There's no magic in the process, or the buildings, or the technology used at the military's sprawling distribution complex near Harrisburg, Pa. It's the ethic that pervades the DDSP that makes the operation something special.
Steve Geary is adjunct faculty at the University of Tennessee's Haaslam College of Business and is a lecturer at The Gordon Institute at Tufts University. He is the President of the Supply Chain Visions family of companies, consultancies that work across the government sector. Steve is a contributing editor at DC Velocity, and editor-at-large for CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly.
It's not too often that a supervisor in a distribution center puts his life in the hands of the workers on the line.
Once a month, Master Sergeant Sean Wilson does just that.
Wilson is team leader and master rigger—a certified parachute packing specialist—on a line at the Defense Distribution Depot Susquehanna Pennsylvania (DDSP), the military's sprawling distribution complex near Harrisburg, Pa. His crew packs parachutes for military use. And once a month, Wilson takes one of those parachutes—selected randomly by somebody outside the team—boards an aircraft that takes him thousands of feet above the base, and jumps out.
Wilson's trust in his team, and the team's commitment to ensuring that every parachute is reliable, stands as testament to the ethic that pervades the DDSP complex. At this facility, the phrase "good enough for government work" means something far removed from the pejorative it has become over the years. The phrase entered our lexicon during World War II, when something that was "good enough for government work" met the most rigorous of standards: You could literally stake your life on it. And that's precisely the standard that employees at DDSP hold themselves to today.
Making a difference
DDSP is the headquarters location of the Defense Distribution Command, which is the physical distribution arm of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and the largest distribution depot operated by the Department of Defense. It sprawls over 380 acres, split between two locations near Harrisburg, providing military and commercial repair parts, clothing and textiles, medical supplies, and industrial and electronic components to military customers throughout the United States and around the world. DDSP has over $10 billion worth of inventory on the shelf, with more than 870,000 unique items in stock spread across over 1 million storage locations. Compare that to Wal-Mart, which systemwide handles on the order of 120,000 SKUs.
DDSP, with more than 3,700 military and civilian employees, is the largest of the 25 distribution centers operated by DLA both here and abroad, and it supports a customer base that includes units in Europe, Africa, Central and South America, Southwest Asia, and the eastern half of the United States. The facility houses 9.4 million square feet of covered storage spread across 58 warehouses, with the largest building, the Eastern Distribution Center, providing 1.7 million square feet alone.
In short, it is a distribution goliath, shipping billions of dollars of supplies to locations around the world every year. And it has one customer: the U.S. military. Crucially, it is the DC supporting operations in Southwest Asia, where the United States continues to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That knowledge makes employees at the facility—40 percent of whom are veterans—take their jobs very seriously. As you might expect, the relationship between workers and management in the unionized facility is different from what might be found in DCs in the private sector. The same might be said of the employees' attitude toward their work.
Take Bob Keeney, supply specialist and former vice president of Local 2004 of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, for example. Keeney, a military veteran like so many of his peers, has been in the warehouse for 32 years. His father-in-law came back from Korea and went to work there, and Keeney did the same thing when he got out of the Navy in 1974. His particular expertise is in the nasty stuff that moves through a military warehouse: explosives, radioactive materials, fumicides, and other sorts of ugly things.
While talking, he suggests that we shift the conversation after hours to a bar called Julie's near the DC, and he offers to buy me a beer. He is dressed in a T-shirt and jeans; the handiwork of tattoo artists adorns both arms. We get on the topic of continuous improvement and DDSP's current lean initiative. It turns out that Keeney likes lean. "Partnership [between management and the workforce] is the way to do the work ... I look for the day when we have everybody on board. The old way was adversarial," he says. Now, however, "you become like a cog. You understand where you are on that wheel. You try to make it easy for the next guy."
He sees the work as important. "I enjoy making a difference, trying to do good," he explains. "We have obligations to the soldiers in the field, to the agency. If you don't believe in what you are doing, you're not going to be a good employee."
Focused on the warfighter
The same commitment comes across in conversations with senior management. Ed Visker has been the deputy commander of the DDSP since June 2006. Visker, who has a B.S. in banking and finance, as well as a couple of master's degrees, including one in logistics systems management from the University of Southern California, has spent 30 years in the logistics business, primarily with the military. Before coming to DDSP, he reached the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army. He served in the Airborne, and his tour included deployment to Iraq during the first Gulf War and time in Special Operations. He's got the qualifications and the experience to be a senior manager in any global distribution business.
Visker first came to DDSP as a soldier. "As a young platoon leader and company commander, I was in a general supply company. We used to bring the unit here to train. We helped clear the footprint for this building that we're in right now. We brought in all our rough-terrain forklifts and cranes and set up shop down by the pond for the month of February. We emptied out the old sheds that used to be sitting here."
