Are there any current military procedures or practices that you believe you have a better process for?

2018-02-28T11:05:45-05:00

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Feb 28 at 2018 11:11 AM

2018-02-28T11:11:46-05:00

I'm going to lurk on this conversation. I don't have anything to offer inasmuch as my active duty ended almost 50 years ago. However, I'm interested to see the responses...

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 28 at 2018 2:54 PM

2018-02-28T14:54:38-05:00

Training Surface Warfare Officers: Forget four years of the Academy or ROTC followed by SWOS...streamline the degree to a 2-year B.S. in "Maritime Sciences" to include a Third Mate's syllabus, followed by two years deployed afloat under instruction. Final exam to make O-1 and get Third Mate's papers, just like the good ole' days.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Feb 28 at 2018 8:26 PM

2018-02-28T20:26:23-05:00

SGT Joseph Gunderson The reason LCDR Private RallyPoint Member recommends requiring SWO's to sit for the 3rd mate's license is that it focuses exclusively on the tasks of operating ships. Shiphandling, rules of the road, marlinspike seamanship, load balancing, etc. None of the (important but somewhat extraneous-to-operating a ship that -isn't- in combat) stuff that the Navy does: fighting a ship, managing people, etc etc. Of course they need to learn that stuff, too, but it needs to rest on a solid foundation of seamanship first. Besides, that license is highly valuable in the civilian world, and gives them another high-paying option when/if they get out.

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Feb 28 at 2018 10:47 PM

2018-02-28T22:47:32-05:00

The way the Army forecasts repair parts at the field/tactical and operational level. The current method is to look at recent history (last year) trundle out "what just happened" out in front of a room of Warrants and NCOs and have them what if out loud to determine requirements for named operations. Identify all the crap that's zero balance from the what if list and hand that to AMC.

Use the power of an ERP, which GCCS-A is, and have a module in it that uses the Bill of Materials (BOM) on each combat system. Do what industry does, create a BOM explosion that looks at every single part in something. When manufacturing this item, the ERP forecasts the parts and procures them based on lead time and pricing to arrive as they are needed. In the Army application, the BOM explosion would factor in mean time to failure of each component and possibly factor in operation types. Maintenance history of the vehicle would indicate what is old, what is borrowed, and what is new. You give a date range. It would forecast what is about to take a dump, and put that into the strategic sourcing channels. It could then do an NICP level scrub to see what is zero balance and where others are available. For the national level z-bal items, it would prod the item manager to get a source strategy and get them under contract without having a demand of a "trend" form without the trail of tears of broken equipment, crappy OR rates, and ADC (S) butt chewings. All the scrambling and finger pointing.

Response by SPC Erich Guenther made Feb 28 at 2018 10:53 PM

2018-02-28T22:53:55-05:00

Yes, I think they need to find a better defense contractor that makes those strap down belt buckles that wear out so easily. So that when a Soldier creates a momentary zero gravity environment within the Armored Personell Carrier, Jeep or whatever, items don't start to drift all over the place. They need to make tie down buckles that last longer than a few trips to the washrack.

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Feb 28 at 2018 11:11 PM

2018-02-28T23:11:11-05:00

Logistics Status reports (LOGSTAT) for ground units are important to communicate status of key equipment and supplies and what will be needed in a certain range of time to allow the Commander to truly see himself and the combat capability and for the supporting logistics commander to phase and stage support to flow in at the right time and to charge the pipeline to his next higher logistics formation.

LOGSTATs are notoriously inaccurate and lag in time. Log formations often estimate resupply off burn rate of that class of supply, particularly food, fuel, and water and temper it with LOGSTATs when they are reasonably accurate. Each theater does this different and often requires an extensive pooka punching and individual handling of information until it is all neat and tidy for submission to higher. This take up time, reduces information relevance.

How does Walmart stock what they need? They have Point of sale POS level data of what is consumed. That information is shared vertically, mechanically and automatically, with higher and upstream suppliers, who often still own the inventory and rent the shelf (VMI). Upstream is configuring shipments based of real demand and it is moving in real time. We don't have POS data, we have an Infantry NCO writing on An MRE box transmitting a LOGSTAT maybe once a day, possibly over tacsat at half the speed of smell.

Take people out of the data collection of LOGSTAT reporting and focus their efforts on subjective tasks like anticipating future ops requirements and leave nug work of the commodity supplies to a mechanical sensory collection. Use RFID level II tags of basis of issue (case, crates, ammo cans, gallons etc) of supplies and have that ping on a Army Battle Command System (like BFT) so it reports what is on the vehicles or have a hand held system for light guys. It uses other sensors on fluids and vehicles to gauge maintenance status, fuel on hand, and water on hand. It rolls up the report and the reorder quantity. The carbon units would then input subjective info and validate the mechanically calculated estimate and send the report to higher...maybe entering 4-5 things instead of 20-40 pieces of data in a structured LOGSTAT. These would roll up at the TF and BCT levels where FSCs and the BSB could leverage real time data and project it in time to work load aviation, airdrop, ground, and other distribution modes in advance and not compete for priority and space on sparse assets. The aggregated information is validated and supplemented by the SPO to the Sustainment Brigade and strategic logistics entities to charge the pipeline. This would allow the BCT SPO in particular to focus on distribution and problem solving. It would allow the S4 to give the BCT CDR a better picture of himself and capability. Instantaneous LOGSTATs could be pulled when the BCT S3 and Commander sense a battlefield opportunity and can commit without risking unintentional culmination.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 1 at 2018 12:42 AM

2018-03-01T00:42:32-05:00

This one's kicking a dead horse but an all encompassing website for all my paperwork would be a godsend. Instead of the 100's of hotlinks on AKO and other .mils