Velocity Management and the Revolution in Military Logistics

Rick Eden, Thomas I. Edwards

ResearchPublished 1999

When General Reimer identified the Revolution in Military Logistics (RML) as a necessary precondition of the revolution in military affairs (RMA) , he issued a challenge to the Army logistics community. Yet recent studies of the RMA express little hope for delivering an RML, at least in the near term. This study suggests that RML can be achieved without waiting for the Army to field new major weapons systems. The Army can deliver RML quickly and affordably by focusing on the dramatic and continuous improvement of today's key logistics processes, which in turn help reduce the need for massive logistics resources. This improvement effort, called the Velocity Management (VM) Initiative, has been under way since January 1995, with remarkable success. Chief of Staff Reimer was right about the dependence of the RMA on an RML: dramatic process improvement under the VM initiative is a key enabler of the Revolution in Military Logistics.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Arroyo Center
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 1999
  • Pages: 6
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/pubs
  • Document Number: RP-752-1

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Originally published in: Army Logistician, v. 31, no. 1, January-February 1999, pp. 52-57.

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Version Note

This publication supersedes a previous version published in 1999 (RP-752).