‘Battles are Decided by the Quartermasters’: US Army Modernizes Its Logistics
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(German Federal Archives)
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The importance of logistics has long been recognized by generals. German Field Marshall Edwin Rommel once commented: “Battles are decided by the quartermasters before the first shot is fired.”
Apparently Rommel’s colleagues didn’t take his advice when preparing for the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The German army had planned for a swift victory, similar to the victory against France, so there was inadequate planning to equip the German troops for a long drawn out conflict in a brutal winter environment. But that is what they got, and the invasion ultimately failed.
To ensure its logistics system is up to the task of fighting overseas wars, the US Army Material Command (AMC) launched an effort called the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP). The program is designed to modernize systems and processes associated with managing the Army’s supply chain using a COTS-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) product developed by SAP. AMC recently awarded contract modifications to LMP prime contractor CSC in Falls Church, VA, worth $261 million to provide IT and logistics services under the LMP…
Under the contract modifications announced Feb 1/10, CSC will provide services required to reengineer and modernize the Army’s logistics processes through the adoption of best commercial business practices and associated technologies. Under the terms of the 1st modification, CSC will support the sustainment of the LMP, and on the other, CSC will provide services for future deployment and implementation activities.
CSC first won the LMP prime contract in 1999 to provide an integrated suite of software and business processes. The LMP manages $4.5 billion worth of inventory, processes transactions with 50,000 vendors, and integrates with more than 80 DoD systems.
The LMP is deployed to 4,000 users at the Army Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command, Tobyhanna Army Depot, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and a dozen other Army and DOD locations. When fully deployed, LMP will support more than 17,000 logistics professionals.
