We have been short listed as finalists for this year’s prestigious Supply Chain Excellence Awards for its work, together with industry partner Team Leidos, supporting Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine has brought into sharp relief the need for robust, resilient and responsive supply chains. Never has the focus more been on the need for supply chains to react to – and pre-empt – geo-political world events.

Understanding the national imperative in March 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, DE&S’ Commissioning and Managing Organisation (CMO) which manage the Logistics, Commodities and Services  Transformation (LCST) contract with Team Leidos, reacted immediately to supercharge its financial approvals, procurement and contracting processes to enable the responsiveness demanded by the Government.

Recognising that “business as usual” processes and LCST’s normal capacity would not suffice, innovation and an intrepid approach was required by the CMO, taking responsible commercial risk and streamlining approvals.  A new organisational design ensured that LCST was not at the receiving end of a long chain of “orders” but right in the action and embedded in operational headquarters.

Ever since then, LCST has reacted with agility and ingenuity, achieving great feats in procuring commodities for Ukraine including sourcing over 345,000 items of medical supplies, more than 73,000 operational ration packs, over 20,000 sets of cold wear clothing and over 17,000 boots.

By using an expanded supplier base and commercial off the shelf products, Team Leidos has been able to source these items at a pace and scale not previously seen.

In addition, as part of its Ukrainian response, LCST utilised the modern Defence Fulfilment Centre (DFC) at Donnington to store and dispatch many items.  In March 2022, Army soldiers triaged 84,000 British Army helmets at the DFC over a two-week period before they were packed and dispatched to Ukraine – an early indication of UK intent towards the conflict.

Impressively, LCST set up a cross European transportation network within three weeks of the start of the conflict, to move the UK’s – and NATO partner nations’ – battle-winning equipment, ammunition, vehicles and spares worth hundreds of millions of pounds to Eastern Europe.  This network, along with the procurement of critical clothing and life-saving medical supplies by LCST, has significantly contributed to putting the UK into the world spotlight as a leading contributing nation to the Ukraine war effort.

Now those efforts are being recognised, with DE&S’ Commissioning and Managing Organisation along with its industry partner Team Leidos being selected as finalists for the “Public Sector” category of the annual Supply Chain Excellence Awards.

The awards, now in their 26th year, have become the benchmark for supply chain best practice, attracting entries from across the UK and Europe. The awards are renowned for their rigorous judging process which also provides valuable feedback for entrants from our judges, with over 250 years’ experience.

Brig Anna Luedicke CBE, Head of Commissioning and Managing Organisation, which oversees the LCST programme, said:

“I am very proud that the Ministry of Defence’ s Commissioning and Managing Organisation  and Team Leidos have been short listed for the Public Sector Supply Chain Excellence Award.  The Logistics, Commodities and Services Transformation programme has provided critical logistics services in support of Ukraine since March 2022. The collaboration shown by our partnership has been fundamental to the success and pace of delivery.”

The Supply Chain Excellence Awards take place next month in London.