SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill., (July 8, 2004 - USTCNS) --- Changes to the management and reporting of initiatives under the Distribution Process Ownership were announced yesterday by Gen. John Handy. The result is a more flattened management structure and a consolidation of focus areas.

Handy, commander, U.S. Transportation Command was designated as the DPO by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last September. Since then, USTRANSCOM has aggressively sought more efficient and effective solutions for synchronizing the distribution of personnel and equipment from factory to foxhole.

The consolidation of authority under one process owner provided a single accountable commander. However, the DPO did not have the same streamlined organizational structure with corresponding subordinate levels of accountability - until now.

"The DPO's aim is to improve overall efficiency and interoperability of distribution related activities - deployment, sustainment, and redeployment support during peace and war," said Maj. Gen. Butch Pair, chief of staff at USTRANSCOM. "This restructuring adds GO / SES (general officer or senior executive service) level accountability and velocity to these hugely important efforts so that our government can start reaping the potential dollar savings at hand."

Prior to this change, the system (the flow of information to senior level decision makers) was sometimes redundant and required additional staffing procedures.

Gen. Handy now oversees the DPO Executive Board, which is also represented by leadership from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Defense Logistics Agency. General officers / SESs will head six pillars, or focus areas, and report monthly to the Executive Board. The pillars are functionally centered on: execution, integrated distribution, funding, information technology, processes and the human realm.

Handy recognized from the start the importance of partnering and the need for continued momentum. Within days of the appointment, USTRANSCOM was consulting with the services, combatant commands, defense agencies and industry partners to coordinate its new responsibilities.

"It's not just USTRANSCOM that's in this particular solution set," Handy told an audience of military and commercial leaders attending a defense logistics conference last year. "It's all of us."