About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

NSIAD-85-160 1 (1985-09-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabnud0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 

                       UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE
                               WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548


  NATIONAL SECURITY AND
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS DIVISION

                                            September 30, 1985
     B-220514


     General Richard H. Thompson
     Commander, U.S. Army Materiel Command
     5001 Eisenhower Avenue                                        128193
     Alexandria, Virginia   22333

     Dear General Thompson:

           Subject: The Army's Safety Level Requirements for
                     Secondary Items May Be Inaccurate and
                     Excessive (GAO/NSIAD-85-160)

          We have concluded a limited survey of the Army's
     safety level requirements in the wholesale supply system. The
     purpose of safety level stocks is to have a quantity of materiel
     on hand to meet Army needs should there be a minor interruption
     in the manufacturer's ability to provide items or should the
     Army's demand for items increase for some unpredictable reason.
     This work was initiated because we had observed instances where
     safety level requirements, as stated in number of months,
     exceeded the items' procurement *ead time requirements.1 In
     these circumstances, we believe, the safety level requirements
     may be overstated and may not meet the DOD objective of minimum
     stocks needed to efficiently meet the Army's supply support
     mission.

           Our survey of the Army Materiel Command's (AMC) 6 major
     subordinate commands showed that safety level requirements for
     48,399 secondary items (spares and repair parts) exceeded
     procurement lead time requirements by a number of items valued
     at about $76 million. The Department of Defense (DOD) requires
     that safety levels be at least equal to the procurement lead
     time requirements. We have observed that the economic order
     quantity/variable safety level (EOQ/VSL) formula used to compute
     requirements for stock produces auantities that are erratic, may
     be excessive, and do not materially improve supply support.

           Though our work was limited in scope, we believe there may
      be potential for reducing some safety level requirements. Army



      1The quantity of materiel needed to meet requirements during
      the time elapsing between the initiation of procurement action
      and receipt of the materiel purchased.


                                                          (393046)

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most