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DOD's High-Risk Areas: Challenges Remain to Achieving and Demonstrating Progress in Supply Chain Management

GAO-06-983T Published: Jul 25, 2006. Publicly Released: Jul 25, 2006.
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Highlights

The Department of Defense (DOD) maintains a military force with unparalleled logistics capabilities, but it continues to confront decades-old supply chain management problems. The supply chain can be the critical link in determining whether our frontline military forces win or lose on the battlefield, and the investment of resources in the supply chain is substantial. Because of weaknesses in DOD's supply chain management, this program has been on GAO's list of high-risk areas needing urgent attention and transformation since 1990. Last year, DOD developed a plan to resolve its long-term supply chain problems in three focus areas: requirements forecasting, asset visibility, and materiel distribution. In October 2005, GAO testified that the plan was a good first step. GAO was asked to provide its views on DOD's progress toward (1) implementing the supply chain management improvement plan and (2) incorporating performance measures for tracking and demonstrating improvement, as well as to comment on the alignment of DOD's supply chain management improvement plan with other department logistics plans. This testimony is based on prior GAO reports and ongoing work in this area. It contains GAO's views on opportunities to improve DOD's ability to achieve and demonstrate progress in supply chain management.

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Topics

AccountabilityCombat readinessDefense capabilitiesInternal controlsInventory controlLogisticsMilitary inventoriesMilitary operationsPerformance measuresProgram managementProperty and supply managementStrategic planningSupply chain management