The most powerful tools developed for DoD are simple in design, but require user training application to operate and must be constructed with the goals of dispatchers in mind. Understanding the goals of dispatchers in specific contexts provides the ability to construct critical tools for translating user requriements into design frameworks. The most powerful interactive design tool must address: 1) Precise descriptive design of the user 2) What must be accomplished and why.
Complex user requriements become apparent in the way supply line connection modules are constructed and how techniques are used. Without comprehensive design principles built into dispatcher protocols, DoD is left with the impossible task of interpreting massive amounts of raw, unfiltered information, without benefit of the big picture or any real & practical operational principles.
To create an application that is to be used by a massive organisation such as DoD, logical people may conclude that system design should be as broad as possible in order to accommodate as many users as possible. This premise is flawed. The best way to successfully design an application is to construct user requirements for specific types of individual w/ specific needs to maximise their utility by making use of real-world behaviour patterns that are present in day-to-day activities.
When an application is designed with a goal to satisfy a broad audience of users, arbitrarily extending the application to include many constituencies, the workload & navigational overhead of the application is increased, to the detriment of coordinated, centralised dispatch operations serving the mission requirements of multiple installations.
Dispatchers leverage real-time information to create stable route-based paths consisting of substitute resource sourcing ticket intersection successions with supply line connectivity. Dispatchers estimate the length of connection/disconnection periods between intersections to optimise route selection & information transfers. Dispatcher approaches decouple forwarding from intersection identity & use route position to integrate forward input points. Dispatcher treatment of disparate equipment size & type deployment schedules enables spatial route forwarding w/o overhead associated w/ periodic work order schedules to maintain accurate force structure lists.
Good supply line application modules emphasise the salient features of the structures or relationships they represent & de-emphasise the details that are not as important to the success of dispatchers during critical operations. Designers must create user models based on raw, observed behaviour of dispatchers & intuitive synthesis of patterns in routing supply to installations. Only after formalisation of this information, can designers systematically create a protocol for the patterns that match the behaviour & goals of the dispatchers at a high level of system design. Creation of template work orders for busy dispatchers provides this formalisation.
Dispatcher help desk is the “heart” of DoD procurement quote dispatch operations. It exists to bring current and future information changes to DoD installations related to scheduling supply line routes for deployment of equipment components. This information may be as basic as offering instructions for maintenance scheduling or as complex as translating condition & performance-based metrics to solve a procurement quote interface system problem an installation has encountered w/ the transmission of a substitute resource component sourcing ticket on supply line connection conference calls.
Because the help desk team will probably talk with and sync almost every DoD installation at one time or another, it is well positioned to take the pulse and temperature of DoD procurement programmes on a daily basis with the goal of functioning as first line of defence to notice a change or shift in DoD composure related to assessing condition & performance based metrics for equipment components deployment schedules.
As a result, dispatcher help desk teams provides the foundation that keeps equipment component deployment running smoothly to meet the changing force structure requirements of surge contingency scenarios. However, a common frustration that DoD installations share with us is the lack of consistency they encounter when calling current stove-piped information desks. “Our biggest concern in calling existing help desks is that we never know who will answer the call or if the type of response we will receive is in sync with our communications.”
Although dispatch centres may not have total control over which dispatcher answers the telephone on supply line conference call connections, necessary steps have been taken to ensure that the response provided to DoD installations is accurate. Consistent responses & follow-up establishes credibility. Call handling of work orders can be used to standardise operations.
Design Consensus & commitment must be involved in building the supply line routing application for dispatchers. With a common language comes a greater understanding. Work order dispatch eliminates current confusion precipitated by complex diagrammatic charts because dispatchers have found it is much easier to understand the many iterations of user behaviour through creation of narrative work order structures used by dispatch design in formulating the administration of substitute resource component sourcing ticket schedules.
The effectiveness of application design choices must be evaluated in work order dispatch in the same way as can be shown to a real user during the formative process. Although this does not eliminate the need for the application to be deployed in real-world mobile operations, it provides a powerful reality check for designers trying to solve high-level design problems in launch of the application. This allows design iteration to occur rapidly & at reduced costs to DoD, resulting in a far stronger design baseline when the time comes to test the utility of the application to adapt to the behaviour of dispatchers in real-time.
Dispatchers use design of this application to derive metrics for equipment condition & performance before application of supplier contract quote systems for the creation of substitute resource sourcing tickets leading to the scheduled procurement of equipment deployment to meet requirements of upgrade/repair simulations in order to meet force require for scenarios.
