Case in Point: Standard Transactions in Action

In less than five months, BTA and the WAWF Program Management Office (PMO) filled a gap in the conventional munitions supply chain for an Army organization based at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. It is one example of how this priority accomplishes its objective of establishing interoperable systems that are capable of ensuring reliable and accurate delivery of goods and services.

The Army's Productions Status (PRODSTAT) System at the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command had a gap in its information technology plan for business transformation. PRODSTAT's mission was to track the production status of conventional munitions so that inventory managers could build accurate and timely delivery schedules for locations around the world. Since these locations included installations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the importance of getting end-to-end (E2E) visibility into the conventional munitions supply chain was crucial. Yet, they were relying on e-mail and faxes from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) inspectors to receive the required receiving reports. Then, once the e-mail or faxes arrived, workers had to enter the information into PRODSTAT from their keyboards. This process was slow, cumbersome and fraught with the potential for error. There had to be a better way.

Contacts in DCMA made PRODSTAT operators aware that WAWF could fill the gap in their E2E supply chain. DCMA explained that WAWF was a paperless source of information-an enterprise aggregation point in which they could receive the information they needed. After getting in touch with the WAWF PMO, PRODSTAT reached out to the BTA to develop the requirement.

PRODSTAT's requirement could not have come at a better time. WAWF had just begun testing of its Standard Transaction capability, which allows external systems to interface with WAWF outside of a system release. The key to this capability was the development and implementation of standard data sets. These data sets would make it possible for PRODSTAT to receive all data in WAWF for transactions concerning government acceptance of conventional munitions. BTA informed PRODSTAT operators in September that WAWF would be able to meet their requirement with the forthcoming release of the first phase of Standard Transactions.

BTA also worked with PRODSTAT to provide it an automated feed from WAWF through the Global Exchange (GEX). This data feed will give PRODSTAT accurate, timely information to share with production and inventory managers. To scope the GEX data feed correctly, BTA worked with the Army Materiel Command to identify the contracting offices that were awarding orders for conventional munitions. They used this information to revise the WAWF routing tables to create an extract of the data PRODSTAT needed. The supply chain was now complete. The Army had all of the information it needed to build timely and accurate delivery schedules and to track production status.

BTA responded to PRODSTAT's requirement by leveraging a timely WAWF release, standard data sets, and knowledge of the Army's contracting system to deliver a transformational solution by Q2 FY08.