Data automation allows team to focus on analysis

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – The Metrics, Analysis and Sustainment Strategy Branch (TCJ4-LM) of U.S. Transportation Command’s Strategic Plans, Policy and Logistics directorate’s Logistics Sustainment Division has seen positive results since implementing an automated business intelligence tool three years ago.

The branch began using Cognos in November 2016 to gather data to evaluate the timeliness of warfighter-requisitioned sustainment deliveries in a metric identified as time-definite delivery compliance. The metric gauges how quickly requisitions arrive at theater locations and is one of nearly two dozen which the Department of Defense monitors for enterprise supply chain health.

Before November 2016, collecting and measuring the data was manual and arduous. By collaborating with the command’s Joint Distribution Process Analysis Center, the branch was able to automate the procedure.

“We had a data-rich environment with an established collection and analysis method, and the JDPAC team helped automate it so we could aggregate data much faster,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Dereck Wilson, TCJ4-LM branch chief.

The business intelligence tool also aids in analysis and depiction of performance data, allowing TCJ4-LM to generate results in about a quarter of the time it took to conduct similar processes before 2016.

“The man-hours saved in data processing give us more time to execute root-cause analysis of roadblocks in the sustainment distribution system and focus on process improvement,” said Wilson.

Additionally, Wilson said the tool allows customers in the Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise community to save research time by being able to access their specific information directly.

“While we are always here for our customers, it’s a huge capability for them to pull their own reports,” said Wilson. “We are always looking for JDDE solutions to aid warfighter readiness, and periodic upgrades to Cognos let us embrace a wide range of analytic options.”

The TCJ4-LM project is one of several implemented in USTRANSCOM which reflect the command’s priorities to “Evolve for Tomorrow” and “Advance Decision Making.”

“We are delighted TCJ4-LM fully adopted Enterprise Business Intelligence to conduct data analytics more quickly and efficiently,” said Dan Derick, JDPAC chief data scientist. “A data-driven culture requires analysts to focus on interpreting meaning from data and use it to make informed distribution decisions, instead of spending hours capturing and sifting through data. TCJ4-LM has taken this challenge head-on, prepping the field for other advances in analytics and data science.”

“Many other command agencies are making this move to improve their performance. The coming implementation of the Enterprise Data and Analytics Environment will be a game changer,” said Derick. “Call us at 618.220.5257 or visit our Analytic Community of Practice on SharePoint and we’ll be glad to work with you.”

USTRANSCOM exists as a warfighting combatant command to project and sustain military power. Powered by dedicated men and women, we underwrite the lethality of the joint force, advance American interests, and provide our nation’s leaders with strategic flexibility to select from multiple options and create multiple dilemmas for adversaries.

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