The Army Seeks a World Class Logistics Modernization Program

Abstract

On a hot summer day in early August 1999, Paul Capelli walked from the Longworth House of Representatives office building after briefing the staffers of Representative Richard Gephardt on the Army program for which he was responsible. He was on his way to brief another House member and his staffers in the Rayburn office building. This trip felt like his 100th, and he wondered if they would ever stop. Capelli had been tasked by the Army Materiel Command (AMC) to lead a project team to modernize the Army's logistics management and information systems in the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP). In the beginning, Paul Capelli was concerned mainly with assembling the right team and developing innovative alternatives for modernization. However, he had soon realized his major resistance would come due to the unprecedented nature of the modernization, and the political resistance that resulted.