Direct vendor delivery is "a materiel acquisition and distribution method that requires vendor delivery directly to the customer."12
Direct vendor delivery is not a concept employed only in peacetime; rather, DLA Troop Support has contracts in place with vendors that require delivery to predetermined locations, whether that location is a warehouse in CONUS, a warehouse in Kuwait, or a FOB in Iraq or Afghanistan.
But materiel can start, end, and move through different paths between logistics nodes: manufacturers/suppliers to defense distribution center for stock replenishment; defense distribution center to supply depots/theater distribution center for stock replenishment outside the continental United States; defense distribution center to supply depots for stock replenishment in the continental United States; supply department/theater distribution center to customer;
direct vendor delivery.
Acquisition logistics, formerly known as integrated logistics support, comprises functional processes (configuration management, facilities, maintenance planning, manpower and personnel, training, packaging, handling, storage, transportation, supply support, support equipment, and technical data); design interface elements (environmental/hazard materials, human systems integration, quality assurance, reliability, maintainability and availability, risk management, safety, standardization, and survivability); and other considerations (
direct vendor delivery, outsourcing, and total ownership cost).