30 September 2010 | Sarah Campbell
The Defence Storage and Distribution Agency’s training and deployment scheme has streamlined the process of packing and returning equipment from war zones
CATEGORY: Best people development initiative
Who would have thought that training people to pack containers would save the Ministry of Defence more than £12.7 million?
That’s what the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency (DSDA) has achieved through Operation ANVIL, a training and deployment scheme for civil servants and military personnel.
The focus of Operation ANVIL is on the returning of equipment not needed by troops back to the UK from conflict areas. DSDA set out to make sure this is done as quickly and efficiently as possible by ensuring its staff not only know how to make the most of packing a 40ft cargo container for transport, but are also fully prepared when they are deployed to an “operational theatre”, or war zone.
DSDA personnel can volunteer to be deployed, but not all of them will be selected. Volunteers attend an
“ice-breaker” exercise, where they are assessed for their logistics skills, ability
to work under pressure in a close-knit team, and physical fitness.
This latter point is important. It is essential that individuals stay well and do not become a burden to the operation. Lack of fitness is an influencing factor in heat illness, which can become a problem in countries such as Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, where day-time temperatures can push 35°C.
What Operation ANVIL has achieved is extraordinary. The team at the main British military base in Iraq were integral in helping the base to close five weeks ahead of schedule. During the withdrawal of forces elsewhere they have been able to reduce the number of cargo containers needed to transport the remaining equipment back to the UK by more than half, reducing the number of ships required and therefore transport costs.
The teams did this by ensuring they were packed properly, and that each container was destined for only one warehouse once back in the UK. This meant that the process could become vastly more efficient, thereby freeing
up 28,000 hours of DSDA’s time to focus on other military logistics and supply
chain work.
The DSDA’s submission for this award says this operation “has rewritten the rule book on managing reverse logistics from theatre”. The amount of money, man-hours and even CO2 emissions (94,500 tonnes) saved suggest that it is not exaggerating.
Also on the short list
AstraZeneca; LG Electronics; Napp Pharmaceuticals; NATS; Network Rail
