[This article was first published in Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin, which was then called Army Logistician, volume 2, number 4 (July–August 1970), pages 12–15, 30.
The text is reproduced as faithfully as possible to enable searchability. To view any images and charts in the article, refer to the issue itself, available on DVIDS and the bulletin’s archives at asu.army.mil/alog/.]
INVENTORY IN MOTION is a relatively new term in the Army's vocabulary. Initially it was used to describe the procedures for managing the supply of ammunition to the Republic of Vietnam.
Lieutenant General Joseph M. Heiser, Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Department of the Army, expanded the concept and applied it to all items in the logistics inventory.
Announcement of inventory in motion as one of the major segments in the worldwide Army logistics improvement program came with the publication of General Heiser's article, "The Logistics Offensive" in the January–February 1970 issue of ARMY LOGISTICIAN magazine.
INVENTORY IN MOTION is defined as: " ... an integrated supply and transportation management concept which has as its ultimate goal non-stop supply support direct from the continental United States to the direct support level. It is intended to provide better support at less expense by reducing stocks of supplies on the ground and related storage costs through greater asset visibility and control."
Circular Lists Principles
DA Circular 700-18, Logistics Improvements, codifies the major segments of the logistics offensive and enunciates eight principles comprising the inventory-in-motion concept.
• Increase vertical management to include commodity orientation and weapon system management.
• Reduce the number of intermediate supply echlons.
• Minimize shelf and reserve stocks by relying on intransit materiels.
• Integrate a modem communication and transportation system for both air and surface with a streamlined supply system.
• Increase and improve asset visibility.
• Improve packaging, containerizing, and subcontainerizing to speed deliveries.
• Simplify and curtail procedures, using automation wherever possible.
• Employ a logistics intelligence file (LIP) to assist in visibility and flexibility in the pipeline.
Essentials for Succes
Inventory in motion means concentrated attention to the management of materiel. It requires a combination of effective supply, maintenance, transportation, and communication processes if the concept is to succeed in practice.
Two elements must be present for the concept to be successfully employed. The first clement is a throughput capability so that materiel can be moved rapidly from the producer to the consumer. The term "throughput" is systems-oriented and means—in the simplest terms—to develop the ability to move items from the point of manufacture (or storage) to the point of use without intervening stops. A test of this concept is to get underway in July between the continental United States and Europe. [Ed. Note: An article on this subject begins on page 4.] There is no reason to receive, store, and issue items at a depot if those items can be delivered directly to the user.
The second element required for successful inventory in motion is asset visibility. Asset visibility simply means asset control—knowledge of what items are where at any given time. This asset visibility must exist not only for the item manager at the national inventory control point (NICP) but it must exist also for the intended consumer. Asset visibility is a requirement at both the unit level and the wholesale level. There is no other possible way to keep equipment-related readiness at the peak of perfection.
Stock Reduction
These two essential elements—throughput and asset visibility—enable the logisticians and the consumer to accomplish a major goal—reduction of stocks on the ground.
Inventory in motion, as applied to the management of ammunition in Vietnam, provides an example of the tangible benefits that can result from use of the concept. By a complete knowledge of the pipeline—where shipments were and what each shipment contained—storage of ammunition on the ground was considerably reduced. Ammunition storage in a war zone is always a number-one target for the enemy. In fact, millions of dollars worth of ammunition were saved by applying the inventory in motion concept to ammunition stockage. Less ammunition was stored under safer conditions, resulting in poorer targets for the enemy.
Repair parts presented the biggest challenge to the concept of inventory in motion. Frequently it was known that there was a ship or an airplane load of repair parts; what was not known was the tank or the helicopter the parts would fit. This is where asset visibility is most desperately needed, to be able to readily identify components or assemblies and major end items. Box weight and cube information on a transportation manifest does not provide the intelligence required.
Visibility Through LIF
Logistics intelligence is vital to combat in the Republic of Vietnam. A logistics intelligence file is compiled for virtually every requisition submitted from Vietnam today. From the data in this LIF, services such as expediting of shipments, insuring adequate followup, providing lift information on shipments being processed, assisting in reconciling records, and tracing lost transactions are performed.
Corps and divisions must be informed of the supplies intransit to them and when they will arrive. Division maintenance battalions must know that their tank track, spark plugs, rifle parts, and replenishment supplies are on the way and when they will get them. It's easy enough to say, but very difficult to accomplish.