He describes how he sees the mission of DDSP and how to accomplish it. "I don't know that anybody would tell you that they're a warehousing professional. We are supporting the warfighter," he says. "I think you would get that out of just about anybody you talk to. We're really focused on the warfighter. I share with them pictures that I brought back from my time in the desert to remind them that these guys are out at the pointy end of the spear and it's important."
That perspective drives the operation. "We're a strategic platform.We need to think bigger," he says. "We're focused on three basic values: respect for people, customer focus, and continuous improvement. It gets the folks on the floor more engaged. It's largely about relearning: How do we manage the organization? How do we lead people in the organization?"
Lessons from the private sector
DDSP is taking lessons from the private sector. For example, managers have visited a Wal-Mart DC about 100 miles from their facility to see how the retail giant employs technology. They have visited Toyota and adopted many of the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System to drive continuous improvement.
Their success in imbuing that sense of mission throughout the operation reveals itself in a conversation with a group of DDSP employees sitting around a conference table. The "youngster" is probably in his late 30s, but most of them qualified for AARP a long time ago. Some are white collar, some blue collar, but they're all veterans.
Many retired after a career in the military and came to the DDSP, while others did a tour or two. Their service experience spans all of the military departments. They have tales that range from the Vietnam War to Southwest Asia, covering a lot of ground in between.
The conversation drifts toward why they do what they do for a living now. One reminisces about what it was like when he was in the field and heard the magic words, "Your supplies are here." He's a middle manager now, a believer in getting out with his team. He offers, "Every day I tell them about the men and women we're serving. My heart is a heart of compassion for the mission. I don't ever give it up."
Another is more matter of fact. "They need it when they need it. That's what drives me," he says. "Some of them are giving their lives."
A late arrival joins in, asserting, "I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get that soldier what they need."
He gets a little more introspective, recalling what it was like for him when he came to the DDSP. "I got here and didn't realize what I'd gotten myself into here." He was on the floor one day, looking around, and saw "a section full of caskets. I realized that was going to be the last ride home for some soldiers," he recalls. "My whole mindset changed. People are depending on me."
No magic
The scale of the operation at DDSP is impressive, but the facility really isn't. Some of the buildings date back to World War I, and even the 1.7 million-square-foot building dates back to the mid '80s. There's no magic in the process, or the buildings, or the technology.
What makes DDSP special are the people, the pride, and the intelligence of the leadership that is harnessing the power of those two combined.
The final step in the distribution process at DDSP includes a personal statement from whoever does the final check on the shipment before it leaves the facility. Each shipment going out has a sticker on it, and the sticker is signed by a real person. It reads, "Packed with Pride at DDSP."
Nearly one-third of American consumers have increased their secondhand purchases in the past year, revealing a jump in “recommerce” according to a buyer survey from ShipStation, a provider of web-based shipping and order fulfillment solutions.
The number comes from a survey of 500 U.S. consumers showing that nearly one in four (23%) Americans lack confidence in making purchases over $200 in the next six months. Due to economic uncertainty, savvy shoppers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality or style, the research found.
Younger shoppers are leading the charge in that trend, with 59% of Gen Z and 48% of Millennials buying pre-owned items weekly or monthly. That rate makes Gen Z nearly twice as likely to buy second hand compared to older generations.
The primary reason that shoppers say they have increased their recommerce habits is lower prices (74%), followed by the thrill of finding unique or rare items (38%) and getting higher quality for a lower price (28%). Only 14% of Americans cite environmental concerns as a primary reason they shop second-hand.
Despite the challenge of adjusting to the new pattern, recommerce represents a strategic opportunity for businesses to capture today’s budget-minded shoppers and foster long-term loyalty, Austin, Texas-based ShipStation said.
For example, retailers don’t have to sell used goods to capitalize on the secondhand boom. Instead, they can offer trade-in programs swapping discounts or store credit for shoppers’ old items. And they can improve product discoverability to help customers—particularly older generations—find what they’re looking for.
Other ways for retailers to connect with recommerce shoppers are to improve shipping practices. According to ShipStation:
70% of shoppers won’t return to a brand if shipping is too expensive.
51% of consumers are turned off by late deliveries
40% of shoppers won’t return to a retailer again if the packaging is bad.
The “CMA CGM Startup Awards”—created in collaboration with BFM Business and La Tribune—will identify the best innovations to accelerate its transformation, the French company said.
Specifically, the company will select the best startup among the applicants, with clear industry transformation objectives focused on environmental performance, competitiveness, and quality of life at work in each of the three areas:
Shipping: Enabling safer, more efficient, and sustainable navigation through innovative technological solutions.
Logistics: Reinventing the global supply chain with smart and sustainable logistics solutions.
