Managing DOD’s Spare Parts
(Excerpted from GAO-16-450)
Under new management That's when Congress conducted the biggest and most expensive round of Base Realignment and Closure in history. While previous rounds focused on reducing DOD’s footprint, the 2005 round transferred the responsibility for managing the depots’ supply, storage, and distribution to the Defense Logistics Agency. The goal was to reduce excess inventory, streamline the distribution of parts, and ultimately save the DOD money. But it was up to each military service to work with DLA to implement this transfer. And given the problems we’ve found with past BRAC rounds, we wondered how well this depot management change would be implemented. Mixed results We found that the Air Force complexes and Navy aviation centers embraced the change and allowed DLA to handle most of their inventory management functions. The Army and Marine Corps depots and Navy shipyards, however, did not.(Excerpted from GAO-16-450)
We visited 7 of the 17 service depots and saw firsthand the benefits of embracing DLA’s support. For example, the Air Force reduced both on-hand spare parts and the number of backorders, and Navy aviation also reduced its backorders in fiscal year 2015.(Excerpted from GAO-16-450)
Meanwhile, the Army and Marine Corps depots and Navy shipyards didn’t welcome the handoff of inventory functions to DLA, and have yet to see some of the benefits. Still, all is not lost—the Army has already begun working on our recommendation to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of transferring additional inventory functions to the Defense Logistics Agency. To learn more about the handoff, including what we recommended to DOD on how to make its supply chain more efficient, check out the full report.- Questions on the content of this post? Contact Zina Merritt at merrittz@gao.gov.
- Comments on GAO’s WatchBlog? Contact blog@gao.gov.
GAO's mission is to provide Congress with fact-based, nonpartisan information that can help improve federal government performance and ensure accountability for the benefit of the American people. GAO launched its WatchBlog in January, 2014, as part of its continuing effort to reach its audiences—Congress and the American people—where they are currently looking for information.
The blog format allows GAO to provide a little more context about its work than it can offer on its other social media platforms. Posts will tie GAO work to current events and the news; show how GAO’s work is affecting agencies or legislation; highlight reports, testimonies, and issue areas where GAO does work; and provide information about GAO itself, among other things.
Please send any feedback on GAO's WatchBlog to blog@gao.gov.