Need to Improve Management of Shelf-Life Items at Storage Activities

At the end of June 1976, the Navy's inventories of shelf-life items, items of supply possessing deteriorative or unstable characteristics requiring a storage time period to be assigned, amounted to about $483.4 million.

Although procedures call for proper identification of shelf-life items to be disposed of, there is no provision for summarization and periodic reporting of the volume or value of items whose shelf-life has expired. A review found that the Norfolk Naval Air Station lacked an effective shelf-life program. The shelf-life of many items in stock had expired; some expired items had been issued to users; and expiration dates of some items were missing or incorrect. The first-in, first-out method of issue was not being followed; newer stock was issued before the older stock of an item. The Naval Supply Depot at Subic Bay in the Philippines had a management program for shelf-life items, but improvements were needed to assure adequate storage and issue. The two installations used different procedures for managing extendable shelf-life items which expired in stock. Management, in general, was unaware of the extent and value of losses due to expiration of shelf-life.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: No director on record Team: No team on record Phone: No phone on record