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Defense Inventory: Improved Industrial Base Assessments for Army War Reserve Spares Could Save Money

GAO-02-650 Published: Jul 12, 2002. Publicly Released: Jul 12, 2002.
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Highlights

The Army's approach to assessing wartime spare parts industrial base capability does not use current data from industry. Instead, the Army uses historical parts procurement data because its prior efforts to collect current data from industry were not successful due to poor response rates. GAO identified a program in the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) that has several attributes reflecting sound management practices for reliable industrial base capability assessments. Although DLA's program is in its early stages of implementation, DLA has been able to successfully collect current data directly from private industry on thousands of parts. Further, DLA is analyzing that data to identify actual or potential parts availability problems.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense In order to improve the Army's readiness for wartime operations, achieve greater economy in purchasing decisions, and provide Congress with accurate budget submissions for war reserve spare parts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to have the Commander of Army Material Command to establish an overarching industrial base capability assessment process that considers the attributes in this report.
Closed – Not Implemented
Army has consistently disagreed with the recommendation and does not intend to implement it. The recommendation was closed as of February 17, 2004, per the DODIG.
Department of Defense In order to improve the Army's readiness for wartime operations, achieve greater economy in purchasing decisions, and provide Congress with accurate budget submissions for war reserve spare parts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to have the Commander of Army Material Command to develop a method to efficiently collect current industrial base capability data directly from industry itself.
Closed – Not Implemented
Army has consistently disagreed with the recommendation and does not intend to implement it. The recommendation was closed as of February 17, 2004, per the DODIG.
Department of Defense In order to improve the Army's readiness for wartime operations, achieve greater economy in purchasing decisions, and provide Congress with accurate budget submissions for war reserve spare parts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to have the Commander of Army Material Command to create analytical tools that identify potential production capability problems such as those due to surge in wartime spare parts demand.
Closed – Not Implemented
Army has consistently disagreed with the recommendation and does not intend to implement it. The recommendation was closed as of February 17, 2004, per the DODIG.
Department of Defense In order to improve the Army's readiness for wartime operations, achieve greater economy in purchasing decisions, and provide Congress with accurate budget submissions for war reserve spare parts, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to have the Commander of Army Material Command to create management strategies for resolving spare parts availability problems, for example, by changing acquisition procedures or by targeting investments in material and technology resources to reduce production lead times.
Closed – Not Implemented
Army has consistently disagreed with the recommendation and does not intend to implement it. The recommendation was closed as of February 17, 2004, per the DODIG.

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Topics

Army suppliesDefense capabilitiesSpare partsDefense contingency planningData collectionMilitary inventoriesInventory controlU.S. ArmyDefense logisticsInventories