Logistics: When almost isn't quite enough
Wayne Bourne -- Logistics Management, 11/1/2008
I got stuck on the fuel conservation topic the past couple columns, and it must have paid off, because fuel prices have fallen since. Wishful thinking on my part of course, but the fact remains that for a variety of reasons fuel prices (for gasoline at the pump or diesel for the big rigs) have followed the drop in the economy and fallen to levels not seen in many months. Good old supply and demand economics at play here. While the drop in fuel prices is great news, will we maintain our conservation efforts, or will we slide back to our spendthrift behavior as if nothing has changed? Time will tell.
This has been a great learning opportunity for the newer logisticians in the field. Many of which have just graduated from the elite schools of higher learning such as Michigan State, Tennessee, Georgia Tech, and MIT to name a few. You can’t always count on professors, textbooks, and simulations to prepare you for the start of career. You will also be aided along the way by peers, bosses, and other mentors who have the experience and exposure that newbies are without.
Unfortunately, not all of us get those opportunities. My youngest son, Andy, has been in the Navy for almost 5 years now. He is part of an elite command called the Seabees. Although he is in the Navy, the chances are very slim that he or his Team will ever deploy on a ship. They are “builders”, they are one of the first groups in…they prepare the areas of operation for others. They build airstrips, highways, bridges, barracks, mess halls, communications centers, hospitals and essentially anything else the U.S. Military needs to conduct operations. Their motto is “We Build, We Fight” their Logo has a very mean looking Bee brandishing an automatic weapon and a shovel. Pretty cool.
Andy and his Team are on deployment in the Mid-East again (Andy’s 4th) and I am very lucky to be able to speak to him a couple times a week. As he never knows, (nor do we, obviously) what his actual assignment will be when he gets there, his explanation of this rotation was quite a surprise to me, as we learned that this deployment was to work in what we call logistics here in the private sector, and what they call “embark” in the military.
Andy and his Unit, Al, Gregorio, Joe, Greg, Ian & Tom are all working “out of their rates”, meaning that they are doing a job that they did not necessarily go to school for. Their preparation and schooling for this new assignment comprised of less than 2 weeks of orientation type classes, and study materials that were obsolete to say the least. They; like the rest of us, at one point, had to immerse themselves into the hard, cold world, rather quickly and in their case… absolutely.
The brave young men of NMCB4, don’t complain, they do what they have to do, what they are trained to do. They learn, create, implement, improvise, and execute. They realize that they simply have no other option but to learn and learn quickly and accurately, because there are tens of thousands of other comrades that are depending on the implementation and timeliness of their actions and abilities. To borrow an often used, but appropriate quote from the movie Apollo 13; Failure is Not an Option!
The Team receives millions of pounds of pallets and rolling stock, including armored vehicles, jeeps, trucks, ambulances and the like. They warehouse them, prep them and ship them to various areas of operation. The inventory they process is basically anything you can’t eat. They fly it or convoy it, it doesn’t matter to them so long as it reaches the troops complete, undamaged and on-time…(sound familiar?) They also receive thousands of personnel and equipment for further processing and deployment or in the case of the lucky ones, their return home to their families. So, naturally one can imagine how important is that these guys have a sixth sense of Just-in-time. I simply can’t think of anything more sensitive or important.
In the business world, we are taught that our errors cost us money and/or opportunity, and that is obviously very important. In the world of NMCB4, mistakes or bad timing can and usually does cost a great deal more, (and I don’t even want to go there).
Andy and I talk about logistics and reverse logistics and how he has grasped the very heart and soul of his new responsibility, and I am enormously proud of him and his buds for duking it out. The last time we spoke, I asked him how the health gym was, did they have a place they could work out and stay fit. He said, “We have an “OK” place to work out, however; it is nowhere near as good as the ones on the front, but then again Dad, ours shouldn’t be better than theirs, the troops on the frontline deserve the best we can provide, we can do just fine back here with what we have.” He says, I’ve been here and I’ve been there...and I like here a whole lot better! These guys certainly have their priorities in order.
There simply is no better groundwork for a career in Logistics than preparation and experience. Some of us get it from great Universities, and some get thrown into it. The point is we all have to do the best we can with what has been provided, because whether it is a business or a battle zone, a great deal depends on it.
So, to Andy, Gregorio, Joe, Greg, Al, Tom and Ian, on behalf of all those you serve on the frontline, we say…Thank you very much; and for all of us here in the States, we say…God Bless you and come home safe. You are the best example of what America’s future looks like.
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