The Challenge:
The Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP), headquartered in Mechanicsburg, PA, is responsible for the procurement, repair, warehousing, and distribution of the Navy’s aviation and maritime assets around the globe. Critical to Navy readiness is the accountability of all inventory, which ensures effective utilization of resources to execute the mission while providing taxpayers confidence in their investment. In 2018, NAVSUP established an Inventory Operations Center (IOC) to establish, communicate, and execute an accountability strategy for its inventory management and to ensure NAVSUP’s processes could perform well under periodic audits. However, with decades of inconsistent inventory accountability practices conducted in over 1,000 sites that house approximately $37 billion of material, NAVSUP required significant support to “right the ship.”
The Approach:
The Nakupuna Companies were tasked with providing strategic support to the IOC, an effort that was later expanded to supplement the strategic support with regional teams that could execute the IOC’s strategies. Our IOC Audit Support Team tackles the IOC’s problems using a hub-and-spoke model, where four regional teams in the major fleet concentration areas rapidly deploy to sites within the region to provide audit support, site remediation, 100% inventories, material segregation, and other critical accountability functions that ensure the IOC’s objectives are executed. In addition, we deploy teams in 10 different NAVSUP-owned warehouses throughout the U.S., providing wall-to-wall inventory management support. We ensure full-scale integration and alignment across all strategic and tactical efforts.
The Results:
Since March 2019, the Nakupuna Companies IOC Audit Support Team has executed over 600 site visits across approximately 30 states and has improved overall material accountability by approximately 30%. We developed strategic plans and communications products, re-engineered critical business processes, and implemented comprehensive testing and remediation plans, including virtual audit plans throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we leveraged state-of-the-art Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and business intelligence tools to implement a comprehensive metrics database to enable data-centric/data driven decision-making. Across the U.S., our teams executed on-site and virtual audits and deployed remediation strategies tailored to individual warehouses. We also executed yearly wall-to-wall inventory requirements in each NAVSUP warehouse throughout the last 3 years. Our IOC Support Team is setting precedent by driving critical inventory accountability practices the will serve as a force multiplier for weapon system readiness into the future.