The Marine Corps is a people business. Despite this, advances in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are trading in human-capital for automated efficiency. Realigning to a human-centric approach would solve a pervasive issue: Supply officers at the using-unit level need a better way to talk laterally across units, and across services, to provide the most efficient support for their units. Orienting innovation toward this objective will align the Marine Corps with the National Defense Strategy’s emphasis on operating as a joint force. The Marine Corps must act as a pioneer among the services in facilitating supply-web logistics. Achieving this involves interlacing supply shops with others in local proximity, placing a stronger emphasis on human relationships.
Weaving Supply-Webs
Commandant of the Marine Corps General David H. Berger stated in Marine Corps Doctrine Publication 4: Logistics that logistics is “the pacing function” for operations. However, supply officers are primarily trained to reach backward to intermediate-level sources like the supply management unit, or to purchase nontraditional items from other sources. There is no formal system that encourages using units to look to their left and right. If logistics truly is the pacing function for operations, these dated and time-intensive methods need to change.
During my first day at Al-Jaber Air Force Base in Kuwait, I peered over a sandy sea of chain link fences guarding assorted construction equipment and shipping containers. A thought fought through the fog of my jetlag: “Who owns all this?” As the Marine air ground task force (MAGTF), ground combat element supply officer, I built relationships with supply officers from the logistics combat element and the command element. However, when I desperately needed to send chain-link fencing to Baghdad, no one could tell me who managed the rolls stacked inside an unmarked lot. As a rule-of-thumb, finding support within the MAGTF/Marine Corps was relatively simple, but tapping into local resources outside of the Marine Corps was not.
The Marine Corps is not far off the mark in creating a fully integrated supply web. Global Combat Support System—Marine Corps (GCSS-MC) already lets users see into any Marine Corps unit’s Class IX block (on-hand maintenance and repair parts). While deployed, my unit successfully pulled from the Army intermediate-level supply facility at Camp Arifjan to circumvent long shipping time from the states. All the Marine Corps needs to close the loop is a system that links local supply units to each other. Specifically, a system in which using-unit level supply officers can find phone numbers, names, and emails of other leaders in the area to facilitate relationship building. A system in which units can post items that are not in the GCSS-MC, and available for other units to take or to borrow. A system in which supply leaders can post for help filling irregular orders before turning to open purchase. While some GCSS-MC functions attempt to fill these gaps, these are not commonly used, and do not mesh well with the system’s primary functions. Unofficial channels such as the 3002 Facebook group can be valuable, but unofficial social media pages are not accessible on Department of Defense (DoD) systems, are not secure, and widespread adoption is impractical.
A Marketplace for Marines
Facebook Marketplace connects sellers with buyers based on proximity. Unlike GCSS-MC, it is not designed to place items on-order, to ship, or to provide any customer-service related functions. Facebook Marketplace simply gets humans in touch with other humans so details can be worked out among themselves. Adopting a “USMC Marketplace” or even sponsoring a larger “DoD Marketplace” would not circumvent GCSS-MC, but instead work alongside it. At its most basic level, the platform provides a way for supply officers to talk to each other and see what gear is available in their area. The actual transfer of gear, accountable officer permissions, and any other regulatory steps could be worked out between individuals outside the system.
Sweating in my sheet metal warehouse tucked along the hills of San Mateo, California, I received a short-fuse request for individual water-purification systems. Marines attending a course at the Mountain Warfare Training Center needed them for a month of survival training. Without time to process an open-purchase request, I picked up the phone. The supply officer for 1st Combat Engineer Battalion answered. Before our assignment to 1st Marine Division in Camp Pendleton we both attended Ground Supply Officer Course together. He happened to have individual water-purification devices in his warehouse left over from previous. He agreed to loan them to me for the duration of the training evolution. This was not the first or last time that using personal connections helped me fill irregular and short-fuse requests.
Building the Supply-Web Mindset
Thinking laterally and locally in terms of supply is a more efficient way of distributing gear. This saves time and money and can promote better accountability. This change in mindset means thinking about using unit-level supply shops less like “customers,” and more like “chain stores” that all support the same fight. Walk into any Ace Hardware store and speak to a manager about an item you are looking for. If the store does not have it, they do not immediately order it for you—instead, they call other stores in the local area and either have it shipped to their location or ask you to visit another location for pick up. A system promoting this mindset gives units at the lowest level an opportunity to exercise joint-force service support.
Often, rotating units and personnel will inherit supply warehouses with unissued equipment that they either dispose of or save for a rainy day. Any skilled supply chain management officer understands the value of an empty warehouse. Managing a unit with a light footprint helps reduce man hours wasted in taking inventory of unused gear, and physically saps the “fight tonight” mindset with a crowded warehouse. However, supply shops must also balance this by holding onto some items that may come in handy in the future. Sometimes equipment is purchased and stored for exercises that units only participate in once a year or less. This system would help take unused or under-used equipment and redistribute or loan it to other local units to save time, money, and reduce unnecessary redundancy.
