DLA Energy’s Planning team launches new Integrated Business Planning application

The Defense Logistics Agency Energy Planning team launched its newest Integration Business Planning (IPB) application on June 1, 2025, in the Enterprise Business System Portal. The rollout supports the agency's Digital Business Transformation effort to standardize systems and move to standard software functionality.

After a 13-month development and implementation period, the IBP application allows DLA Energy planners to create individual views of more than 100 data attributes, including location, material and transport mode.

Emily Weaver, supply lead, and Kyle Stein, demand lead, led the DLA Energy Planning IBP Development team. They worked with DLA Energy Headquarters' demand and supply planners and regional end-users to capture system requirements and automate manual tasks.

Roydrick Frazier, DLA Energy IBP lead demand planner, highlighted some of the new application's features.

"It's very user-friendly for collaborators," Frazier said. "Our team streamlined data analysis, which can be updated in real-time. It is more customizable. For example, we can build planning views and filters that can be shared."

To meet the launch date, the team divided into demand and supply planning groups. The demand team gathered requirements locally, while the supply team traveled to regional offices to understand processes, collect data and demonstrate the new system. This identified limitations and increased planner interest.

User acceptance testing took place from April 7 to May 9, 2025, with 247 test cases completed. The testing team identified 16 defects that were quickly fixed. A related issue with Business Warehouse reports was resolved a week later.

The team hosted five on-site development sprints with more than 20 planners from the DLA Energy Headquarters and regional offices. These sprints facilitated user buy-in and identified automation opportunities. The team also validated data migration. Improvements were implemented for long-term contract purchase requisitions, including system recommendations for fuel movements and new requirements for oilers and pipeline losses, leading to more accurate scheduling.

Norman Mitchell, DLA Energy direct delivery fuels supply planning supervisor, described the benefits.

"I think it will increase the accuracy of our long-term contract purchase requisitions (LTC PRs)," Norman said. "That will be a tremendous benefit and cost savings. There's also a major benefit of adding the planned forecast for new locations to create LTC PRs immediately. In direct delivery fuels, this is a game changer for those last-minute emergency LTC PRs. This is just the tip of the iceberg."