Dispatchers have investigated what makes for an efficient & practical procurement supply route pipeline detailing requirements of equipment deployment? In this effort, project is scoped, risks & specific requirements for installation sync identified, resources evaluated, quality factors prioritised & success factors defined.
Dispatchers break down DoD operational parts & understand how to accomplish objectives. Examples are strategic, competitive, fiscal, technical & operational. Programme attributes include availability, usability, integrity, interoperability, reliability. testability, maintainability, & reusability. We have concluded that DoD has bags of protocols but not much information! Here's a quant manifesto for the more ambitious: Just Connect, Integrate, Adapt, Expand & Apply!
The ability to use predictive service route supply applications based on condition indices shapes decisions and outcomes, becoming a key source of competitive advantage for DoD in determining master agreements for deployment of equipment components to installations. When applications querying the condition indices of equipment are present in all aspects of the supply line determination process & tech power for equipment tracking transaction volumes increasing at an accelerated pace, installations of any size can harness critical information to get smarter about upgrade/repair simulations, service route administration & product support.
Modern applications utilise integrated framework that employs quantitative methods to derive actionable intelligence from operational monitors, using these insights to shape service route agreement decisions & ultimately, to improve operational outcomes moving well beyond the scope of standard reporting tools and techniques. History has confirmed that high performance installations can outperform competitors over the long term across operational schedules. High performing installations recognise equipment tracking technology on its own cannot make DoD into an effective organisation.
Most high performing installations should utilise application queries of equipment condition indices to optimise the most important core route service agreement processes. Scheduling upgrade repair simulation method techniques enables deployment of equipment to installation sites within a specified temporal window, allowing for new sources of service route performance enhancements.
For DoD, equipment supply route applications remain underused & underappreciated, highlighting requirements to invest in reporting & intelligence technology solutions to improve decision-making. Tracking vast quantities of equipment supply information available supports smarter, more transparent operations. Currently, DoD is focusing on basic equipment upgrade/repair scheduling methods using standard reporting tools and techniques that include outdated or static supply route information.
At high performing installations, DoD should establish real differentiation in supply line connections along two paths. First, outdated equipment tracking loops should be deliberately closed and raw information transformed into productive insights to shape actual decisions & supply route service agreement processes, generating better equipment upgrade/repair simulation outcomes & creating operational value. Unless execution steps are followed through with, equipment tracking insights in isolation have little operational value and are merely nice to know.
DoD must close outdated equipment tracking loops in a coordinated manner across multiple functions, geographies, or divisions— whatever the relevant installation of the enterprise. Becoming more fluent with applications designed to aggregate information from queries of fleet condition indices can help DoD become more flexible & opens avenues to asking new questions in the areas of upgrade/repair simualtion forecasting, optimisation & predictive reasoning. DoD must become more adaptable to changing contingency scenarios involving not just technical tools but also organisational factors related to equipment tracking logistics, which spurs competitive advantage for surge operations.
Building advanced Logistics capability is not easy, of course. Even well-run installations may struggle to generate insights from their equipment tracking technology investments, connect supply line insights to the relevant upgrade/repair simulation processes & provide links to tangible operational outcomes. While DoD has its own unique set of challenges, all tend to share one or more of several common themes:
First, we have documented a focus on the wrong equipment condition metrics or too many metrics. DoD has established a large set of metrics, but they often lack a causal mapping of the key drivers of their operations, which a small set of metrics should track.
Second, we have highlighted an over-reliance on outdated technology as a solution. Too often, DoD has built a huge system warehouse or enterprise resource planning system and assumes that supply line decision-making aimed at leading to increased operational tempos will improve, neglecting to put technical tools in the right hands with an architecture built around the right process, in order to deliberately drive efficient operational outcomes.
Third, we realised DoD is drowning in an ocean of data, wading through a proliferation not just of supply route information volume but also of particular type that wasn’t readily extracted historically. DoD units may feel they are drowning in information, not confidently navigating their craft through it. Without a proven process for selecting the right supply line information to aggregate, it’s unlikely that DoD will be able to discern important routing patterns that can lead to smarter decisions.
Finally, we point out DoD is awash in one-off, point solutions, the capability of which could be interesting—and that’s about all if it is worked in isolation. Until it is connected to other operations such as how equipment is deployed to installations and how DoD provides direct support to mobile operations, that capability will remain suboptimal and underutilised.
More often than not, while reluctant to say so, DoD relies primarily on intuition and experience rather than fact-based reviews to guide creation of new supply line connection processes. Most operational decisions are still made based on judgment alone, and while experience and intuition are valuable assets, they remain limited in utility until combined with relevant equipment tracking information.
