MTMC SEES SURFACE FREIGHT TRANSIT TIMES SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASE

MTMC SEES SURFACE FREIGHT TRANSIT TIMES SIGNIFICANTLY DECREASE    The U.S. Military Traffic Management Command has increased the speed of its shipments to destination by 15 percent over a year ago.
   The reduction transit times is part of the work of MTMC, the U.S. Transportation Command and the Defense Logistics Agency in the Defense Department’s Strategic Distribution Management Initiative.
   “I don’t think the Department of Defense has ever seen such dramatic reductions in customer wait times,” said Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Privratsky, commander of MTMC.
   The Strategic Management Defense Intiative began with a focus on shipments from the United States to the U.S. European Command and U.S. Central Command. When the initiative started, it took about 64 days to ship supplies and spare parts from a Pennsylvania depot to Germany. Now it takes 41 days.
   Similarly, Defense consignees in the Southern Command receive cargo in 36 days instead of the previous 47 days, and in the Pacific Command, cargo is received in 37 days instead of the previous 48 days.
   The essence of the faster shipments is “synchronization” of cargo through the entire logistics process. The transshipments of freight through different transportation modes, such as truck shipments to ships, are pre-coordinated to reduce shore-to-ship delays.
   “The actual transportation time for our freight was predictable,” said Lee Strong, a traffic management specialist in MTMC’s Distribution Analysis Center. “What we’re doing is squeezing the time out of the nodes. It is true end-to-end supply chain management.”