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Background
The US Marine Corps operates its logistics tracking across several databases and entry systems, leading to information decay and significant data quality issues. Among these systems, Global Combat Support System (GCSS), Marine Logistics System (MLS), and Defense Property Accountability System (DPAS) are the most critical for maintaining awareness of defense readiness (or the ability to go into battle at any point in time). These systems have significant information overlap, much of which is needed at different places and times but requested from different systems. For example, the status of a truck (good to drive or in maintenance) may be needed first to build a delivery schedule which is requested from GCSS and then a Major is planning a field exercise and looks in DPAS for which trucks are available. The maintenance crew updates GCSS as they triage and repair vehicles, operators may flag issues in MLS, GCSS, or DPAS depending on when and how they’re using the vehicle, and so data is often lost in translation and leads to many individuals' full-time jobs being to cross reference that data.
Results
AML Group developed a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) system that automatically translated information between over 20 systems. When information was entered into any system, it was automatically replicated across the entire network. In order to keep the data streams relevant, a drag and drop interface to connect fields from each database was set up to allow for constant updating of data flows. The system was ultimately implemented at three different bases (US Army Fort Bragg, USMC Camp Lejeune, and USAF Seymour Johnson Air Force Base) and continues to be used.
