Educational Resources
TrainingFrom The Desk of The President
As we’re almost through the first quarter of the Calendar Year, I wanted to take a few moments to discuss my vision for CLEP as we continue through the next three quarters of 2022. My vision is focused on four key aspects of the organization: Value of Membership, Education, Growing the Future, and Investing in People.
Value of Membership
The soul of CLEP is its members. I believe it is the board’s duty to provide value via workshops, lunch n’ learns, certification, and forums where people can ask questions and exchange ideas.
As the board works to make a great program for its members, I challenge you to find a way to strengthen the profession by helping CLEP grow as an organization! Whether it is volunteering on a committee, writing a blog post, or sending in a suggestion on how to make the website more user friendly, we want to hear your voice and meet your expectations.
Education:
CLEP remains focused on providing superior educational opportunities to grow the Profession through Webinars and Outreach efforts. Last year we stood up the Defense Industry Life-Cycle Logistician (DI-LCL) program and will be adjusting it for the changing environment in 2022. Building the future remains paramount in my mind.
It is my belief that if a Junior Logistics Engineer completes the DI-LCL1 pipeline, and is certified, he or she will bring a significant ROI to the team.
DI-LCL2 and 3 are much the same way. With increased education and experience comes a larger ROI.
One area in particular I am focused on is capturing the knowledge of our most experienced Senior Logistics Engineers as they prepare to retire. The original Logistics Engineering trailblazers are retiring with a lot of that professional knowledge that isn’t written down. The council is exploring how to build a wiki database similar to INCOSE’s SE-BOK Wiki as a means of capturing these experiences.. Additionally, I encourage all Senior Logistics Engineers to give back to the community and write on our Blog. You have decades of experience that make you uniquely suited to build the future and we want to learn from you!
Growing the Future
Anyone who has tried to hire a Logistics Engineer in the last year knows that it can take months to find someone that is qualified.
It’s not for lack of trying but due to a limited applicant pool. This forces many companies to hire untrained personnel and then conduct OJT. In my opinion, this leads to people becoming specialists, but not full Logistics Engineers. I want to change that process.
Starting April, CLEP’s Lunch N’ Learns will return with Vijay Chachra leading a discussion on the DI-LCL Certification. We will have a workshop in May on integrating COTs into Product Support Analysis, followed by additional Lunch N’ Learns brought to you by members of Lockheed Martin. I want to encourage each of you to “Grow the Future” and bring some of your co-workers, juniors, or seniors to these events. Our mission remains to be the advocate for Logistics Engineering education, and we will deliver on that mission.
Investing in People
To ensure the future of Logistics Engineers, we must invest in our people early and often. Education must not be limited to just government resources to grow our profession. There are many commercial educators that have courses on Provisioning, RCM, RCM-R, Root Cause Analysis, MTA, LORA, Logistics Product Data, Reporting, etc. that can help grow your younger Logistics Engineers and show them the right way to build products. Additionally, it is important you ensure your personnel are armed with the right knowledge. This includes the latest GEIA standards, S1000 standards, MIL Standards, and Data Item Descriptions, for the task at hand. This will ensure your team is successful!
As we move into 2022, CLEP is working on a Micro-Certification Program that will help Logistics Engineers receive the right kind of training from commercial vendors. If you are an education provider, enthusiast, or just an experienced Logistics Engineer that wants to help out with the program, please reach out to Vijay Chachra at education@logisticsengineers.org .
In Conclusion
Logistics Engineers never work alone and neither does the Council of Logistics Engineering Professionals. IF you have a question and/or need help, we are available to assist. All you have to do is reach out via e-mail or on the forum and we’ll see what we can do. Thank you all for your contributions to the Council and I am excited for what the next 9 months will bring! I look forward to engaging with you all on a more personal basis and know that my e-mail is always available. It is my honor to serve you all!
Warm Regards,
Jonathan Hatch
President
The Council of Logistics Engineering Professionals
President@logisticsengineers.org