RICHMOND, Va. –
After two months of intense work, Virginia National Guard Soldiers officially re-opened the Virginia Army National Guard’s Central Issue Facility during a ceremony Nov. 15, 2024, at Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia.
Col. Jeff Cree, Virginia’s United States Property and Fiscal Officer, Col. Corey Stavinoha, the VaARNG’s G4 logistics officer, and Lt. Col. Eric Quinn, the G4 supply and services division chief, gave remarks during the ceremony, thanking the Soldiers for their hard work on the project.
The project transformed the facility into a more organized, streamlined site for gear issue and turn in. The difference is evident with one glance inside the facility.
“Look at this place! It’s brighter, it’s more open, and you guys can see where everything is,” said Stavinoha. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of everyone involved. You guys have done a tremendous job in just two months. I thank you all for taking our vision and making it a reality.”
That vision started with White and a team of CIF employees taking a trip to Mississippi to see how their CIF was operated, bringing ideas and best practices home to put into action.
The rethought process resembles a grocery store setup, according to Capt. Terrell White, the G4 commodity management branch chief and architect behind the transformation. Customers now will have a menu of items they need, and can move from bin to bin, all clearly labeled to make the process as easy as possible.
The improvements mean the facility can nearly quadruple the number of customers they can support in a week, according to White.
“What used to take an hour or an hour and a half to process somebody will now take 10-15 minutes,” White said. “It allows us to serve more customers and get them in and out faster. We can now service up to 200 people a week where before, we might have been able to serve 50.”
Another new part of the process is employing a “CIF to Soldier” concept, where individual Soldiers are more responsible for checking out the gear they need, rather than putting that onus on the unit.
“A lot of this was to implement our CIF to Soldier concept, which is to issue and receive gear directly to and from the Soldier, relieving some of the responsibility from our supply sergeants,” White said.
The project started with identifying, organizing and shipping off huge amounts of excess personal and organizational clothing and individual equipment. According to White, the facility was able to process more than $4 million in superfluous OCIE.
“During this time, they have processed over 59,000 items of excess OCIE, for a grand total of $4,491,715.67,” said White. “The supply and services division also processed over 300 SURE-Paks, which hold more than a usual pallet. To date they’ve processed and/or shipped 300 of those, filled with excess, obsolete and end-of-life items.”
Another improvement is in the way appointments are booked. With the help of IT specialist Asia Knight, a new SharePoint calendar was created, helping automate and streamline the appointment-making process and generating automated emails with information on what to expect and how gear should be cleaned and broken down, so the Soldier has that info before the appointment begins.
While the improvements are vast, Stavinoha stressed the improvements aren’t finished just yet.
“We are always going to improve our foxhole,” he said. “We’re going to try and get more automated for you guys. We’re gonna try to get more computers, scan guns, things like that.”