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ProModel at the AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition

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Pat Sullivan – VP, Army Programs

With over 5,700 attendees, and over 200 exhibitors, the annual AUSA Winter Symposium and Exposition kept the ProModel team very well occupied. According to Keith Vadas, ProModel’s CEO, the 2014 AUSA (Association of the United States Army) symposium (held during February 19-21, 2014 in Huntsville, AL) was by far the most productive that ProModel has attended. When asked by LTG(R) Roger Thompson, AUSA Vice President for Membership and Meetings, if ProModel would come back if AUSA decided on Huntsville for next year, Keith responded with an emphatic “Absolutely!”

Taking advantage of the efficiency of having the undivided attention of an AUSA audience, which was four times larger than that of last year’s winter conference, Team Redstone hosted an exceptional small-business seminar the day before the conference. The seminar was hosted by a team comprised of NASA, Army Materiel Command, Missile Defense Agency, and the Strategic Missile Defense Command, along with the Army’s Office of Small Business. This was a great networking opportunity, and it revealed some great information about opportunities for ProModel in DOD and NASA.

On Wednesday, February 18th, the ProModel team entered the exhibit hall with great excitement and a superb opportunity to demonstrate how our custom DOD solutions and Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products are evolving. Many of the attendees expressed that they were on a continual quest for accurate budgeting projections. The Enterprise Portfolio Simulator (EPS) cost module, which is being piloted as a module of the ARFORGEN Synchronization Toolset (AST) at Forces Command, demonstrated a clear visualization of such projections. This EPS capability assists the Army (and it can assist any organization) in applying cost data at the tactical level.  The EPS module then rolls that data up in a package that reflects enterprise budget estimates, which in turn reflect a variety of demand or demand-fulfillment scenarios.

Four Star General Dennis Via, Commander of the US Army Materiel Command (center right) and Major General (Ret) Freeman from Deloitte (center) visit the ProModel booth and discuss the positive impact that DST-SM is having on the Army Materiel Command.

Four Star General Dennis Via, Commander of the US Army Materiel Command (center right) and Major General (Ret) Freeman from Deloitte (center) visit the ProModel booth and discuss the positive impact that DST-SM is having on the Army Materiel Command.

Another highlight was the demonstration of, and interest in, our COTS products like Process Simulator and EPS. DOD elements and industry are seeking ways to gain greater efficiency and to stretch their limited resources. While force structure is being reduced, missions and the need for continual modernization are not. The expectation of those funding DOD is that the military will be increasingly efficient in the execution of prescribed tasks. Therefore, an understanding of how to generate efficiency through Lean practices and events, and of how to predict equipment life-cycle costs in a peacetime environment, is paramount. Additionally, leaders in DOD expressed how they must apply Lean principles to their processes, identify trade-offs, and understand the downstream impacts of change.

Process and portfolio management are significant across the government sector, and they will become even more necessary during this time of decreasing budgets. EPS and Process Simulator, coupled with ProModel’s customized solutions (AST, LMI DST, and NST), provide the foundation for rapid process improvement, budget estimation, and program management. Thanks to the exceptional hospitality of the Tennessee Valley and the great response by our AUSA hosts, ProModel found in Huntsville some fertile ground that will grow much more than cotton.

Major General Collyar, CG at AMCOM, stops by our booth at the AUSA Winter Symposium to talk with ProModel CEO Keith Vadas (right) and ProModels Director of Navy Programs Robert Wedertz (left)

Major General Collyar, CG at AMCOM, stops by our booth at the AUSA Winter Symposium to talk with ProModel CEO Keith Vadas (right) and ProModels Director of Navy Programs Robert Wedertz (left)

ProModel Welcomes Col (Ret) Pat Sullivan

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RPS_Business_Portrait

Pat Sullivan – VP of Army Programs

Over the past 28 years, I have served our Nation as a member of the Armed Forces with great pride.  I enjoyed being a Soldier, and continually sought ways to grow as a Soldier and leader.  And now, I am honored to join the great team at ProModel!  I can think of no better professional fit for my background. I am convinced ProModel understands the challenges Army planners and logisticians face…and have an exceptional product and capable team at the ready to solve the toughest problem sets.

As a career logistician, I always sensed we could do just a little bit better with regard to how we supported customers and cared for the entrusted resources available.  The issue was often what we referred to as “brute-force” logistics.  We continually employed additive techniques to support a system that often prevented us from fully visualizing our process and anticipating the impacts of certain change.

Whether establishing logistics hubs during major exercises in Thailand or building based camps in Iraq during Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, I intuitively knew we could apply a more scientific approach.  We understood the tenants of supply chain management and even specified “anticipation” as a logistics imperative.  However, when I served as a National Guard Battle Command Training Program logistics trainer, I always struggled with how to answer the inevitable question of how do we know our log process works and how can we test the impacts of the anticipated change.  You see, we had developed a process for what to anticipate, but we had next to nothing to do figure out what the resulting change would mean to readiness.

I can provide countless examples of planning efforts that involved spreadsheets, Post-It notes, and Power Point charts that proved insufficient in supporting the execution.  The fog of war was only cleared through the extreme efforts of Soldier logisticians who facilitated our processes and closed the gaps of the unknown. It became second nature to augment our supply chain with additional resources to enhance efficiency. The Army is good at it…

However, as we move forward the technique may out run available resources. In other words, we won’t likely have Soldiers to support such facilitation.  Therefore, we have gone back to the drawing board to get smarter.  Over the past several years, we learned that if we have a model to track the flow of our supply chain, we can simulate the process and enhance effectiveness and efficiency.  The Responsible Retrograde from Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and the on-going efforts in retrograding supplies and equipment from Afghanistan are examples.  While the Army supply chain isn’t fully optimized…the visibility, tracking and understanding of the “why” behind condition changes is much more refined.

