Velocity Management: An Approach for Improving the Responsiveness and Efficiency of Army Logistics Processes

Publication Date: January 1995

Publisher: RAND Corporation

Author(s): John R. Folkeson; Rick Eden; John Dumond

Research Area: Military and defense

Type: Brief

Abstract:

Velocity management is a concept for dramatically improving the responsiveness and efficiency of the Army logistics system. It aims to substitute velocity and accuracy for mass in the logistics system. Reducing the cycle time of logistics processes promises the possibility of greater system responsiveness to the user's needs while permitting reductions in the size of safety stocks or days-of-supply that currently choke the system without adding much to achieved sustainment. Commercial firms that have adopted this general approach have achieved substantial improvements both in cost and, more importantly, in effectiveness in meeting their customers' demands. The approach requires the analysis and re-engineering of processes--e.g., supply, repair, and transportation process--to eliminate non-value-adding activities and to continuously improve the productivity of value-adding activities. The documented briefing proposes how the Army, working with the Arroyo Center, might proceed in moving the velocity management concept from the development phase to a pilot implementation.