Employees at the FAA Logistics Center (FAALC) have been working to implement a new supply chain solution called the Logistics Center Support System (LCSS). This new system was needed to replace an agency legacy system called LIS. In order to transition from one system to the other, downtime was necessary, where neither system could receive customer orders. Considering FAALC’s importance to maintaining the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS), supply chain operations were required to operate continuously during this downtime period. The FAALC’s Business Cutover Team comprised of Tony Silva (AML-032), Alex Stegman (AML-033), and Kim Goodin (AML-032), were tasked with developing an interim processes to ensure customers received the material they required to support the NAS.
The Business Cutover Team needed to develop a method to capture customer orders and route them to their appropriate destinations. The FAALC has various business processes that are used to fulfill an order depending on the type of part that is requisitioned. For example, some parts are repaired and stored in stock at the FAALC, whereas some parts are shipped directly from an external supplier to the customer. Data for every kind of order must be captured, as the order is processed for financial purposes. The team recognized two methods that could be used to process orders: the first method was a manual paper process, where the passing of orders was handled by hand or email to the appropriate point of contact. This method involved long process times, a large risk for errors, and potentially a loss of order traceability. The second method involved utilizing a software based solution. Kim Goodin, a senior industrial engineer in the Quality Management Systems Branch recommended the Business Management x-Solutions (BMx) software as a remedy for the business need.
BMx offers the capability to route documents depending on business rules to capture data at different phases of the workflow process. Versatile import capabilities allowed FAALC to continue using online ordering tools, Impart and Portal. Additionally, BMx has data export capabilities which allowed data to be migrated into the new LCSS software. BMx also utilizes a programming language called Python, which allowed the team to establish conditional logic to process orders. The logic utilized and compared information within specific data fields to open/close workflow routes. A combination of BMx configuration settings and Python code allowed the Business Cutover Team to satisfy FAALC’s internal business rules. The BMx development platform was very intuitive and simple to create a customized solution.
The Business Cutover Team mapped out interim supply chain processes and then reached out to Craig Whitbeck, a process engineer in the Quality System and Business Resources Staff (AMC-3) to help kick start the application development process. For over three weeks, the team worked on the development process. Initial designs were created by the team and then reviewed by process owners. Team members took feedback from the processes owners to improve the application. BMx made these improvements simple to fix, however the tricky part was scheduling an appointment to meet with all the point of contacts at the same time.
During the LCSS transition period, the FAALC Order Application within the BMx software processed over 1,500 customer orders. Orders were placed by customers calling the Customer Care Center or placing the order directly online. Depending on the order information and part availability, orders were filled from stock, a shop order, or a third party vendor. Employees at the FAALC were then able to process the order through the supply chain, while also maintaining traceability of each order’s status so that it could meet its customer’s needs. Once the software transition period ended, the FAALC migrated the data captured in BMx to the LCSS Industrial Financial System (IFS).
Several lessons were learned through the application lifecycle: one lesson is to start the process early and reduce the number of free form text data fields to limit input errors. The team did a great job at developing process maps, including process owners in the development process, and making enhancements quickly. Thanks to BMx and the ingenuity of the Business Cutover Team, AML was able to transition to the new LCSS Software.
