Land Force: NZ Army Logistics: Beyond pack-mules and pencils | ADM March 2012
Nick Lee-Frampton | Wellington
Colonel Mike Shapland, previously the acting Deputy Chief of Army and, for two years, NZ’s representative on the Washington based American, British, Canadian, Australian and NZ Army (ABCA) interoperability program, is now Logistics Commander (Land), at Trentham near Wellington.
He made time to discuss this indispensable aspect of Army activity with ADM where he is accountable for the ‘end to end’ management of Army’s supply chain and repair and maintenance functions.
“I [report] to the Commander, Logistics Command, but am also responsible to the Chief of Army (CA),” COL Shapland explains. “That’s quite an interesting paradigm to live in, and I love the challenge.
“My role is to provide the strategic direction over my organisation to ensure we are aligned with the strategies of the NZ Defence Force, the NZ Army and Defence Logistic Command.
“Overall, I have direct command of 400 people. We have 140 people in this building, including 120 civilians, looking at fit, form, function, through-life support, supply chain and equipment management. As Regimental Colonel, RNZALR, I also exercise ‘technical control’ over all 1200 Army logistic personnel.
“I have also recently been assigned temporary command of Trentham and Burnham Regional Support Units, which incorporates the NZ Army Band and the Services Corrective Establishment.”
Moreover, COL Shapland also is indirectly responsible for the Lockheed Martin Global Inc. (LMGI) contract staff of about 150. He has not been immune to the ongoing civilianisation program affecting the NZ Defence Force (NZDF). However, COL Shapland told ADM that he does not make a distinction between civilian and military staff.
“I see no difference between military and civilian staff, rather I see us all as one. We had previously gained supply chain and deep maintenance planning and execution experience when we had military performing these functions. We have outsourced this since 1999 and this function now is delivered by LMGI.
“The issues I need to consider are knowing where and how to grow military experience to assist us in a corporate environment, and ensuring that we remain an intelligent supplier and customer.
“There are also some essential skills and knowledge that working in a depth logistic environment can provide and I need to integrate aspects of our military training into that.”
ADM discovered that COL Shapland deals with large numbers across the vast array of assets under management.
“I control a third of the Army’s budget. In 2000 we had 1,310 asset types and I am now dealing with nearly 6,000, which translates to a $1.4 billion dollar asset base. Traditionally we had fewer assets but more of each, now we have more assets but fewer of each. We have effectively extended the width but reduced the depth.”
This transition, COL Shapland explained, brings its own challenges.
“We need to review the traditional military paradigms on command and control of assets and investigate new concepts, [including] performance based logistics, power by the hour and ‘sense and respond’. As a military we need to understand what it means to us and how - or if - we can integrate these concepts into our long term daily business process.”
The land domain also faces particular challenges that the other services may not, given the nature of the operations that the Army undertakes.
“Land logistics is performing the functions necessary to deploy, sustain and re-deploy forces in a land environment. With the stand-up of the Defence Logistics Command (DLC), I believe we can generate a number of efficiencies [thus] enhancing our Combat Service Support (CSS) capability.
“DLC is just a year and a half old and we are trying to streamline and standardise processes and accountability. For example, I don’t look after fuel for the NZDF. It’s an all of Government fuel arrangement and is managed by Common Lines within the DLC. I just need to ensure the arrangement allows me to source, move and deliver fuel both in NZ and on operations.”
COL Shapland admits there have been inefficiencies in the past.
“Over the years the Services have not been as efficient as we could have been. If we can get some alignment across the NZDF then that has got to be a step ahead. It’s a question of working out what is really important. I am trying to get the CSS guys focussed on being able to operate in a hostile combat environment, operating weapon systems, surviving contacts and being [effective] in any scenario that we are likely to be deployed to.
“We are also working closely with Defence Shared Services as they provide a transactional administrative shared service. I intend to have a commercial support arrangement which will provide garrison logistic services and allow the CSS Battalions to focus on the operations and plug-and-play in the garrison model in order to obtain trade and training experience. This model should be able to be applied across all NZDF bases.
