Aviation at Warner Robins, Land and Maritime partner to support warfighters

From the bustling warehouses to the front lines of battle, Defense Logistics Agency's dedicated teams work in tandem to deliver critical supplies to warfighters with precision and speed.

Intra-agency collaboration between DLA Aviation and DLA Land and Maritime aims to provide transparently seamless support to Air Force customers in Warner Robins, Georgia. Their relationship is emblematic of the essential partnerships that drive the success of the nation's logistics combat support agency.

Intuitively enough, DLA Aviation at Warner Robins, with its expertise in aircraft parts and components, provides aircraft logistics support to the Air Force and industry partners, while their Land and Maritime counterparts focus on providing similar support for ground equipment and maritime weapons systems.

Both organizations collaborate closely on joint logistics support initiatives, ensuring the timely delivery of critical supplies to the battlefield. This includes coordinated planning, transportation and inventory management.

Aviation at Warner Robins' mission is to supply all the parts the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Warner Robins, Georgia, needs to repair critical aircraft components regardless of the source of supply. DLA Land and Maritime supports 30-40% of these requirements.

"We work closely with one another to ensure the customers' requirements are clearly articulated and appropriately prioritized," said Melinda Stahl, Material Management division chief for DLA Aviation at Warner Robins. "No matter the weapon system, component or platform, each item is generally always comprised of a mix of parts from both Aviation and Land and Maritime supply chains. These products cannot be produced, repaired, modified or maintained if all the components and subcomponents are not available. It takes the individuals within both supply chains working together at the appropriate levels to be successful."

The partnership has been on full display in recent months. In November, a team from Land and Maritime visited Aviation at Warner Robins for a two-day site visit that provided a comprehensive overview of operations and showcased facilities that directly support the maintenance mission - a valuable opportunity for the two organizations to strengthen their relationship and explore new ways of working together.

One example of highlighted success among the two teams was evident recently when a sole-source provider was purchased by another business. The new owner was moving away from military contracts to commercial support. The DLA Aviation at Warner Robins team was notified of this intent and reached out to the new owner to offer them an opportunity to place one final production order before they stopped. In the end, DLA Aviation, in collaboration with DLA Land and Maritime and the Air Force, awarded a life-of-type buy for enough assets to meet the demand for the next decade.

"None of us can succeed alone," Stahl said. "Each of us holds a piece of the solution in our hands, but achieving the overall mission is completely reliant on our ability to share information and work together to resolve issues."