Covid-19 brought on many challenges for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)—the largest supply chain on the planet. The DLA is responsible for contracting, purchasing, storing, and distributing $42 billion of consumable, expendable, and reparable items for the DoD.  

During a crisis, global supply chains must overcome procurement and distribution issues as unforeseen demands surge for existing items and create the need for items not currently in the supply chain. And in 2020, during the covid-19 pandemic, this was highlighted for DLA Troop Support, Philadelphia's medical supply chain. During this critical time, CSA's experts helped DLA navigate red tape, unblock backlog, and restart stoppages to ensure the health and medical items were procured and delivered to those who needed them the most as the world fought covid-19.

Challenge

Finding a way to deliver innovative health technologies during a crisis.

An essential item identified in the fight against covid-19 was a decontamination shelter. This system sterilizes up to 80,000 used N95 masks per day for reuse by frontline workers and healthcare professionals. The decontamination and reuse of N95 masks were critical because they eliminated the need to acquire additional masks, which were in shortage due to their increased demand.

However, acquiring these decontamination shelters proved challenging during the pandemic. The DLA follows the Berry Amendment and the FAR's fair and responsible price act when procuring items. These acts ensure products are made in the United States and are procured fairly among vendors. When a crisis happens, like covid-19, these regulations meant to protect our supply chain may impede its agility.

During the crisis, many items needed to fight covid-19 could only be acquired through means that went conflicted with FAR regulations. The nature of the medical supply chain itself presented additional challenges—it is meant to process and manage consistently and continuously ordered items, not non-national stock number items that were surging during the pandemic like the decontamination shelters.

While DLA waited for legislation to approve permission and funds to acquire these items, order requests were being inputted into the Defense Medical Logistics Support System (DMLSS) system, creating a massive backlog unlike any seen before. Neither the system nor the people using it were prepared to handle the number of requests and follow through with the requisitions in a reasonable time frame.

Action

Relying on supply chain expertise to deliver front-line lifesaving equipment.

A lack of timely procurement options for supplies through the medical supply chain was quickly reaching crisis level, and the DLA desperately needed a solution to alleviate the mounting backlog. DLA Troop Support looked to its other supply chains for an answer, and its construction and equipment (C&E) supply chain was identified as the best candidate. The C&E supply chain doesn’t use a traditional acquisition model of in-stock inventory, instead relying on a part-numbered-based model leveraging low-price threshold direct buys and just-in-time inventory management to manage its items, contracts and vendors.

Due to the regulatory challenges, CSA and DLA needed to find a way to procure innovative technologies, especially ones that have never been or may never be procured again after covid-19. For a decade, CSA has supported a non-traditional acquisition tool, BidWiser, that helps feed the DLA's renowned ability to respond swiftly to a crisis. The tool’s business rules are ideal for processing new requirements while still maintaining price controls through competitive bids. CSA had previously leveraged BidWiser during crisis and knew the DLA may use this tool again. In preparation of the surge, CSA began to update the acquisition system to handle the influx of work coming its way—including ensuring the system was staffed around the clock.

$1.35B

Products & services delivered during covid-19

Result

An untraditional IT system to manage a supply chain during a crisis.

Once legislation passed allowing the acquisition of decontamination shelters, the CSA BidWiser support team worked with software engineers to allow the DLA to requisition N95 decontamination shelters through its tool. These shelters were immediately distributed across the United Sates. Once deployed, these shelters not only drastically reduced the need to continually buy new masks, but they also reduced the time spent on sourcing new masks while they were in such desperately low supply. This time and cost savings allowed agencies to direct its money and effort elsewhere.

CSA and its tool helped DLA rapidly deliver $1.35 billion of products and services through Class IV and Class VIII supply chains for lifesaving operations since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Without the CSA developed BidWiser tool, many more lives would have been lost. BidWiser’s untraditional configuration continues to meet the C&E’s unique acquisition needs and it is still managed by CSA experts. BidWiser was exactly the solution the DLA needed to get our nation the medical equipment it required.

‍