Air Force logistics undergoes largest change in history through eLog21

  • Published
  • By Diane Betzler
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  
Chief of Enterprise Integration, Donald Pugh, visited Edwards Air Force Base Nov. 5 to talk about how the Air Force is about to change the way it operates its logistics process.

Mr. Pugh, from Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, talked to senior and mid-level leaders at Edwards about a thing called ECSS. It's an Expeditionary Combat Support System, which, according to Mr. Pugh, will modernize the way the Air Force supports its peace and wartime activities.

"The Air Force is going through a major undertaking," Col. Jerry Gandy, 95th Air Base Wing commander confirmed. He said ECSS will replace a lot of legacy software systems that the Air Force currently uses with a better product that will allow better visibility across the spectrum of the Air Force Logistics connection.

Mr. Pugh explained that the ECSS is an information technology system that will allow the Air Force to provide faster, better and more efficient support to the Warfighter. He said the system is going to revolutionize the way the Air Force does top-level business and the way individuals do their jobs. The system will be implemented throughout the Air Force and is expected to be fully operational by 2015.

Although ECSS isn't expected to be completely in place for several years, Colonel Gandy said he's excited about the capability it will bring to the Air Force.

Colonel Gandy said the new system is going to bring together a wide range of data bases and programs that are out there, which, in the past, did not interface very well. "The ECSS is supposed to help us fix all that," he said.

The $1.5 billion logistics transformation is described as the biggest change in the history of Air Force logistics and is considered to be the cornerstone enabler for the Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century, a campaign that's come to be known as eLog21.

Mr. Pugh, a career logistician with 33 years in civil service, described himself as the enterprise architect for where the Air Force is going to be in the logistics environment across the AFMC.

"I'm a frontline representative for what the Air Force's needs and requirements are," he told those attending the briefing.

Mr. Pugh said part of his role is to provide subject matter experts to help take the Air Force through the new process.

"I put together a team of professionals who are going to help us [AFMC] implement ECSS," he said.

Mr. Pugh added that his mission is to let users know what ECSS is and what it isn't so that when it comes up, users will be comfortable with what's going on. His briefing illustrated how AFMC progressed to where it is, explained why the need for change and the way ahead.

Mr. Pugh also played a video that showed how, with the ECSS system, the Air Force will be able to react and deploy during emergencies, peacetime or otherwise.

According to Mr. Pugh, currently, logisticians throughout the Air Force community rely on paper forms and data entered into hundreds of systems at different bases and noted that ECSS will replace all of those information systems and practices with a single source of logistics information that will be accessible from any base.

The new technology, Mr. Pugh said will enable a much faster response.

Mr. Pugh talked about what it's going to take to get the Air Force where it needs to be and called out two particular areas that the Force will need to concentrate.

He said data preparation, which is getting the data cleaned up and ready for transition is one and organizational change and management is the other.

The latter covers what kind of things the Air Force needs to do to get ready and how it makes sure the workforce is prepared for the major change.

"We'll be preparing a tailored list for Edwards that will explain all the things Team Edwards needs to do, and we'll do a kickoff 24 months before the system actually goes live, to run Edwards through it all," he said.

Mr. Pugh said the Air Force needs to transform because it needs to plan for the future and needs to be more flexible.

He said the Air Force needs to become more network centric and needs to be able to look at the whole picture at all times.

"We need to do things smart in the 21st century," he said.

"ECSS environment is going to be very different, but the advantage is it will be standard," Mr. Pugh said.

ECSS will streamline processes, global visibility, resource availability, accurate data up, down and across the enterprise, and it will standardize the processes, according to Pugh.

The new system will be implemented in four releases. The first release is what AFMC is currently working on and it will include base material and enterprise base management.

The second release will cover equipment management, the third will cover depot maintenance and all base supply activity and the forth release will cover flightline maintenance and ammunition management.

Explaining all that, Mr. Pugh said, it is important as managers to know what's coming and there will be approximately 250,000 users Air Force wide.

He said to prepare for it, Edwards needs to appoint change agent coordinators across the base.

Mr. Pugh said eLog21 is the technology that the Airmen need to do their jobs better. "It will impact the entire logistics, it will provide the right support at the right time, all the time," he said AFMC is not developing software, they're implementing it.

Mr. Pugh's advice to management was to get smart, learn more about eLog21.

Colonel Gandy said there is always some resistance to change, but asked Team Edwards not be part of that resistance, "We're going there, be part of the solution. You are what's going to make this work."