The Defence Minister Stuart Andrew has visited the £83 million Defence Fulfilment Centre (DFC) after touring the armoury and current logistic facilities on-site at MOD Donnington.
The Minister took the opportunity to pay tribute to the facility, which opened last year to revolutionise the way support is delivered for the armed forces wherever they may be in the world.
The 80,000 square-metre centre, due to be fully operational in 2019, is the size of ten football pitches and will streamline distribution and storage.
It is set to deliver over £300 million worth of savings by 2028 by streamlining the way storage and distribution is delivered and restructuring the way contract negotiations are conducted for commodities.
With two warehouses and a support building, it will be a central hub for storage and distribution of defence’s £30 billion inventory, including spare parts, food, clothing, and medical supplies.
The DFC is part of the Logistics Commodities and Services Transformation programme. In April 2015 the MOD signed a 13-year contract, worth approximately £6.7 billion, with Team Leidos to run the storage, distribution and commodity procurement functions formerly performed by the Logistics Commodities and Services Operating Centre.
Alongside special environmental storage, the DFC’s automated storage and retrieval system will be capable of picking more than 1,000 items an hour.
Defence Minister Stuart Andrew said: “We’ve invested over £80m in this enormous Shropshire centre as we are determined to ensure our personnel have everything they need, from batteries to boots, wherever they are in the world.
“This hub will have a transformative impact on our troops once it is fully up and running next year, putting a truly state-of-the-art supply network at the fingertips of our brave men and women on the frontline.”
image © Crown Copyright
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