New logistics system promises transformation in combat support Published Sept. 28, 2010 By Mike Stevens Air Education and Training Command KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- In preparation for the launch of the Air Force's new Expeditionary Combat Support System, Air Education and Training Command officials conducted a kickoff meeting with Keesler leaders and future ECSS users Sept. 14. Brig. Gen. Andrew Mueller, 81st Training Wing commander, hosted Garry Richey, director of logistics, installations and mission support at AETC headquarters, and members of his team. During that meeting, the AETC team delivered an informational and educational briefing about ECSS, its goals, program timelines and how the Air Force will be affected. ECSS will be fielded throughout the Air Force in multiple releases. At Keesler, ECSS is scheduled to be fielded in September 2012, but the preparation process has begun. The kickoff represented the beginning of the ECSS organizational change management program, which is designed to help prepare everyone for this transformation effort. Officials noted that no change is ever successful until individual behaviors change. The people who perform Air Force logistics processes from all functional communities must personally engage in the transformative aspects of ECSS in order for it to succeed, they noted. The Air Force is in the midst of an historical transformation. The way the Air Force is organized and the ways that airpower is employed are changing in revolutionary ways. Changing, too, are the ways in which Air Force logisticians provide support to warfighters. ECSS is the cornerstone enabler of the logistics transformation effort. Using an Enterprise Resource Planning software solution, ECSS applies the best commercial practices and uses industry-proven tools to establish the Air Force's first capability to globally view and manage its logistics resources, such as major end items, materiel, people and funds. The briefers explained that ECSS is much more than an information technology system. It will fundamentally change business processes, personnel roles and jobs across the spectrum of the Air Force logistics community. Locally, ECSS will drive dramatic changes and improvements in the way logistics is done, according to the speakers. For example, the process of scheduling a repair currently means setting a repair date at the base level without the ability to ensure technicians, parts, facilities, tools and resources are available Air Force-wide. With ECSS, an integrated global view of people and parts availability will enable greater scheduling effectiveness and ultimately increase availability of repaired components or major end items. Simply put, AETC officials said, Air Force logisticians will have what they need to get the job done when repairs are system-scheduled under ECSS. Citing another example, today's Air Force logisticians collectively rely on paper forms and enter data into multiple base-level systems. This labor-intensive effort will be replaced by entering data once into one system. When fully implemented, ECSS will replace hundreds of logistics information systems and will be the single source for logistics information. Officials pointed out that these sweeping changes won't be easy, as long-standing ways of doing business will either dramatically change or completely disappear. They acknowledge that ECSS will pull people from their comfort zones and cause them to do new tasks in different, unfamiliar ways. To help logisticians navigate these changes, the ECSS program will provide education and training programs for those who will use the new system. An Air Force-wide change agent network, supported by an ECSS program team, will share information on ECSS activities, schedules and lessons learned and conduct local problem-solving meetings to help smooth implementation at each installation. This same network will support the sustainment of ECSS after fielding is completed. ECSS will drive changes in the way the Air Force does business and the way logisticians perform their jobs. Officials say the result will be an Air Force enterprise better enabled to provide its warfighters the right materiel at the right time. ECSS is also expected to enable logisticians to use their time more productively, significantly reducing the cost of accomplishing the Air Force logistics mission. For more information, call Maj. Matthew Atkinson, 377-7923, or logo on to the ECSS website at www.ecss.wpafb.af.mil.