None of these are completely new challenges. But they have become more corrosive in today’s multi-polar world, one characterised by multiple centers of installation power & tracking activity. Faster communications and real-time automated applications have allowed operational functions to be dispersed geographically and have also brought a vast array of supply route service activities, many located in dispersed parts of the planet.
Complexity is one challenge in a multipolar world & operational speed is the other, where missing the shift of value in equipment upgrade/repair simulations for new installation segments connected by the application querying service route condition indices means mounting an expensive come from behind response. One attribute shared by high-performance installations is the speed with which DoD must make decisions, typically in close physical proximity to installations or through connections to a centralised schedule integration centre.
High performing installations should get the right supply line information into the hands of the right people who can act quickly, reinforcing the need for application capabilities querying equipment condition indices connected to installations. In practice, processes have been distributed across many parts of DoD, if not throughout the entire enterprise .The route to building equipment tracking & valuation capability will depend on the level of system maturity currently within DoD.
An installation accustomed to innovating through modern processes will have a different set of issues, challenges, and questions than will an installation that may not even know its required supply line exposure on a daily basis. An installation accustomed to performing minimal equipment condition indices assessments per year will likely not be prepared to take advantage of the rollout of new application grids allowing for more frequent assessment of condition indices.
Therefore, a critical first step is a diagnostic to determine the current maturity of DoD installations and where the gaps in suppy route service are located. Less mature installations must aim to boost the quality of equipment tracking technical tools. Poor supply line connection quality is prevalent across DoD, and needs to be addressed before investing in applications querying fleet condition indices. If dirty equipment tracking information is an issue at an installation, it is essential to determine the highest priority tasks for executing the core upgrade/repair strategy, and then to validate, clean, and consolidate technical information.
Less mature installations are often short of supply line applications with advanced equipment tracking & and valuation skills, or the specialists with the know how to make a real difference. These installations should recruit talent & implement applications carefully and investigate how to select piece parts of operations functions to improve quality of supply line connections & bring specialists on board for the highest value projects. The long-term goal for any installation at any level of maturity should be to embed modern applications as an installation-wide capability.
For equipment procurement and deployment issues, installations should understand the next likely supply contract quote item by each DoD segment and the time lag between measured operational instances & exceptions not reasonably tolerant of mean values. Using results from this diagnostic, installations can lay the groundwork for a basic, robust or truly advanced equipment tracking & deployment capability in guiding upgrade/repair simulations
Effective installation applications built to track equipment & query service supply route condition indices for useful metrics are built on a three-part foundation: 1) Disciplined processes to ensure that valuable insights & recommendations are generated, acted on & effectiveness measured; 2) Select the right installations participating in supply line conference call connections with the right skills to identify the insights and put information to work; and, 3) Application systems that ensure operational integrity & quality.
At some installations, outdated technology gets most of the attention, while people & processes get short shrift. High-performance installations integrate equipment condition indices assessment processes into supply route service connections as well as the methods by which equipment tracking work gets done, decisions get made & operational value is created. Most DoD installations do not use repeatable approach methodologies. Creating repeatable processes that leverages ability of application to query equipment condition indices for the required metrics to generate new insights into operations should be a high priority for every installation.
To generate insights, DoD should start with the best diagnostics already employed at installations to gather information about the determinants of efficient supply route service &solutions to deficits in assessments of equipment condition indices. Using existing supply line routes already In possession can then confirm or reject questions regarding the status of potential connections to maximise impact of operations. The insight that follows from case studies of supply line connection techiques could then be tested in a pilot programme or a small sample to validate effectiveness before being widely deployed across DoD.
At the start of any supply line routing test and wider rollout, it’s critical to get input from all the functions or stakeholders in DoD that need to be involved in order to mitigate operational risks and ensure the greatest positive impact for mobile operations. For instance, if an installation sees an opportunity for increased operational tempo under surge contingency scenarios for a potential supply route connection, DoD should consider whether it has enough equipment components in place, enough application operators trained for a complex mobile operation at the right place & time; as well as the requisite expertise to handle follow-up questions regarding supply route service connections.
Consider the case of how DoD could use equipment tracking applications to query condition indices resulting in new supply line processes to improve test procurement at a remote installation which could then be rolled out more widely. Maintaining operational tempos depends on deploying an exact number of equipment components to the right places at the right time.
Traditionally, DoD would rely on the experience and gut judgment of its installations, asking them to study supply line information during each operational period to predict which areas would have the greatest demand. Using this approach year after year, DoD eventually fell into a rut. Every scheduled period, some installations would deploy an equipment cache in anticipation of surge operations without a clear idea of how many exactly were actually needed.
