Army Maintenance

Savings Possible by Stopping Unnecessary Depot Repairs Gao ID: NSIAD-92-176 May 5, 1992

GAO visited two Army depots and discovered unnecessary repairs, potentially resulting in needless costs. At Red River Army Depot, personnel have been repairing engines without doing a pre-shop analysis to determine exactly what is wrong, leading to complete engine overhauls when only minor repairs were needed. GAO estimates that the depot could save as much as $1.1 million in fiscal year 1992 by establishing a pre-shop analysis program and limiting its repairs to those needed to return the engines to service. Similarly, Tooele Army Depot is routinely overhauling items that were never intended to be overhauled, and no pre-shop analysis is being done.

GAO found that: (1) the Red River Army Depot performed unnecessary repairs when depot personnel overhauled all 6V53 engines in the secondary item program without first performing pre-shop analysis to determine exactly what was wrong with them; (2) the Red River Depot could have saved as much as $1.1 million in fiscal year 1992 if it had established a pre-shop analysis program and performed only those repairs necessary to return the engines to service; (3) the Tooele Army Depot has been performing unnecessary and costly overhauls of certain end items and secondary items even when the major subordinate command specifically designates the items for inspection and repair programs; (4) the Tooele Army Depot is routinely overhauling items that are not intended to be overhauled since it does not conduct pre-shop analysis to determine exactly what is wrong with the items; and (5) other depots visited perform both inspection and repair and overhaul programs, depending on the programs' work authorization codes, but inspection and repair programs are generally less costly to perform than overhaul programs.

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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