In June 1998, U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government presented a team of U.S. Army logisticians and RAND analysts the Hammer Award in recognition of a great accomplishment: streamlining army logistics. For decades, the performance of army logistics fell progressively behind best commercial practices. Army mechanics would wait on average a month for spare parts from distant supply depots in order to repair a down weapon system. Today a high-velocity, streamlined army supply process delivers spare parts in half the time it took to deliver them just 3 years earlier. In fact, these days it acutally takes less time to get a spare part from an army supply depot than from a commercial vendor.