Moving Towards a Service Oriented Architecture
Department of Defense medical logistics recently achieved a major milestone in its goal of moving toward a Service Oriented Architecture. The Theater Enterprise Wide Logistics Systems from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command transitioned to the Defense Health Services Systems Medical Logistics Division on July 15. Since the mid-2000s, DOD medical logistics commands have been transitioning from decentralized legacy systems and business processes to enterprise solutions to promote efficiency and joint interoperability.
Since 2006, the Army has used TEWLS, an SAP-based enterprise resource planning application, to support total lifecycle management of medical assemblages. With release 2 in 2009, TEWLS was expanded to its theater materiel management centers at U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Forces, Korea.
Parallel development of an application by the Services to meet a requirement of the Military Health System is an example of distributed development and allows faster builds of IT solutions for critical capabilities. Development of TEWLS is a successful example of distributed development between the MHS and the Services. In July 2008, the MHS and the Defense Logistics Agency adopted a joint vision statement committing to transformation of the medical supply chain for seamless, responsive and interoperable support to military health care. The capabilities provided by TEWLS support Defense Logistics Agency processes, deliver a collaborative framework for supporting clinical needs, end-to-end supply chain integration, and best business practices. These attributes are also consistent with emerging future DoD initiatives such as the Joint Supply Integrating Concept where fully networked supply operations will provide unprecedented visibility and control.
TEWLS complements other applications within the DMLSS portfolio and provides a capability for an enterprise “backbone” for centralized management of data and key intermediate level medical logistics processes. This includes warehousing of medical materiels, materiel distribution and transportation management, and creation and management of medical assemblages.
“The migration of TEWLS into the MHS portfolio is a tremendous step forward in our efforts to transition the defense medical logistics IT infrastructure into an enterprise architecture,” says U.S. Army Col. Chris Harrington, DHSS Deputy Program Manager for Medical Logistics. “In order to effectively manage the medical supply chain, we have to be able to focus on the entire enterprise framework in addition to focusing on the needs of single units of action.”
By Dan Magee, PhD.
Defense Health Services Systems
This article was first featured in the July 2010 DHSS eXpresso e-newsletter.