Michael W. Wynne: "I Hate Logistics" - Second Line of Defense

2014-06-16 By Louis Kratz

September 9, 2001 was a beautiful fall day at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, as the newly confirmed Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics), Honorable Michael Wynne prepared to address the Department of Defense Program Manager Community at the Defense Acquisition University.

Secretary Rumsfeld had introduced the audience to the “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA) – an operational concept that built upon speed, agility, and the U.S. comparative advantage in information technology. RMA included specific emphasis on immediately employable force options, pre-emptive capabilities, net-centric warfare, and focused joint logistics. The Secretary also launched his “War on Bureaucracy” to streamline Pentagon operations.

One benefit of RFID is the ability to track government equipment being used in theaters by contractors. Credit Image: Bigstock

Expanding upon the Secretary’s comments, Mr. Wynne approached the microphone to a hushed audience of program mangers awaiting guidance from their new boss.

“I hate logistics!” Wynne declared and then proceeded to outline the DoD’s $180B in annual logistics expense, 32 day customer response time, lack of visibility and agility, and $70B in inventory.

Wynne accurately and simply defined the limits that the current logistics structure would place on RMA.“I hate logistics!” Wynne repeated and chided the 300 program management audience to join him.

“I hate logistics!” the PMs joined in.

Mike’s logic was impeccable as he explained,

“Whether push or pull, our current logistics are reactive. At best, unless we embrace a new paradigm, we will be still depending on the Warfighters to tell (the logisticians) what they need, then trying to supply it as fast as they can. This amounts to an industrial age vendor struggling to satisfy an information age customer. Reactive logistics-the old logistics-will never be able to keep up with warfare as we know it.”

System of Systems Thinking

At the technical root of this amusing anecdote is the clarity of Mr. Wynne’s focus on developing and fielding critical national security capabilities as systems of systems.

Mr. Wynne accurately characterized a defense capability as both the technical performance AND the availability (sustainment) of that technical performance.

In his view, sustainment within DoD required a major overhaul along two major lines:

First, designing and developing defense systems that designed-out the logistics footprint (to enhance agility):

“We need to design ultra-reliability into the system… Why do we design stuff that’s going to break and need repair? Military capability is the ultimate purpose of the acquisition process, not creating logistics support. “

Second, modernizing the DoD logistics chain to emphasize outcomes and comprehensive asset management (building from best commercial practices)

“I want strategic deployability and mobility. When Geronimo showed up, he had firepower and mobility, not the wagon train. We had the wagon train, and we still do. We need to pester the requirements people and pester the engineers to bring us a reduced footprint.”

This engineering-based, system of systems view, differentiated Mr. Wynne both in strategic thought and in implementation.

Logistics Innovator

Mr. Wynne led his OSD staff in working with the leadership of the Military Department to define a rigorous life cycle management process and modern logistics system. This collaborative leadership approach resulted in groundbreaking process, business model, and technology advances – simultaneous with executing Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Key advances include:

In August 2003, USD (AT&L) established targets for the percentage of contract dollars awarded using performance- based service agreements. The targets were FY 2003, 25 percent; FY 2004, 35 percent; and FY 2005, 50 percent and drove implementation of outcome based sustainment
In 2004, Department of Defense (DoD) officials initiated efforts to revitalize systems engineering practices in defense acquisition programs. Acting in his role as the Defense Acquisition Executive, Michael Wynne issued policy guidance that stressed the need “to drive good systems engineering practices back into the way we do business”
January 23, 2004 Memo from Acting USD, AT&L Michael Wynne – “PBL is the Department’s near-term strategy to increase weapon system readiness through integrated logistics chains and public/ private partnerships”. Wynne USD (AT&L) issues the 11 “guiding principles” for conducting a PBL business case analysis (BCA). This memo provided the first detailed guidance for conducting BCAs
November 17, 2004, Michael Wynne, approved release of the Defense Acquisition Guidebook, that codified program manager life cycle responsibility and authority. The Defense Acquisition Guidebook was an interactive, web-based capability designed to provide the acquisition workforce with an instant on-line reference to best business practices as well as supporting policy, statute, and lessons learned

In 2003-2004 Mr. Wynne led DoD to issue two policy memorandums to modernize its logistics chain:

The Policy for Unique Identification of Tangible Items (UID), was published in July 2003
The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Policy was published in July 2004

Bottom Line Results

The above efforts enabled Mr. Wynne to lead the DoD and its industry partners to “change the engines on the plane in midflight” – that is modernize their life cycle management practices while executing two major conflicts.

Specific outcomes include:

Re-vitalized engineering workforce in DoD and industry focused on complex systems engineering
Establish clear PM accountability for weapon system life cycle performance and cost
Implemented 200 major systems and subsystems supported by performance based sustainment strategies (PBL)
Achieve unprecedented system availability for major platforms supported by PBL strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan such as C-17, JSTARS, Stryker, F-18 E/F, B-2, and Common Ground Stations
Implement complete visibility into the strategic supply chain through use of RFID tagging
Enabled 25 million parts to be tracked/identified by IUID consistent with commercial standards, that is now being used to further increase reliability and avoid counterfeit parts

These accomplishments enabled DoD to provide superior support to deployed forces in 2 conflicts while driving costs out AND executing the largest humanitarian relief effort since the Berlin airlift.

Michael Wynne – The Logistics Innovator who hates logistics!

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a series:

https://sldinfo.com/the-wynne-legacy-generating-and-diffusing-innovation/