Global Logistics Support Center provides single focal point Published Nov. 1, 2007 By JoAnne Rumple Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Increase availability rates for war-fighting equipment by 20 percent. Decrease operations and support costs 10 percent. Accomplish both within the next four years. Lofty goals for Air Force supply chain managers already doing their level best to support a host of Air Force operations, including the Global War on Terror. Central to achieving those goals is the Global Logistics Support Center, which will serve as the Air Force's supply chain manager. Reporting to the Air Force Material Command commander, the GLSC will be comprised of a permanent headquarters at Scott AFB, Ill., and six operational locations across the country. It will perform three major roles: > Supply chain planning and execution, to provide enterprise-wide planning for the supply chain, including materiel, maintenance and distribution > Supply chain operations, providing a single point of contact for customers to resolve immediate logistics issues at the point of execution and tracking day-to-day supply spares support and shortfalls > Provide single point-of-entry and authority for supply chain strategy and integration, as well as being responsible for assessing the health of the entire supply chain. Stand-up of the new organization - scheduled to occur in fiscal 2008 -- comes at a critical time. Air Force leaders now must maintain systems that have far exceeded their expected lifetimes, in harsh environmental conditions and at extraordinary operational rates, making material management increasingly complex. According to Col. Brent Baker, who served as the organization's provisional headquarters commander, "Establishing the GLSC is part of the Air Force's eLog21 (Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century) campaign. Together, the GLSC and other recent and future improvements in logistics support will help us meet these critical logistics management goals." Colonel Baker added that employees at the six operating locations who perform the supply chain mission today will initially continue to do the same job at their same location but will be aligned under a new organization construct. "This truly will be a 'virtual' or geographically-dispersed organization," the colonel said. "Resulting organizational alignment will be anchored in our efforts to map, 'lean' and properly support overall enterprise supply chain processes." During the first phase of implementation, current locations, skill sets and capabilities will be networked into a single supply chain organization, using lean processes and enhanced information technology systems. During the second phase, scheduled to be complete in fiscal 2012, those operations will incorporate the Expeditionary Combat Support System, newly skilled supply chain managers and further lean, agile logistics processes. "Once the GLSC reaches full operational capability, staff is estimated at 4,500 people at the six operating locations," according to Trixie Brewer, the GLSC deputy director.