Expeditionary Combat Support System improves logistics support Published Nov. 1, 2007 By JoAnne Rumple Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- "But I don't want it next week! I want it yesterday!!!" Those who have experienced this scenario can sympathize with the Air Force mechanic who's trying to fix an aircraft "yesterday"--so it can be returned to combat--but can't get parts that fast. On the other hand, it's surprising at how close the Air Force is getting to actually delivering repair parts "yesterday." According to Jamie Hurley, chief of supply and engineering in Air Force Materiel Command's Logistics Directorate, the Air Force is transforming its logistics operations to make them faster and more agile. AFMC is part of that transformation. As such, the command is helping to develop and deploy information technology enablers such as the Expeditionary Combat Support System, or ECSS. To be powered by advanced, off-the-shelf software, ECSS is "the super highway getting us to our goals," said Ms. Hurley. AFMC and other Air Force experts are meeting periodically over the next couple of years to "blueprint" ECSS: to analyze how well Air Force needs for logistics capabilities are met by the software, code in industry best practices and develop any necessary additions. "ECSS will allow us to achieve the same efficiencies as industry by moving us into an enterprise-wide resource planning environment," Ms. Hurley said. She added that ECSS will enable a seamless flow of information across the entire Air Force logistics community by creating an Air Force-wide integrated data environment. It will consist of modules for advanced planning and scheduling for maintenance, supply and transportation; material management, contracting, and logistics finance; configuration management and bills of materials; and repair and maintenance to control scheduled, unscheduled, corrective and preventive maintenance planning and operations. Other modules will cover product life cycle management, customer relationship management and order management, distribution and transportation, decision support, document management and budgeting. Headquarters Air Force officials say integrating these 12 individual capabilities will construct a streamlined Air Force logistics supply chain that reduces inventory levels, decreases maintenance cycles and provides greater situation awareness for allocation of Air Force assets. This will directly benefit the warfighter. The $1.5-billion ECSS will eventually replace more than 400 obsolete or outmoded individual computer systems across the Air Force. "The problem with these older systems is that they're not integrated," Ms. Hurley said. "If you ask for a piece of data, you're likely to get three different reports from three different systems ... all reporting different numbers. "For example," she continued, "today it can take awhile to get information on which air logistics center needs which parts and when because we have to pull and collate separate reports, produced on different systems on different schedules. So we might only find out after the fact that one center has a glut of one type of part while another has no stock at all and some of all the parts are needed to get the mission accomplished. You know the old story ... for want of a nail the war was lost. "ECSS will get us that comprehensive awareness and centralized planning capability," Ms. Hurley said. "This will allow us to resolve such discrepancies quickly and, in some cases, to prevent them. The new system will give us a 'single source of truth.'" ECSS also will enhance the command's ability to do wartime scenario planning. "We'll actually be able to take a scenario from the warfighter, look at what might happen and what might need to happen, at all the discrete requirements from all of those possibilities--things like variance by location, such as desert environments, cold environments, different kinds of potential foreign object damage to engines, different types of potential hostilities--and enter those into the system," Ms. Hurley said. "Then run our plan to tell us what we need to do to support the warfighter if that scenario happens." Deployment of ECSS to Air Force bases will take place in blocks as large sections of the system are developed. Officials say they expect full implementation by late 2012. Implementation will be accompanied by training for all of those affected. "For the first time, the Air Force will have universal access and visibility to consistent, near real time information, allowing for proactive planning and scheduling and total asset visibility across the Air Force that will provide superior information to decision makers and enhance war fighter capability," Ms. Hurley said. "We'll be getting aircraft and related equipment back to the warfighter more rapidly now because the parts will be there when needed."