The next natural step was to leverage modeling and simulation, coupled with some big data analytic techniques, to vertically integrate the most complex tasks we perform.   In my role as Commander, US Army Materiel Command Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA), it was optimizing equipment supply against validated requirements.  This was no small feat…

The Army did have a jumpstart on the demand as US Forces Command, in conjunction with ProModel, developed the ARFORGEN Synchronization tool to tell us what units were deploying and when.  The next step was to extract a 1 to N demand signal by unique type of equipment.  That’s when the work really started.   When we applied available supply to prioritized demands and visualized over time the transactional volume was seemingly overwhelming…that is when you look at it in aggregate. When we looked at it in terms of execution, we found the efficiency gained would provide immediate value as it related to Army readiness…And that we could reduce the # of planners by nearly 100.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say the Army has been totally deficient in using modeling and simulation in support of our supply chain.  Rather, the beauty of this effort was to move from traditional methodology and look at the problem through a new lens.  We expanded the aperture…created a new playing field and entered the world of 21st Century supply chain management best business practices.

So, at the corporate level, the Army has developed capability that has value as it relates to facilitating unit readiness.  Some value exists at the tactical level, but at the lowest levels, executors don’t have the tools to exploit the real power of modeling and simulation.

That’s why I like ProModel.  Sorry for the cliché, but if we consider the possibilities…if we put usable tools…advanced, tailor-able, flexible modeling and simulation capabilities in the hands of those who must make decisions rapidly, then we are clearing their schedule for other more critical tasks.  Whether a forward support battalion planner, Lean Six Sigma Black belt or Department of the Army resource analyst, immediately accessible and easily usable modeling and simulation capacity will ensure we make better decisions.  Collectively, we need to spend more time analyzing answers and visualizing the opportunities, and less time compiling data into Power Point charts that rarely answer “what happened” much less “why it happened.”  I’m convinced ProModel can help Defense customers understand the possibilities in enhancing readiness and inject greater efficiency into our decision cycle.

ProModel’s DST Summer Tour

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This summer ProModel has been out on the road offering up training to Army soldiers and civilians looking to manage the distribution and redistribution of Army equipment with ProModel’s custom made Lead Materiel Integrator- Decision Support Tool (DST).   Subject matter experts from the Army Sustainment Command (ASC), the Logistic Support Activity (LOGSA) and ProModel, have been conducting materiel management training and exercise (MMTE) events around the country.  Army users are leveraging the power of DST to predict Army requirements over time and help make more cost effective decisions on distribution of equipment.

The team kicked off the MMTE at Fort Bragg, North Carolina training 150 users from United States Army Forces Command, United States Army Special Operations Command and the United States Army Reserve Command.  Other training sites so far include JBLM Washington, Fort Campbell Kentucky, and Fort Belvoir Virginia.

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Training at JBLM Washington

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Training at JBLM Washington

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Training at Ft. Campbell Kentucky

Lean and Mean at the AME

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Dave Tucker

Dave Tucker – Sr. Consultant & Project Manager

I recently attended the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Conference in Chicago along with about 2,000+ others.  Another ProModel employee (Andy Schild) and I worked in a booth there alongside a Microsoft Visio Specialist.  Andy & I were there to demonstrate a simulation tool called Process Simulator that works inside of Visio.

I observed two things at the conference that I want to briefly highlight:

1. Lean is still a hot topic in Manufacturing.

2. Astronauts have the best stories.

First – Lean is still a hot topic.  I say this because the AME Conference agenda listed Lean or Lean tool sessions and workshops in 53 out of the 111 topics.  This is strong evidence that manufacturing companies are still eagerly interested in learning how to identify and remove waste from their businesses.  And many companies were there bragging about their success stories!  I also noticed that 26 out of the 45 vendors represented had the word “Lean” plastered somewhere on their booth displays.  Obviously, Lean still sells or vendors would change their approach.  Lean is still hot!  And of course, our company ProModel offers the best predictive analytics technology tools to help organizations identify waste, get Lean, and optimize their processes.

Second – Astronauts have the best stories.  Mark Kelly was the Commander of the final mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 2011.  He is also the husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords who was shot in January 2011 at a rally in Tucson, Arizona.  As the final keynote speaker at the AME Conference, Commander Kelly told about his experiences growing up, serving as a pilot in the Gulf War, and his travels as an astronaut.  He recalled that one night while flying a mission over Iraq during the Gulf War, Kelly narrowly missed being shot down twice within just a few minutes.  As both Russian-made Surface to Air missiles approached separately, Kelly had to roll his F-15 jet thru a series of maneuvers to avoid being blown out of the sky.  Having been seriously rattled by the experience, he decided NOT to fly back home south to his aircraft carrier the same way he had come.  Instead, Kelly flew east over Iran and then started heading south towards the carrier.  After several minutes, he began to hear chatter on his radio that an Iranian pilot was heading towards American forces and was about to be shot out of the sky.  The radio called out the approximate position and airspeed of the Iranian pilot and Kelly thought “What a coincidence, that’s my airspeed and position.”  Two seconds later he realized that HE was the “Iranian pilot.”  So Commander Kelly quickly got on his radio and announced to US Forces “Please do NOT shoot down the Moron flying over Iran.  It’s me.”  Kelly then went on to emphasize the importance of communicating with your team especially when you deviate from the plan.  Again, Astronauts have the best stories!