Time, Cost Saving, and Accountability
Supply-web logistics can save time by redistributing gear locally instead of waiting for shipping. Borrowing or redistributing items from other units’ shelves instead of buying new also saves money. Ideally, this system would facilitate free-flowing equipment faster and more efficiently than traditional acquisition methods. To adopt a service support system that is truly joint-force oriented, commanders need to stop thinking of equipment as theirs and adopt the idea that supplies are ours.
At the same time, a DoD/Marine Corps Marketplace would not be a free-for-all slush fund for military equipment—instead, it would be a user-driven system. By placing local supply units in contact with one another, leaders can communicate offline, and, if appropriate, transfer funds via Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request to pay for the replacement costs of taking items to fill a short-fuse request.
Marine Corps Publication NAVMC 400.5 requires supply units to maintain local records for all gear in the warehouse that is not tracked on GCSS-MC. A DoD/Marine Corps Marketplace could act as a virtual local record that fulfills this requirement, while also advising other units about what kind of items are on-hand nearby. This system could track common on-hand items such as Class IV (construction materials), Class VI (personal items), Class II (clothing), and other irregular items that may not fit well into military supply criteria.
Finding the Right Platform: OpenHive
Similar to Facebook Marketplace, items promoted on the DoD/Marine Corps Marketplace must include the option for uploading photos, along with a short description using plain language. This includes terms that are translatable across services such as “new,” “used,” “like-new,” or “good” to describe the condition. Imagery and plain language would not only help translate across the services, but would be a rare reprieve for supply-chain management officers who must constantly navigate a sea of acronyms, numbers, and vague descriptions that do little to specify the type of equipment these codes represent.
Fielding requests from my office in Kuwait, Marines stationed at the Baghdad Embassy Complex reached out for help ordering ballistic glass for their observation posts. Passing the request on to our combat engineer detachment I said, “You all are the experts, give me a NIIN and I will put it on-order for you.” A National Item Identification Number (NIIN) is used for ordering and identifying parts. After a few days of deliberation, the engineers sent a NIIN, and we placed the order in GCSS-MC. After a week or so, my battalion commander flew to Baghdad with the newly arrived ballistic glass. However, on opening the packages, we realized the NIIN belonged to windshields for SUVs (two were already broken). Because of this, the Marines in Baghdad had to wait another two weeks while my shop placed a special contract together for ballistic glass out of Oman.
Items in DoD/Marine Corps Marketplace also should be marked with a status of “available for loan” or “available for transfer.” Most important, the platform should provide contact info for the leadership, email, and phone number associated with local units. Like Facebook Marketplace, the proximity to a user’s location would act as the primary filter for posts. Auto-archive of any posts on the system longer than 90 days would keep the homepage feed uncluttered and current.
Buy-in is essential for this system to work. Supply-chain management sections are already required to obtain and maintain access to several automated information systems as part of their regular duties. Any additional systems must be simple and easy for supply officers to register.
This system does not need to be created from scratch. OpenHive is a collaborative website already used by the Marine Corps’ Krulak Center for innovation and future warfare. The system is intuitive, easy to register, and features tabs for “communities,” “challenges,” and “connections.” It is already used by all DoD services and could serve as an ideal platform for a virtual marketplace.
DLA-DS is Not the Answer
Supply and logistics officers might question the need for a new system when Defense Logistics Agency—Disposition Services (DLA-DS) is the go-to recycling program for DoD and federal agencies. However, DLA-DS is not designed to support the type of collaborative and integrated effort that building supply-web logistics requires.
At its core, DLA-DS is a disposal agency for obsolete, unserviceable, or excess equipment. The process for reviewing and requesting items through its online system is difficult. Seldom are serviceable items available, and there rarely are any photos or descriptions included. Furthermore, items placed into the online system face demand from the entire DoD that can leave units on long and scarcely monitored waitlists.
DLA-DS serves an important function by managing and minimizing waste across the DoD. However, supply-web logistics is about regional units working laterally with each other. Placing a large government organization at the center of this initiative would add an unnecessary middleman, hindering the ability for cross-service and cross-unit collaboration.
Looking Forward
It is time for innovation in supply and logistics at the lowest levels to align with strategic concepts of joint-force effort and collaboration. This means creating platforms for supply-chain management officers to network and talk with each other. Breaking the supply chain means reaching not only backwards, but to the left, right, front, and rear. Creating the right platform to facilitate lateral communication will create an integrated web of support, emphasize effectiveness as well as efficiency, and generate a more lethal and resilient force.