Publisher's Synopsis
In June 1998, U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government presented a team of U.S. Army logisticians and RAND analysts the "Hammer Award" in recognition of a great accomplishment: streamlining army logistics. For decades, the performance of army logistics fell progressively behind best commercial practices. Army mechanics would wait on average a month for spare parts from distant supply depots in order to repair a "down" weapon system. Today a high-velocity, streamlined army supply process delivers spare parts in half the time it took to deliver them just three years earlier. In fact, these days it actually takes less time to get a spare part from an army supply depot than from a commercial vendor. Transforming the army's supply system required a revolutionary shift in thought and action. Through the institutionalization of velocity management - a simple, yet powerful methodology for continuous process improvement - the traditional view of logistics as massive piles of things kept on hand "just in case" was abandoned.;It was supplanted by the contemporary business view of logistics as a set of customer-focused processes honed to deliver supplies when they are needed, where they are needed. This book illuminates the velocity management paradigm by recounting one of its most remarkable achievements: accelerated logistics processes capable of supporting army forces of the future anytime, anywhere.
