Request for Update of Shortfall Projection of Industrial Fasteners
Gao ID: ID-82-6 November 17, 1981Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO updated the projection of the shortfall in supply of industrial fasteners in the event of a general mobilization and suggested the method and assumptions for making this projection.
GAO stated that the projection can be challenged as an inaccurate quantification of the problem because it: (1) is based on an old Department of Defense war scenario and dated assumptions regarding essential defense and civilian requirements for industrial fasteners; (2) used dated assumptions regarding the loss of access to foreign supply of fasteners; and (3) estimates the shortfall caused by limited capacity in the entire industrial fastener industry. GAO suggested that a fully developed updated study can best be prepared by the agency which prepared the original study or by the Department of Commerce in response to a section of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.