This week, staff from Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT) Capability Engineering Division are leading a week-long experiment on the Business Process Model (BPM) that supports the Operations Logistics Chain Management (OLCM) project. The experiment takes place at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany and involves 50 logistics experts from NATO and its member nations.

The OLCM capability is designed to optimise the collaborative planning and coordination of logistic support to NATO operations. This includes the prioritisation and coordination of "...the flow of logistic resources and provision of services into, within and out of the NATO Joint Operational Area based on the NATO Commander's intent." The NATO OLCM Concept and the OLCM Concept of Operations (CONOPS) were developed as the first step in building an OLCM capability. These in turn formed the basis for the new OLCM Deployment and Sustainment BPM.

HQ SACT through the Joint Deployment and Sustainment (JD&S) Division has led collaborative work with NATO member nations, the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) and the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) and produced the latest version (5.1) of the OLCM BPM on which the experiment is based.

The experiment is being run as a Concept Development Assessment Game (CDAG), a relatively new experiment tool. A CDAG is a table top assessment game during which teams are fed scenarios and react to those scenarios adhering to BPM process principles. During this reaction phase the essential pieces of the process are fully scrutinised.

The results of this experiment will assist in refining the current version of the OLCM BPM in preparation for further critical validation during Exercise CAPABLE LOGISTICIAN 2013 in Slovakia in June 2013.