\n FORT BELVOIR, Va.\u00a0\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u00a0
<\/p>\n
The Defense Logistics Agency has a new Agency Transformation Center designed to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence and fundamentally reshape its business processes to better support the warfighter.<\/p>\n
The center serves as the hub to synchronize modernization efforts, drive process reengineering, and implement a unified digital backbone across DLA. The ATC officially began operations July 15, led by Army Maj. Gen. Stephanie Howard as director and Sean De Lorenzo as deputy director.<\/p>\n
Howard, who also retains her role as director of DLA\u2019s Joint Reserve Force, called attention to the capabilities artificial intelligence is unlocking. She said the ATC aims to integrate the data and change how the agency operates to not get left behind.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cIf we ignore this technology and continue to operate the way we operate today, I would contend DLA could become irrelevant,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n
De Lorenzo added that modernization is needed for DLA to stay at the leading edge of both relevance and warfighter support now that agentic AI capabilities have proven their worth.<\/p>\n
A sizable and experienced workforce is one of DLA\u2019s strengths, so getting those seasoned employees to be comfortable with and embrace change will be a focus of the ATC, Howard explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe DLA will be the forefront of the joint logistics enterprise in using AI capability to support the warfighter,\u201d she said \u201cWe have so much opportunity here, and now we need to spread enthusiasm throughout this agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the obstacle will be countering people being scared,\u201d she continued, noting potential employee concerns relating to changing jobs and questions on where employees with decades of experience fit into transformation efforts. \u201cI think that’s our biggest challenge; just to convey the messaging that, yes, we want your expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
To those employees, Howard said to picture something frustrating, like a time consuming bureaucratic procedure. Rather than removing jobs, assistance from AI agents will free up time taken up by day-to-day manual processes, allowing employees to pursue solutions to more complex problems.<\/p>\n
De Lorenzo noted AI is never intended to replace staff, but to augment their capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt enhances our abilities as humans to be able to make those intelligent decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, there may be changes in roles, responsibilities and how people interact with the systems, but that can be trained. At the end of the day,\u00a0 this is an enabler.\u201d<\/p>\n
Employees interested in getting involved have options ranging from formal representation in the eight different domain teams working with the ATC, down to simply using DLA\u2019s AI tools in daily life and providing feedback. Existing AI teams and initiatives across DLA continue to have a role, sharing experience and best practices with the ATC.<\/p>\n
Both Howard and De Lorenzo emphasized that the creation of the ATC doesn\u2019t mean that DLA is starting its AI efforts from a blank slate, since the team can lean on existing organizational structures, lessons learned, and expert change agents across the agency.<\/p>\n
Using the existing AI foundation, De Lorenzo said a quick win will be to use AI capabilities to reduce the number of steps in complex processes. That win will result from getting employees who are process-specific experts to be comfortable enough with AI to identify where technology can streamline or reengineer their procedures.<\/p>\n
Following that, the ATC will look to reduce the overall number of processes and break down the silos between systems to make information more immediately accessible, Howard said. An initial use case involves inventory visibility at the National Item Identification Number level.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll our warehouses across the world, down to the bin, down to the rack, down to the NIIN, you can see,\u201d she said. \u201cYour first question might be, are you telling me DLA didn’t have that capability before? Well, we had it, but you had to go into different systems, and you had to look at different screens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s what we’re talking about \u2014 going from lots of processes to fewer,\u201d she continued. \u201cYou can open your computer, and whatever you need to see is right there. Or let’s even go one step further, you can have AI agents running in the background to flag things to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n
To accomplish this, DLA is creating a digital backbone by pulling all its data into a single cloud environment to serve as a unified data platform with access available across the agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are well on the way to getting all of DLA’s data,\u201d Howard said. \u201cBut then imagine our capability once we bring in data from the services, data from industry, data from other external sources. When it\u2019s all together, imagine how much better our decision making could be. That’s what we would see through this transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Lorenzo summarized the future capability as a supply chain orchestration and visualization tool. The capability allows for internal and external data to be used to make refined decisions given context from the services and the wider world. Visualization presents the data in a more intuitive format, like geographically.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn real world situations, such as fires on the West Coast, you can see the fire line and say, \u2018Okay, I have this vendor base that’s at risk,\u2019 or \u2018I have this warehouse that’s at risk,\u2019\u201d he explained. \u201cWhat’s the impact to my customers? Do I need to move their inventory? Having that visual picture helps people understand the impact more than seeing numbers on a spreadsheet.\u201d<\/p>\n
After setting up frameworks and establishing a culture of DLA embracing continuous change and new technologies, the ATC will disband after 18 months, though its core mission and momentum will continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first 18 months is just the beginning,\u201d De Lorenzo said. \u201cThis is never really over, if done correctly. You’re always in a mode of assessment, refinement and then going back and implementing. And then you do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FORT BELVOIR, Va.\u00a0\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u00a0 The Defense Logistics Agency has a new Agency Transformation Center designed to accelerate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4912,4211,67968,24,1673,25,67964,204,67963,3622,67962,8048,67966,67967,7901,50,66,16605,67965],"class_list":["post-137343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-about","tag-acquisition","tag-agency-transformation-center","tag-ai","tag-article","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-combat-logistics","tag-defense","tag-defense-logistics-agency","tag-department-of-defense","tag-dla","tag-dod","tag-enterprisewide","tag-headquarters","tag-logistics","tag-machine-learning","tag-news","tag-support","tag-technical-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}