Stealing Ideas From Anybody

Today I’m going to use this forum to share two articles that caught my eye back in July that I shared with some of the team through e-mail and posted to ePMO with some of the other preliminary market research.

The articles were in the July – August issue of Defense AT&L: A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University.

The first one is an interview with the man on the cover, Major General Edward G. Usher III, Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics.  The article is called “Logistics in a Changing Environment: Supporting Marine Expeditionary Units.

The second article I’ll add to your reading list is “Pushing a Pull System: Transforming Marine Aviation Logistics.”

Back in July I e-mailed some of you:

Relevant to GOTS discussion, USMC is using Oracle E Business Suite to replace their log IT systems.

Just read article from 2 star in charge of logistics.  I’ll pass URL when I can get it.

He described plan to use when disconnected from network.  May be some ideas to steal.  Also provides a bit of confirmation that limiting look at COTS tools we have or use (Ellipse, Maximo, Oracle) and those DHS uses (SAP, Planet IRM, Sunflower) may be sufficient.

USMC may be good reference model for us in its need to both integrate with and operate independently of Navy.

The next day I passed along the URL and pointed them to the section of the interview I thought would be useful for us to explore.  According to MajGen Usher:

Our capstone logistics technology enabler of the future is the Global Combat Support System–Marine Corps, which will give logisticians a worldclass, Web-based management tool for use, while deployed, to request logistics support via both classified and unclassified connections. The GCSS-MC will allow units that are deployed to austere environments to operate in a disconnected mode to register their needs without having to tie into a Web-based information system located in the United States.

If the Marines have figured out a way to use the Oracle E Business suite to meet the needs of deployed units, perhaps we can learn something from them.  We’ll be reaching out to find out what lessons we can learn from them and their implementation.

Unfinished Business

Today we held the second CG-LIMS Quarterly Performance Review.  Sandwiched in between a couple of government only sessions was OSC’s update on what they did over the past quarter.  Ken did an outstanding job briefing the group on what was accomplished, and I got the sense that many in the room wish we had continued to see the job to completion.

We’ll be working hard over the coming months to develop a Plan D.  In the meantime, I wanted to share the slide deck from the brief.  It captures an exceptional quarter worth of work.  Until we were stopped, the team did exactly what we said we’d do. I’m hopeful that in the future we can recapture the sprit of teamwork and commitment to deliver that shined through in the past quarter.

The slides are in ePMO and Inteldocs.

For grins, go have a look at the post where I shared last quarter’s briefing, and compare the two.  As I told the group at OSC last week, we can be proud that we did exactly what we said we’d do. You should all take pride in what you were able to accomplish in 90 days.

The caption on slide 9 says, “Develop a Plan and Plan to Follow It.”  That’s what you did.  You followed it until forces outside the project’s control stopped you.

I’m looking forward to the day that we can have a slide that starts with, “Develop a Plan and Complete It.”