Safe Ports
SUPPLY CHAIN MGT
in an active war zone
Lucy M. Duncan
President, CEO
SCM: Mission never changes.
Meals, medicines, and munitions are
needed to keep a military unit operating at
full capacity.
In addition to nutrition, shelter, and
medical supplies soldiers must also have
weapons and the consumables that
weapons need to function, such as
ammunition, repair parts, and fuel.
SCM - SURVIVAL
•  Keith Oliver 1982 in Supply Chain
Management assumes a commercial
and benign environment.
•  Not covered: Survival Logistics in the
War Zone.
•  Oliver did not address the degree of real
time adjustment and improvisation
needed by the professional in the high
risk environment.
For example - Wars have been
won or lost based on supply
chains
“My logis*cians are a humorless lot, they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay!” Alexander the Great who was undefeated in ba4le and is considered one of history's most successful commanders Francis Marion, also known as “Swamp Fox,” led guerrilla-­‐style raids on BriDsh supply lines. “An army marches on its stomach”, said Napoleon Bonaparte. His army lost more soldiers because of spoiled food than from baAle. Safe Ports & Afghanistan
•  Safe Ports is a Woman Owned Small
business w/its HQ in Charleston, SC
•  2010 Safe Ports competed in an open bid
against 8 of America’s largest Defense
Contractors to operate the first DLA
depot ever established inside an active
war zone known as DDKA (Defense
Distribution Kandahar, Afghanistan)
October 2010 – Safe Ports won the
the contract to operate DDKA
About the
Defense Logistics Agency
The Defense LogisDcs Agency (DLA) is an agency in the United States Department of Defense, with more than 26,000 civilian and military personnel throughout the world. Located in 48 states and 28 countries, DLA provides supplies to the military services and supports their acquisiDon of weapons, repair parts, and other material. Every day the DLA receives more than 130,000 requisiDons. The agency processes nearly 9,200 contract acDons daily and does business with nearly 24,000 different suppliers Not covered in DLA training: Frequent Incoming Rockets Rugged terrain, poor roads and relentless enemy a4acks. We didn’t have the road structure, to bring things in. Transportation – No Intermodal Options
Lack of ports and rail-yards
Viable routes: in/out of Afghanistan
Road Transportation:
a constant challenge
Afghanistan’s landlocked borders put the nearest
usable port in Karachi, in Pakistan, which can be
reached only by crossing the Khyber Pass in the east,
or at Chaman in the south.
This supply line proved vulnerable to attack from
insurgents inside Afghanistan, who attacked convoys,
blowing up dozens of fuel tankers at a time and
looting goods intended for troops.
The Southern Route (Pakistan)
remained unreliable
•  Uneasy relations between
gov’ts were the worst
pitfall of those routes.
•  Pakistan shut them to
NATO supplies
completely for 7 months
in 2011 and 2012, in
reproach for an American
air strike that killed 24
Pakistani troops. Nearly a
year after it reopened, the
backlog that resulted has
yet to clear.
Unreliable Afghan truckers/TCNs, even the
military. Theft and pilferage.
Problem identifying the enemy.
•  The principal contract supporting the U.S.
supply chain in Afghanistan was called
Host Nation Trucking, a $2.16 billion
contract split among 8 Afghan, American,
and Middle Eastern companies.
•  The companies transported over 70% of
the supplies for the international forces in
Afghanistan, roughly 6,000 to 8,000 truck
missions per month.
The HNT contract fueled warlordism, extorDon, and corrupDon, and it may have been a significant source of funding for insurgents. DisrupDons were the norm. The Northern Route
•  By the end of 2011 only 30% of US supplies and less
than half Nato's travelled through Pakistan, the result of
the opening of the Northern Distribution Network - a
far longer, more complicated and expensive route that
began in Europe.
•  Supplies were put on trucks and railways and moved
across most of the Eurasian landmass before entering
Afghanistan through the former Soviet republics of
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
•  40% of US supplies were shipped in from the north,
and another 30% were flown in.
Air lift - “Answering the call so
others can prevail”
•  In retaliation for a firefight with
NATO forces in which 24
Pakistani troops were killed,
the country shut down crucial
ground-based supply lines
that were the easiest route for
many kinds of war materiel
into Afghanistan. Despite
months of negotiations, the
lines remain closed.
•  Nevertheless, supplies never
dropped to critical levels
thanks to the Air Force, which
created an “air bridge” in the
days following the closure.
Safe Ports daily briefing:
•  We store, pack and deliver 24/7 365 days
per year and always account accurately.
•  We improvise at a moments notice.
•  We avoid and anticipate bottle-necks. 6
Sigma Lean operations with single focus.
•  We rally around the mission and
never lose sight of it.
