ECSS revolutionizes Air Force logistics

  • Published
  • By Greg Laing
  • 66th Mission Support Group
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  The Air Force is transforming itself to provide faster, better and more efficient support to the Warfighter. A key part of this historic change is the Expeditionary Combat Support System, which will revolutionize Air Force logistics from top level business practices to the way individuals do their jobs. Although it will be several years before ECSS is fully operational it will be implemented at Hanscom starting this month.

ECSS will enable the Air Force to view and manage all of its logistics resources around the world. Scheduling a repair currently involves setting a repair date without being able to ensure that the necessary technicians, parts, facilities and tools are available. ECSS will streamline this process and increase the availability of repaired items by providing an Air Force-wide view of available people and parts. Air Force logisticians will have what they need to get the job done.

Logisticians across the Air Force currently rely on paper forms and data entered into hundreds of systems at different bases. ECSS will eventually replace all of this with a single source of logistics information accessible from any base.

As part of a release strategy expected to be approved this fall, Hanscom is being proposed as the pilot location for the first increment of the ECSS program. This means the system will be fielded here in the fall of 2010. While that may seem a part of the distant future, the reality is that Hanscom needs to begin preparing for ECSS now.

To help get ready, the ECSS program will conduct a kickoff meeting June 30; Hanscom leaders and ECSS users will be introduced to the program's goals, schedule and impact on the Air Force.

The kickoff is also the beginning of the ECSS change management program. History shows that change cannot succeed unless individual team members actively support it. So the change in the management program is designed to prepare people from all functional communities for their new roles in the ECSS environment.

Like any other sweeping change, this transformation will take individuals out of their comfort zones as they learn to perform tasks in unfamiliar ways. The change management program will help with these challenges by providing education and training for users of the new system.

The change program also includes an Air Force-wide team, supported by an ECSS program team, who will share information and lessons learned and conduct local problem-solving meetings to help smooth the program's implementation at each installation. This same team will continue to support ECSS after it is fully operational.

Starting with Hanscom, ECSS will revolutionize the way the Air Force does business. It will enable logisticians to accomplish their mission more efficiently and cost effectively. The result will be an Air Force better able to provide its Warfighters the right materiel at the right time.

For more information call Greg Laing at (781) 377-4263.