To make better and more transparent decisions about equipment component deployment, DoD should test applications at all installations designed to query equipment condition indices in supply line route service connection processes. Following implementation, installations could use actionable intelligence in updated DoD systems to forecast exactly where equipment components must be deployed. It may turn out deploy according to the regular schedule would be rejected by application forecasts that supply line connections would best be organised by another directive. Aside from improving operational tempo, application designers have suggested ways to optimise service route insertion for critical installation requirements.
During surge operations, supply route service connections may be restricted to some particular installations requesting equipment deployment for minimum periods. That way, equipment components would be more likely to be available for the most key installations. Similarly, applications querying condition indices will help DoD predict when a certain installation might run out of equipment, & correct deficiencies to enable operational tempos to persist under surge conditions. By embedding application queries of equipment condition indices directly into everyday decision making, DoD can increase the operational efficiency of its equipment utilisation rates dramatically.
When aiming to improve supply line connections for surge operations, it is essential that the power of applications designed to query equipment condition indices is derived from making connections & recognising patterns in contingency scenarios, isolating the drivers of supply route line performance, and anticipating the effects of decisions. To make smart connections, DoD has to look beyond the immediate task and evaluate what happens upstream & downstream of equipment cache deployment.
Consider the challenge of improving the return on installation-wide equipment tracking processes. The solution will be most compelling when future operational tempos can be optimised across different route service channels, geographies, and the full range of equipment components.
DoD should connect the entire process and range of changing operational tempos, rather than being focused on just one or two phases of it. Application methods typically work best with a cross-functional approach, since most operational problems touch multiple areas of DoD. For example, traditional, widely used batch claim processing of supply line connections drives poor procurement processes and increases administrative costs while decreasing operational readiness.
The better solution, a real-time information source adjudication process, is complex enough that it requires collaboration across multiple installations in order to prioritise equipment tracking transactions established by supply line conference connection calls, shifting valuable resources away from adjustment and appeals processes and toward readiness for surge operations.
Initial DoD processes querying equipment condition indices have often been one-time efforts that are inherently limited in effect. But as supply route connection activities become familiar and more routine, DoD can learn from each initiative, codify the best advances in efficiencies, and integrate new applications into consistent and meaningful real-time information work order processes. This approach takes more time up front, but eventually offers the benefit of almost instant scheduling decisions.
Modern applications sense equipment condition indices assessments & information on subsequent upgrade/repair simulation, apply logic or codified knowledge & make decisions with minimal intervention to operations. Surge operations are best suited for automating the decision when DoD can readily codify the decision rules & work order systems automate the surrounding process. Modern automated decision-making is used in a variety of settings, from reordering of equipment components following below levels required by installations,to scheduling of mobile operations.
For real-world mobile operations requiring new supply line connections, sensors can relay essential information, predicting potential problems before the automated system enables equipment upgrade/repair schedules to be in effect, extending the life of operational components & driving down expenditure of capital & time-related contingencies.
Applications querying fleet route condition indices are best suited to clearly defined, periodic tasks in which most of the information needed is available & predictable. Receipt of centralised supply line information derived from new supply line route connections produces real-time alerts of delays so installations can reroute incoming frequent equipment caches & promote better long-term planning for upgrade/repair simulations & improved allocation of resources for logistics programmes.
To push benefits to increased operational performance of modern applications across DoD, installations need to be an integral part of strategic decisions. Indeed, some changes in operational tempos are hardly conceivable without advanced processes. DoD may ask, “Do we think this is true, or do we know it to be true?”
Powered by underlying applications querying equipment condition indices driving upgrade/repair simulation scheduling, the strategy has proven robust through an array of operational situations, and has clearly outperformed competitors. Another example for future directions are prediction applications, which operate on the principle that a crowd, collectively, can often make better decisions than individual installations. When DoD wants to know if a new idea is likely to succeed, it may seek the opinion of rank-and-file by turning to its internal resources for forecasting.
The end game should be application capability for querying equipment condition indices & triggering new supply route connections where the piece parts collaborate to solve problems and insights can be leveraged for maximum impact. To be sure, this may require more effort at first, more sponsorship from the senior ranks, and buy-in from political stakeholders. Yet DoD enterprise-scale results, whether in increased future operational tempos during surge contingency scenarios, return on capital, or enhancing the role that DoD can play in shaping global affairs and national security, or any other metric for that matter, are what make the effort and complete physical exhaustion worthwhile.