The future is now: SJ embraces Expeditionary Combat Support System Published Aug. 23, 2010 By the 4th Logsitics Readiness Squadron SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- The Air Force is in the midst of a historical transformation as revolutionary changes are being made in the way airpower is employed by Air Force Logisticians to provide support to war-time fighters. Logisticians at Seymour Johnson have already begun paving the way for the change. The Expeditionary Combat Support System is the cornerstone enabler of the logistics transformation effort. Using an Enterprise Resource Planning software solution, ECSS is applying best commercial practices and using industry-proven tools to establish the Air Force's first capability to globally view and manage its logistics resources such as major end items, materiel, people and funds. However, ECSS is much more than an information technology system. It will fundamentally change business processes, personnel roles and jobs across the spectrum of the Air Force logistics community. Locally, ECSS will drive dramatic changes and improvements in the way logistics is done. For example, the process of scheduling a repair currently means setting a repair date at the base level without the ability to ensure technicians, parts, facilities or tools, are available Air Force-wide. With ECSS, an integrated global view of people and parts availability will enable greater scheduling effectiveness and ultimately increase availability of repaired components or major end items. Simply put, Air Force logisticians will have what they need to get the job done when repairs are system-scheduled under ECSS. Air Force logisticians currently rely on paper forms and enter data into multiple base-level systems. Under the ECSS, logisticians will no longer use this labor-intensive process but will simply enter data once into a single system. When fully implemented, ECSS will replace hundreds of logistics information systems and will be the single source of truth for logistics information. While it will be several years before ECSS reaches full operational capability, the implementation process is already underway. That process will affect Seymour Johnson AFB soon. The Air Force plans to implement ECSS across the branch through multiple releases; with Seymour Johnson fielding the system in July 2012. While that may seem to be a part of the distant future, the 4th Logistics Readiness Squadron is preparing for ECSS now. To help with that preparation, the ECSS program managers conducted a kick-off meeting with Seymour Johnson leaders and ECSS users Aug. 23. During that meeting, ECSS program officials delivered an informational and educational briefing about ECSS, its goals, program timelines and how it will affect the Air Force. The kickoff represented the beginning of the ECSS organizational change management program, which is designed to help prepare everyone for the transformation. History shows no change is successful until individual behaviors change. The people who perform Air Force logistics processes, from all functional communities, must personally engage in the transformative aspects of ECSS in order for it to succeed. As is always the case, these sweeping changes will not be easy, as long-standing ways of doing business will either dramatically change or completely disappear. ECSS will pull people from their comfort zones and cause them to perform new tasks in different, unfamiliar ways. To help logisticians navigate these changes, the ECSS program will provide education and training programs for those who will use the new system. An Air Force-wide change agent network, supported by an ECSS program team, will share information on ECSS activities, schedules and lessons learned, while also conducting local problem-solving meetings to help smooth implementation at each installation. ECSS will drive changes in the way the Air Force does business and the way logisticians perform their jobs. The result will be an Air Force enterprise better enabled to provide its war-time fighters the right materiel at the right time. ECSS will also enable logisticians to use their time more productively; significantly reducing the cost of accomplishing the Air Force logistics mission. To learn more about ECSS, contact Larry Sies or Dan Panza at 722-5454 or visit https://www.ecss.wpafb.af.mil.