Media: Transform content creation, and customer engagement with innovative media technologies and strategies.
Three winners will be selected during a final event organized on November 15 at the Orange Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, during the 2nd Artificial Intelligence Marseille (AIM) forum organized by La Tribune and BFM Business. The selection will be made by a jury chaired by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the Group, and including members of the executive committee representing the various sectors of CMA CGM.
The global air cargo market’s hot summer of double-digit demand growth continued in August with average spot rates showing their largest year-on-year jump with a 24% increase, according to the latest weekly analysis by Xeneta.
Xeneta cited two reasons to explain the increase. First, Global average air cargo spot rates reached $2.68 per kg in August due to continuing supply and demand imbalance. That came as August's global cargo supply grew at its slowest ratio in 2024 to-date at 2% year-on-year, while global cargo demand continued its double-digit growth, rising +11%.
The second reason for higher rates was an ocean-to-air shift in freight volumes due to Red Sea disruptions and e-commerce demand.
Those factors could soon be amplified as e-commerce shows continued strong growth approaching the hotly anticipated winter peak season. E-commerce and low-value goods exports from China in the first seven months of 2024 increased 30% year-on-year, including shipments to Europe and the US rising 38% and 30% growth respectively, Xeneta said.
“Typically, air cargo market performance in August tends to follow the July trend. But another month of double-digit demand growth and the strongest rate growths of the year means there was definitely no summer slack season in 2024,” Niall van de Wouw, Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, said in a release.
“Rates we saw bottoming out in late July started picking up again in mid-August. This is too short a period to call a season. This has been a busy summer, and now we’re at the threshold of Q4, it will be interesting to see what will happen and if all the anticipation of a red-hot peak season materializes,” van de Wouw said.
The report cites data showing that there are approximately 1.7 million workers missing from the post-pandemic workforce and that 38% of small firms are unable to fill open positions. At the same time, the “skills gap” in the workforce is accelerating as automation and AI create significant shifts in how work is performed.
That information comes from the “2024 Labor Day Report” released by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm.
“We continue to see a labor shortage and an urgent need to upskill the current workforce to adapt to the new world of work,” said Michael Lotito, Littler shareholder and co-chair of WPI. “As corporate executives and business leaders look to the future, they are focused on realizing the many benefits of AI to streamline operations and guide strategic decision-making, while cultivating a talent pipeline that can support this growth.”
But while the need is clear, solutions may be complicated by public policy changes such as the upcoming U.S. general election and the proliferation of employment-related legislation at the state and local levels amid Congressional gridlock.
“We are heading into a contentious election that has already proven to be unpredictable and is poised to create even more uncertainty for employers, no matter the outcome,” Shannon Meade, WPI’s executive director, said in a release. “At the same time, the growing patchwork of state and local requirements across the U.S. is exacerbating compliance challenges for companies. That, coupled with looming changes following several Supreme Court decisions that have the potential to upend rulemaking, gives C-suite executives much to contend with in planning their workforce-related strategies.”
Stax Engineering, the venture-backed startup that provides smokestack emissions reduction services for maritime ships, will service all vessels from Toyota Motor North America Inc. visiting the Toyota Berth at the Port of Long Beach, according to a new five-year deal announced today.
Beginning in 2025 to coincide with new California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards, STAX will become the first and only emissions control provider to service roll-on/roll-off (ro-ros) vessels in the state of California, the company said.
Stax has rapidly grown since its launch in the first quarter of this year, supported in part by a $40 million funding round from investors, announced in July. It now holds exclusive service agreements at California ports including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Hueneme, Benicia, Richmond, and Oakland. The firm has also partnered with individual companies like NYK Line, Hyundai GLOVIS, Equilon Enterprises LLC d/b/a Shell Oil Products US (Shell), and now Toyota.
Stax says it offers an alternative to shore power with land- and barge-based, mobile emissions capture and control technology for shipping terminal and fleet operators without the need for retrofits.
In the case of this latest deal, the Toyota Long Beach Vehicle Distribution Center imports about 200,000 vehicles each year on ro-ro vessels. Stax will keep those ships green with its flexible exhaust capture system, which attaches to all vessel classes without modification to remove 99% of emitted particulate matter (PM) and 95% of emitted oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Over the lifetime of this new agreement with Toyota, Stax estimated the service will account for approximately 3,700 hours and more than 47 tons of emissions controlled.
“We set out to provide an emissions capture and control solution that was reliable, easily accessible, and cost-effective. As we begin to service Toyota, we’re confident that we can meet the needs of the full breadth of the maritime industry, furthering our impact on the local air quality, public health, and environment,” Mike Walker, CEO of Stax, said in a release. “Continuing to establish strong partnerships will help build momentum for and trust in our technology as we expand beyond the state of California.”