Reference Copy of the 2006 QDR Report, DTD Feb 06

-          "For the foreseeable future, steady-state operations, including operations as part of a long war against terrorist networks, and associated rotation base and sustainment requirements, will be the main determinant for sizing U.S. forces."

-          "The Department must continue to pursue enabling technologies for transformational logistics and innovative operational concepts such as seabasing."

-          "The Department's standard processes for providing materiel and logistics proved too slow and cumbersome to meet the immediate needs of forces in the field", although "improved support to the warfighter has occurred in the logistics chain as well. The Department vested leadership of the complex distribution process in a single owner, the U.S. Transportation Command (U.S. TRANSCOM). Exercising its new role, U.S. TRANSCOM established a Deployed Distribution Operations Center to speed the flow of materiel into Iraq and Afghanistan in support of coalition operations. The Center quickly assembled a team of logistics experts and gave them authority to direct air and seaport operations and cross-country moves in the theater. Lead times for stocked items dropped by more than 45% since the peaks recorded in 2003. Better synchronization of transportation assets allowed the Army to cut costs by $268 million in FY 04. On-time delivery rates are now at over 90%. The process innovations improved mission performance at less cost to the Department and the American taxpayer. Department reforms since 2001, including those innovations born of wartime necessity, represent the types of changes the QDR has sought to accelerate."

-          Beyond governance, this QDR identified opportunities for continued transformation of acquisition and logistics processes", including (among others): Managing Supply Chain Logistics. In response to the 2001 QDR, the Department undertook a number of initiatives to improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which the Department moves and sustains military forces. These initiatives included efforts to improve the deployment process and reduce the logistics footprint and its associated costs. The Department also worked to provide standing joint force headquarters with an integrated logistics picture and accelerated the creation and use of logistics decision-support tools. In the past four years, the Department has markedly increased the integration of field exercises and experimentation with the processes for determining logistics systems, doctrine and force structure requirements. In addition, as noted earlier, the Department is changing its logistics processes and procedures as dictated by the needs of current operations. As a result, the Department has made significant strides in migrating to a capabilities-based logistics approach. In this QDR, the Department focused on improving visibility into supply chain logistics costs and performance and on building a foundation for continuous improvements in performance. The strategy for achieving these objectives starts by linking resources to supply chain logistics activities in order to understand the costs they entail. The Department must also assess commercial supply chain metrics as potential performance targets to bring down the costs and to speed the delivery of needed items. Promising ongoing initiatives, such as the single deployment process owner, must be continually improved and accelerated. Lastly, there is a need to develop realistic and defendable strategic performance targets for focused logistics capabilities to guide both capital investment and process improvement. The Department is implementing a number of specific initiatives aimed at meeting supply chain objectives. For example, the use of active and passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies will play a key role in achieving the Department's vision for implementing knowledge-enabled logistics support to the warfighter through automated asset visibility and management. RFID is designed to enable the sharing, integration and synchronizing of data from the strategic to the tactical level, informing every node in the supply chain network. This information should provide greater insight into the cause-and-effect relationship between resources and readiness. Such fact-based insights, coupled with the implementation of continuous process improvement tools like Lean, Six Sigma and Performance Based Logistics, will help optimize the productive output of the overall Department of Defense supply chain.

-          "...implementing the new Department of Defense Instruction Contractor Personnel Authorized to Accompany U.S. Armed Forces is another step toward integrating contractors into the Total Force. The Department's policy now directs that performance of commercial activities by contractors, including contingency contractors and any proposed contractor logistics support arrangements, shall be included in operational plans and orders. By factoring contractors into their planning, Combatant Commanders can better determine their mission needs.