Crime in Afghanistan
•  Crime included: corruption, contract
killings or assassinations, kidnapping,
drug trafficking, money laundering, black
marketeering, and other ordinary crimes.
•  Difficult to differentiate between
politically-motivated criminal behavior,
terrorism, and/or traditional illegal
activity.
•  All Westerners were vulnerable.
Kandahar Airfield:
•  The number of
rocket attacks at
KAF more than
doubled due to an
upsurge in Taliban
activity against the
coalition at the time
when it was adding
thousands of
combat troops in
southern
Afghanistan.
Rocket Attacks at KAF
•  The attacks frayed
nerves at the sprawling
airfield. The heavy thud
of one of the rockets
when it hit the ground
before exploding
could be heard for
kilometers. As sirens
wailed, troops once
again took refuge in
concrete bunkers until
the all-clear was
sounded.
Personnel Conflicts: Learn from mistakes, measure
effectiveness ongoing-basis, constantly monitor
effectiveness and anticipate problems.
Take nothing for granted.
Cultural conflicts between 3rd country Nat'l
employees (India, Eastern Europe,
Philippines, Nepal, etc.)
Harsh living conditions – 30 man tents, 12 –
15 hour workdays, extreme heat/cold, with
very little available for morale,
welfare and recreation
Living Conditions
All staff lived in tents
Temperature varied
from 111° F dry heat,
to monsoons, to
below freezing w/
heavy snow
Communications challenges
Deficiencies in DLA DSS (we
compensated with our own
ERP), frequent interruptions
to internet and phones,
communications amongst
personnel and with DLA;
Connections available
limited to a virtual server,
transactions not updated in
real time
Leadership challenges
Rotations at KAF & HQ
All had to adapt to new strategies, under the
harsh conditions of war.
How? “This was a Team effort from the
ground-up. Unwavering focus on the need to
supply the war fighter with timely accurate
good condition materiel upon demand. This
was always the focus and the central mission
around which the personnel organized itself.
We knew we had to adjust and work
with just what we had” Safe Ports KAF
Equipment
challenges
Very harsh
environment (wind &
sand) destroyed our
equipment at a rapid
rate, constant
maintenance and
repair done around
the clock to keep the
MHE online
Facilities challenges
•  Rather than work in
normal warehouse
buildings, we worked
from inflatable Air
Beam storage tents,
and hundreds of
containers that had to
be packed and
unpacked rather than
having racks and bins
•  Warehousing methods
had to be
reconfigured and
augmented through
improvisations.
2014 - Retrograde
Retrograde is a process for the movement of equipment and materiel from a deployed theater to a Reset (replace, recapitalize, or repair) program or to another theater of opera*ons to replenish unit stocks or sa*sfy stock requirements. Equipment is redistributed in accordance with theater priori*es to meet mission requirements within areas of responsibility (AORs) and thus Department of Defense (DoD) requirements worldwide. Logisticians have been moving
thousands of people and tons of
supplies under horrendous
conditions since war began. The
retrograde from Afghanistan is an
enormous challenge, one that will
likely be studied decades from now
when logisticians have to make
similar magic happen again.
Billions of dollars of equipment must be shipped home, turned
over to the Afghans, or destroyed.
Much of the equipment, some of it perfectly usable, has been
destroyed or sold for scrap metal.
Weapons are all flown out.
Called, “the greatest feat of military
transport in modern times”
After 12 years in theater, the
Retrograde is expected to cost
as much as $6 billion and
involve about 29,000
personnel, for the US part
alone (each of the 50 coalition
countries is responsible for its
own logistics).
The job is unprecedented in
complexity; compared with
Iraq, the region’s terrain and
politics make it a mover’s
nightmare.
•  To reach any border, convoys of trucks must
contend with Afghanistan’s treacherous
roads. A particular weak spot is the 3,900metre-high Salang pass, which joins the
north and south of the country. Prone to
avalanches in winter, the road is in poor
condition all year.
•  Cargo trains make tempting targets, and
some outbound convoys have already been
attacked. Commanders resist reassigning
troops to their protection, as it would mean
diverting them from building up the Afghan
forces
•  During our time in Afghanistan, the KAF Distribution
Center became a vital support element in theater.
•  “This government-owned, contractor-operated
venture began with the intent to provide
approximately 600 line items to the U.S.
warfighter,” the distribution center’s final commander,
Army Lt. Col. James Gill, said. “The mission shifted,
and the team provided over 10,500 lines items. The
flexibility exhibited and the focus on service led this
organization to great heights.”
•  As a result of Army missions in Afghanistan, DLA
distribution Kandahar saw a 400 percent increase in
workload.
Completing our Mission
More than 1 million man hours with no
safety incidents; and top recognition from
the DLA as their “Best Small Business” and
best “Woman Owned Business” for our
outstanding performance in a war zone.
Oct. 2013
Thank you.