The Air Force Institute of Technology’s Digital Innovation and Integration Center of Excellence (DIICE) recently hosted their second annual “Digital Materiel Management (DMM) Symposium” to accelerate DMM throughout the AFMC enterprise.
As part of Air University’s broader mission to educate and develop joint warfighters, AFIT provides advanced academic education and research that prepares officers, enlisted members, civilians and international partners to apply technical expertise in real-world operational environments, supporting more informed and effective decision-making.
To surge capability delivery to the warfighter, the Air Force is shifting to a digital model-based systems approach to acquisition. This digital transformation requires a digital-first mindset, and the adoption of multiple digital tools that tie the workforce into a digital thread that connects previously siloed data, products, processes, and offices. Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) established DIICE at AFIT to assist with this effort.
The purpose of the symposium was to bring together practitioners, problem solvers, innovators, researchers, and digital “do-ers” from across AFMC to explore the recent advancements in DMM and the latest innovations, tools and success stories driving AFMC’s DMM priorities.
One common challenge organizations encounter when utilizing DMM tools and resources is streamlining the process so all functionals - program managers, logisticians, engineers, and contracting - can access, view and utilize the same data.
To overcome this challenge, many offices are approaching the integration of DMM into their workforce through training initiatives to equip functionals with utilizing these digital resources correctly and efficiently.
Jamieson Pierce, Enterprise Agile Strategist in AFLCMC/WI and panelist for the Symposium, shared his experience working with DMM tools and offered his advice to offices adopting DMM solutions into their organizations.
“One of the most common mistakes organizations make when trying to adopt DMM is assuming that training and access to tools alone will drive meaningful change. The reality is that most acquisition organizations already have more tools than they can effectively use and a generic training class or help desk cannot bridge that gap.”
Pierce further emphasized that, “training gets people started. Embedded digital expertise is what drives performance.”
His advice to organizations adopting DMM is to utilize the “extremely valuable, standardized DMM training through DIICE,” and to “leverage embedded digital SMEs that understand the organization’s mission, its data, its decision-makers, and its constraints.”
“The SMEs can see where things are breaking down and continuously adjust how DMM tools are applied to target the real problems,” said Pierce.
The symposium featured 182 total attendees from various MAJCOMs outside of AFMC, such as AFLCMC, AFRL, AFTC, and USAFA. The event featured five dynamic panels highlighting AFMC’s latest DMM initiatives and breakthrough efforts, networking opportunities to collaborate with innovators across AFMC and SMEs and researchers within AFIT, and five informative workshops. Additionally, hands-on vendor demos featured digital tools ready for application within program offices.
AFIT’s DIICE was established in October 2023 and is sponsored by AFMC. The Center directly supports AFMC's DMM’s goals to accelerate integrated capability delivery across the materiel lifecycle and functional disciplines.
DIICE focuses on four lines of effort: education excellence, research and technology transfer, consulting, and best practices to generate digital solutions centered on model-based systems integration efforts that result in improved execution of weapon acquisitions and support across the AFMC enterprise in support of the warfighter.
For more information, please visit the DIICE webpage: https://www.afit.edu/DIICE/index.cfm or contact AFIT.CZ.DIICE@us.af.mil.