Army Inventory

Fewer Items Should Be Stocked at the Division Level Gao ID: NSIAD-91-218 July 24, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined whether the Army was taking full advantage of opportunities to streamline its logistics system, focusing on whether the Army: (1) needed to buy and maintain all of the items it stocked at the division level; and (2) could reduce its investment in divisions' inventories without adversely affecting supply responsiveness.

GAO found that: (1) the Army could reduce its stateside inventory of spare and repair items by stocking only demand-based items, and by doing so it could reduce its investment in inventory without adversely affecting readiness; (2) at the four divisions GAO studied, non-demand-based items accounted for 42 percent of the total authorized inventory items and 53 percent of the total value of the authorized inventory; (3) 76 percent of the non-demand-based items had received fewer than three demands during the recent 12 months, and 61 percent of those items were not requested at all; (4) the Army has tested and begun to implement processes that will replace the current system with a single supply system; (5) enhancements in communications, distribution, and inventory management techniques have made it possible to respond to supply needs with less stock at the divisions; and (6) although the Army has taken action to improve its inventory levels, additional opportunities exist for it to decrease inventory levels.

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.

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