COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime signed supply chain alliance charters this spring aimed at strengthening supply chain support to the nation’s warfighters. Army Col. Sue Styer, DLA Land and Maritime’s Land Supplier Operations director, and Navy Capt. Dale Haney, Maritime Supplier Operations director, completed 11 charter signings in conjunction with the 2024 DLA Supply Chain Alliance Conference and Exhibition held in Columbus, Ohio, April 23-24.
“Our government and industry partners can’t do it alone…you can’t survive in the defense business without DLA, and we cannot survive without our industry partners,” Styer said. “We appreciate their willingness to work together with us, the transparency on the challenges they’re having and where we can help resolve those challenges.”
Don Schulze, DLA Land and Maritime’s Land Supplier Operations deputy director, co-led the signing ceremonies, which were attended by a mix of DLA senior leaders and senior industry representatives from each of the suppliers.
“It’s more than just a sheet of paper,” Schulze said. “It’s about forging partnerships to improve responsiveness to the warfighter.”
The goal of the alliance is to implement joint strategies and process enhancements designed to improve responsiveness to the warfighter, including customer deliverables and administrative lead times, he explained.
The charter states that DLA and the supplier will collaborate closely to “actively pursue supply chain management solutions and ultimately provide the best product and service possible to the warfighter.”
For many of the signatories, the charters marked several years of relationship-building.
“It’s a true partnership, and we keep telling everybody ‘you’ve got to work with DLA because they’ll work with you,’” said Kyle Roelofs, vice president of business development for charter participant Bren-Tronics, Inc. “We’ve seen that over the last couple of years. So just want to say thank you for everything, and the personal touch from your team has been phenomenal. We’re truly blessed to have DLA supporting the warfighter.”
The signing ceremonies aligned with the annual defense supplier conference’s theme “Adapting Today’s Sustainment Partnerships to Support Tomorrow’s Integrated Deterrence.”
The conference featured government, military and industry leader discussion on the sustainment aspects of the National Military Strategy and building resiliency in the defense industrial ecosystem.
In his closing conference comments, DLA Land and Maritime’s Deputy Commander Kenneth Watson spoke on the importance of partnerships, noting, “There is no doubt we are committed to each other and the warfighter as a whole – relationships are what separate the DOD apart. That’s why we do these [conferences]. It’s about relationships and building trust so we can understand and communicate better.”
“Everyone here has a role in fostering our nation’s innovation base,” he added. “We’re absolutely in a grand race – a race to build and rebuild combat readiness, a race for that integrated deterrence that we owe our constituency outside these walls. The last few years have revealed critical gaps in our U.S. industrial base. Rebuilding resiliency has become not just an economic priority but a quality-of-life issue and a national security imperative.”
For more information on doing business with DLA, visit www.dla.mil/Land-and-Maritime.
To view photos from the conference, visit the DLA Land and Maritime Image Galleries.