Keeping the United States Department of Defense mission

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Keeping the United States Department of Defense mission ready with 5G smart warehousing

The opportunity: Modernizing a critical warehouse network

When your job is to keep your nation’s defense agency ready for action, you need to be as efficient and as accurate as possible.

The United States Department of Defense recognized there was room for improvement within their existing warehouse. They wanted to explore how they could use new technologies to improve the efficiency, accuracy and speed of their own warehousing and distribution capabilities. The testbed would be a warehouse that was built in 1952.

Our 5G smart warehouse provided an ideal test site to conduct experiments with emerging network and automation technologies. Within the existing space, we are transforming the organization’s warehousing supply and distribution operations.

Defense client

KPMG in the US embraced the challenge. Collaborating closely with the US Department of Defense, KPMG professionals helped to develop a design that would bring their warehouse to the forefront of modern capabilities.

KPMG’s response: Empowering defense

The 5G Smart Warehouse that the US firm helped create in coordination with the US Department of Defense is designed to integrate new and emerging technologies to improve mission readiness; facilitates interoperability of people, process, and technology; and anticipates receiving and shipping processes and equipment.

Digitalized and integrated, the system allows Material Handlers and planners visibility across six major process areas – receipt, storage, inventory, issue, shipping and delivery. Thus, enabling commanders and other key military personnel to know the status of their inventory and track its movement between warehouses, repair depots and battlefields – helping to provide intelligent decision support and reliable predictive decision making at the pace and accuracy required of a fighting force.

The 5G-enabled Smart Warehouse project has provided us with a clear pathway to transforming the logistical operations within the US Department of Defense, helping ensure that we can consistently meet and exceed service level expectations and mission readiness requirements of our combat units.

Defense client

The outcome:Ready to achieve a nation’s objectives

Today, the US Department of Defense is better prepared to support mission critical objectives. They now have the tools they need to serve the personnel quickly and effectively in the field.

Data is captured and stored digitally; accuracy, as demonstrated in the financial Systems Integration Test unitizing ‘Test Gear’ is up 98 percent as a result. Eleven robots now perform across the warehouse floor, increasing speed of gear by 65 percent and reducing labor requirements by 55 percent. Speed from dock-to-stock went from days down to minutes. Auditability and accountability for gear in storage has never been higher.

The 5G Smart Warehouse initiative has given us a template that is adaptable, scalable and deployable. It’s going to support personnel and operations in austere and contested environments.

Defense client

Meet the person behind the story

It was an honor to support the strategy, design, and technologies that the United States Department of Defense needed to achieve their objectives for their 5G Warehouse initiative. And I’m looking forward to seeing how 5G Smart Warehouse networks can help other government organizations and agencies meet their mission-critical objectives. It’s an opportunity to make a real and lasting difference.

Chad Jones
Managing Director
Federal Supply Chain & Operations, KPMG in the US

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