VIRGINIA BEACH - NAVSUP FLC Norfolk, Regional Supply Office (RSO) Oceana completed the Navy’s first-ever virtual Supply Management Assist (SMA) last month.
The SMA is conducted nine to twelve months prior to the Supply Management Inspection (SMI). The SMA is treated as an inspection and is even graded as an inspection but there are also training events scheduled throughout the week with the Sailors, hosted by the inspection team. Because of ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and concerns, the SMA was conducted virtually instead of with an on-site inspection team.
According to RSO Oceana Supply Officer Lt. Cmdr. Kurt Welday, the SMA is conducted about every 24 months, but preparation for the SMA is continuous. “We live by the checklist because the inspection team has the ability to pull data from any period,” explained Welday. “The actual ramp-up to SMA involves a lot of inventories, record and log reviews, QA of documents and zone inspections for cleanliness, safety, and compliance. We also conduct at least one pre-inspection, often conducted in partnership with our Navy Reserve counterparts for added authenticity, as was the case for this inspection.”
Preparing for a virtual inspection requires a few extra steps and a lot of coordination with several entities. “Beginning in July, 2020, we took on the task of bringing RSO/Aviation Support Detachment (ASD) into compliance with the requirement that we become auditable and inspectable in the COVID-19 environment using Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) and Microsoft Teams,” said Welday. “This capability was critical to ensure the inspection team could use the necessary audio, video, screen-share, and chat functions to conduct a thorough inspection and could provide relevant training virtually and in compliance with NAVNORTH FRAGORD 20.24.013 COVID-19 restrictions.
“We coached all hands through each step of the process including updating the Global Address Listing (GAL) and creating their CVR accounts. This required one-on-one interaction with dozens of Sailors and civilians to work through the myriad of connection and account issues.”
Once all hands were able to collaborate on Microsoft Teams, The RSO/ASD team created shared folders where all of the necessary files and videos were uploaded for the inspectors to view. Once the folders were set up and everyone was comfortable working in the virtual collaborative environment, the conduct of the inspection was not much different from an in-person inspection. The inspectors were able to populate the calendars within Microsoft Teams and the work-centers were able to assign talent to the specific events on the schedule. The only things that could not be inspected virtually were items classified at or above a level which precludes taking photographs or items in spaces where cameras are not allowed.
“All of the hard work and preparation paid off. RSO/ASD Oceana was assessed an overall score of outstanding with 100 percent inventory accuracy across the board. “Commander Naval Air Force (CNAF) presented the 2019 Ashore Blue-E for Supply Excellence during the SMA out-brief via Microsoft Teams,” said Welday. “They read the citation over Teams and I symbolically presented the plaque to LSSN (Logistics Specialist Seaman) Alec Nugent of ASD Oceana during a ceremony attended by both the CNAF inspection team and the RSO/ASD team.”
“I am so incredibly proud of Lt. Cmdr Welday and his team for their SMA score of outstanding,” said NAVSUP FLC Norfolk Code 400 Director Cynthia Brown. “Preparing for the assessment is difficult, adding the complexity of hosting a group of assessors virtually is even more challenging, requiring over-communication and out of the box thinking. Their innovation and organizational skills to make this work virtually is truly impressive.”