Air Force Depot Maintenance

Management Changes Would Improve Implementation of Reform Initiatives Gao ID: NSIAD-99-63 June 25, 1999

The Air Force is launching three depot maintenance initiatives to better manage its depot maintenance programs, including the management of spare and repair parts. The Air Force spends about $4 billion each year on its depot maintenance programs. This report reviews the status of the three initiatives and related management issues.

GAO noted that: (1) the Air Force is now implementing all three enhancement initiatives at its logistics centers, but the extent of implementation has varied; (2) the Air Force's plans established broad goals of increased operational efficiency and reduced costs, as well as an approach to implementing the initiatives; (3) however, the plans do not include specific criteria for determining that the initiatives are successfully achieving stated goals; (4) likewise, the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) did not establish clear and consistent measures to facilitate tracking progress and assessing the initiatives' success; (5) therefore, limited data are available to quantify the initiatives' success in achieving desired goals such as expediting repairs and reducing costs; and (6) to the extent data were available, they indicated mixed results.

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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