“It’s a huge project and is a significant change from how we are currently doing business. It encompasses everything from cultural, behavioural to contractual change and will take several years to fully implement.”
In the meantime, ADM discovered, COL Shapland faces two significant challenges.
“One is logistic hollowness due to the huge growth of our dependency whilst logistic structures and personnel numbers have remained static. Unfortunately we do have a number of holes or single points of failure throughout our organisation. The other pressure is the $350-$400 million savings [required of the NZDF]. Filling hollowness and saving money are not necessarily diametrically opposed, but they create a tension.
“Delineating between logistics and CSS allows me to better analyse between the two functions. CSS is about military guys going on operations, doing what they should be doing. Logistics is the back-end, and I think we can look at some of the savings opportunities across the organisation. I think there are some great synergies to be had going forward. The key point is to ensure the logistic continuum is maintained and the transition from logistics to CSS is seamless. It’s a really interesting environment.”
ADM asked what would make things better in both the short and longer terms as these changes are bedded down.
“I think, with the new NZDF organisational structure, we sometimes focus on process excellence at the detriment of output delivery and accountabilities and at times you need to remind some people of this. I also think we have had a tendency to throw money at things, thinking that would resolve it, as opposed to having a longer term plan and addressing the root cause of an issue.”
COL Shapland added that concepts of ownership also need to be challenged across the organisation.
“Do I actually need to own all the equipment or can I pay for required levels of availability? Which is cheaper? And which [model] is best for the NZDF? We have got to be challenging ourselves going forward because we are not likely to receive any increase in funding and our ability to replace ‘like with like’ just from a quantity perspective will, I think, be questionable.”
To this end, some ownership changes have already been introduced.
“We have implemented centrally managed fleets of equipment which units bid on for training activities. This is our attempt to ensure we have low density but high utilisation and availability of equipment for the Army.”
COL Shapland said he has to ensure that he maintains a fleet at a higher availability rate, but adds a caution. “We have to be careful it doesn’t become like a traditional rental car fleet - use and abuse - with no accountability at the operator level.
“Traditionally, militaries used to buy 25 years worth of stock and that was it. But we can’t afford to do it that way any more and those methods are no longer the panacea they used to be; today’s environment is far more complex.
“At the moment I would like more people. As a result of the civilianisation process we are going through quite a high turnover rate at the moment. I think the civilianisation project broke a few psychological contracts with our staff.
“The end state is right, in that we do need to move people on but the method had wider implications across the organisation. I have a realisation now that perhaps I am not here for life, and we now have to manage the fact that some of our most experienced staff are no longer here.”
And what would you like less of? asked ADM.
“I suppose it would be all the conflicting priorities we are faced with. I acknowledge that there will always be tension and that can be good to some extent. We are all quite clear that we need to save money, but we’re not quite sure how we are going to do that.”
ADM asked about international perspective on logistics and COL Shapland mentioned the ABCA interoperability program.
“ABCA has five capability groups: Shield, Sustain, Command, Act and Sense.
I lead the ABCA Sustain group and we have great liaison across this domain over many topics. We have recently upgraded the NZLAV that deployed to Afghanistan and we achieved this through the LAV User Nations Group. There was excellent collaboration across existing networks that ensured we were able to provide a world class survivability package for our vehicles in the shortest possible time and at best cost.
“We’re also working with the UK on the Pinzgauer Light Operational Vehicle (LOV). The user communities we have created with bigger nations (ones that have similar equipment) are really paying off.”
Officially, by 2015, there should be a pan NZDF approach to logistics. ADM asked what it would look like.
“I think we would have a robust garrison model with standardised processes providing shared logistic and administrative services. We will be running managed regional fleets which will [save money] through reduced fleets, by not replacing like for like. You would see new capability integrated throughout the organisation and NZDF being able to perform its role both within NZ and overseas. We will still have competent, well-trained, loyal people working in this organisation. We will be fiscally viable – we would have met, if not satisfied, Government’s requirements for savings initiatives.
“We have got to ensure that we take the good and leave the bad - we have to challenge ourselves at all times, be responsive, be agile. We don’t get everything right, but we get more right than we get wrong.”