The Navy Can Improve Material Management at Naval Shipyards

GAO conducted a review of four naval shipyards to determine the effectiveness of Navy materiel management activities.

GAO found that the naval shipyards do not effectively determine direct materiel requirements for future overhauls because: (1) complete and accurate usage data are not collected; and (2) historical usage information on prior overhauls is not analyzed. As a result, materiel shortages and surpluses reduce efficiency and increase costs of shipyard depot maintenance. Further, usage information is inaccurate because it includes unused materiel placed in unrecorded stockpiles instead of being returned to the proper inventory location. Usage information is also inaccurate because it does not include many items used during overhauls that the shipyards have manufactured. Furthermore, materiel planners do not have an adequate management information system. Instead of using the data analysis part of a Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) automated materiel requirements planning system, shipyards have continued to use ineffective local systems. As a result of ineffective planning, large amounts of unused materiel from prior overhauls have been accumulated. In addition, the shipyards have not performed required physical inventories of shop stores or effectively identified, analyzed, and disposed of excess materiel. Finally, because the shipyards have not been held accountable for implementing NAVSEA systems and procedures, or held their personnel accountable for implementing the procedures, previously identified materiel management problems remain unsolved.

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: Martin M. Ferber Team: General Accounting Office: National Security and International Affairs Division Phone: (202) 275-6504