Blogs United States Air Force Aims High with an Optimized Supply Chain Strategy

United States Air Force Aims High with an Optimized Supply Chain Strategy

 January 31, 2017

With more than 5,000 aircraft and 650,000 items in 1,500 locations across a global theater of operations, the United States Air Force supply chain is one of the most complex in the world. Delivering integrated supply chain planning for Air Force Sustainment Center locations requires a comprehensive, robust, and nimble solution, that also complies with the strict DoD compliance environment.

With its selection of PTC Service Parts Management (SPM) SaaS solution, the USAF will be able to more efficiently manage its supply chain as well as improve the inventory performance of its operations. Which SPM capabilities are critical to agile and integrated parts planning processes?

  • Demand Planning to generate independent (unscheduled) and dependent (scheduled) forecasts, including the expert selection of forecasting algorithms, and the application of causal factors such as flying hours.

  • Inventory Optimization to achieve specified weapon system availability while simultaneously minimizing inventory investment and adhering to financial constraints, combining Readiness Based Sparing (RBS) principles, aircraft uptime and fill rate optimization along with other business rules.

  • Supply Planning capabilities to produce a supply and distribution plan to correlate repair, purchase and (re)distribution orders with current or future demands. Distribution planning aligns assets to support weapon system availability and to proactively manage material shortages at maintenance/operating locations.

  • Exception Management with robust error reporting and event management capabilities to alert users to pertinent information, and make autonomous recommendations to reconcile exceptions within discrete planner work queues for demand planning, inventory optimization and supply planning.

  • Performance Management capabilities with analytics, data stratification, metrics, reporting and dash-boarding capabilities to support root-cause and what-if analyses.

Joining other leading aerospace and defense organizations such as the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Pratt & Whitney and Rockwell Collins, USAF will be able to modernize its highly respected logistics infrastructure. 

See why so many A&D leaders choose PTC Service Parts Management solutions on our A&D page and learn how aviation giant Embraer used PTC’s Service Parts Management solution to improve inventory turns by 35% in this case study.

 

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General Howard Brent Baker

Major General H. Brent Baker, (Retired) VP Worldwide Federal Aerospace and Defense

In his role at PTC, Maj. Gen. H. Brent Baker Sr. (Retired) is responsible for strategic planning and business development in the worldwide FA&D market vertical with a specific focus on gaining first-to-market competitive advantage in the adoption of technology and smart, connected enterprise solutions.

General Baker was most recently Vice Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The command employs some 80,000 people and manages $60 billion annually in research, development, test and evaluation, while providing the acquisition management services and logistics support required to develop, procure and sustain Air Force weapon systems.

He also directed policy and procedures affecting AFMC aircraft maintenance, munitions, supply, logistics plans, transportation and packaging methods, and logistics data systems. Finally, as the staff lead for logistics and life cycle sustainment issues, General Baker planned and coordinated product support and acquisition logistics for fielded and emerging Air Force weapon systems.

General Baker entered the Air Force in 1979 as an enlisted member and was commissioned in 1985 through Officer Training School after graduation from Southern Illinois University. He has had numerous assignments, such as the Director of Logistics, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam; Chief, Materiel Management Flight, 8th Supply Squadron, Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, and headquarters staff positions, including Chief, Supply Policy and Procedures, Headquarters Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Virginia. General Baker also served as a presidential fuels flight officer at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and as the Commander, 18th Mission Support Group, Kadena Air Base, Japan. He served both as the Vice Commander and Commander, 95th Air Base Wing, Edwards AFB, California, and as the Commander, Air Force Global Logistics Support Center at Scott AFB, Illinois, and Commander, Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill AFB, Utah.

In addition to achieving several educational distinctions in the military for strategic studies, anti-terrorism, and logistics technology, General Baker (ret) holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial technology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and a Master of Science degree in administration from Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant.
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