance, Thompson noted that the agency has made significant progress on the initiatives in the fiscal 2010 Director's Guidance. Some notable successes were the agency's support to ongoing operations in Afghanistan, a proactive response to the defense secretary's call for efficiencies in business operations, an expansion of outreach communications to customers and DoD leaders, and a leadership role in support of U.S. Central Command's emphasis on local purchases in Southwest Asia and use of the Northern Distribution Network, which has improved logistics support to Afghanistan.
"Over the past year, the DLA team once again gave critical support to our warfighters, stakeholders and customers," he said. "We made good progress on the initiatives contained in the fiscal 2010 guidance. I know every DLA employee will continue to provide the same high-quality sustainment in the months ahead as we begin to execute the fiscal 2011 guidance."