Existing automated systems are founded on the concept that computers will talk to computers in terms of seven-digit numeric stock numbers and coded stock status information. Therefore, we must develop men-machine interfaces that interpret and expand summarized, coded management data into easily understood answers to questions asked by the supply sergent. For example, the supply sergeant must be told where his items are, the latest communication received on each requisition, and the supply or shipping status of each item requested. He must be given help in running the gamut of higher priorities, expediters, pilferage, and in-theater transportation.
To the unit, division, or corps, then, inventory in motion means identification of requirements from the time they are ordered, through the NICP and delivery cycle. The unit must be kept informed in understandable terms of what is happening at each point along the pipeline. It means assured delivery in time, or if the entire shipment is not on time, then the needed item can be selected out of the larger shipment or a duplicate item can be airlifted from the supply source.
Traditionally, Army combat success has depended on men and machines and the supplies both need to keep moving. In the past, we have "pushed" thousands of tons of supplies, worth millions of dollars, to the oversea combat theater to support our men and machines. The uncertainities of resupply caused by adverse weather, the threat of air or submarine attack, and the lack of reliable, up-to-date intelligence on supply needs made any other system impracticable.
Today, the transportation capabilities of the C5A and the 747, the communications network girdling the globe via satellite, and the logistics intelligence of the computer have changed this picture. Concentration on solving the remaining problems that impede the full implementation of inventory in motion is vital. In peacetime repair parts can be delivered fast enough to avoid oversea storage but in a nuclear war, readiness at declaration could win the day.
Frequent Turnover
Inventory in motion has still another side. Unless an item has a demand frequency of 10-to-15 times a year, don't stock it. Drop it from the prescribed load list. Except for a very few items, a weapon or piece of equipment will perform adequately until the speeded up delivery system provides you a replacement.
Inventory must be treated as an investment much like that of the small hardware or parts store. Stocks of secondary items and general supplies must be turned over frequently or needed capital is tied up. Management must plan for the one-time jobs that use more than the normal requirement to avoid a false picture of demands and an out-of-stock position.
Since combat areas shift, extra stocks are frequently left behind for someone else to sort out, identify, and pick up on records. In the meantime, extra stocks are ordered for delivery at the unit's new location. This adds up to more inventory investment and potential waste. Inventory in motion cannot completely eliminate this problem, but bulk delivery of items can be made directly to the point of need. Thus, if requirements shift, a ship, an aircraft, or a container can be diverted to a new location to meet the requirement instead of placing huge stocks on the ground.
Applications in Peace or War
There are many simple applications of inventory in motion that will put dollars in our pockets with minimum effect on the economy. For example, the simple resupply of commissaries in oversea locations can be made by containerizing brand name resale items in CONUS for direct delivery overseas. Such a practice would save oversea storage facilities, people to handle cargoes, losses in storage by spoilage, and double transportation. A measurable contribution to the balance of payments would be made in the process.
Another significant application of the concept is in reparable retrograde, particularly where high-value unserviceables from the user to the rebuild shops are concerned. The psychology is, "Let's make sure my unit always has more than it needs just in case of a rainy day. Don't turn in the unserviceables; only the Lord knows when we will get replacements."
Unserviceable reparables constitute a significant element of the inventory that has to be kept in motion. If unserviceables don't flow to places where they can be repaired and returned to service, they stagnate the whole supply and maintenance system. Stagnant unserviceables are one of the worst forms of pollution in the logistics system.
There are some safeguards to be observed in employing the inventory-in-motion concept. Red Ball and 999 have proved this delivery capability although on a much smaller scale. Consequently, we are on the threshold of a major change in the traditional support of men and machines overseas in either peace or war. The next decade will find oversea depots and inventory control centers nonexistent as they are known today. Instead, only safety stocks of emergency ammunition, POL, food, and other “must have" supplies and little else except for pre-positioned project stocks will be located overseas. Consumables will flow on a regulated basis using a "push" method based on people or a standard stock principle.
There must then be a better computation of prestocks in consonance with the order of battle and better predictions of need where prestock capability does not exist. Safety levels of consumables overseas is another computation of importance.
Repair Parts Problem
Although the supply of ammunition, POL, and food presented little problem to managers in Vietnam, the supply of repair parts was a virtual nightmare by comparison. One major obstacle was the complicated mix of Army, Defense Supply Agency (DSA), and General Services Administration (GSA) support of repair parts. This required the commander in-country to have all the answers. While the Army Materiel Command was interested in supporting a particular force, organization, maintenance effort, or contingency plan, they had little more than 50 or 60 percent of the requirements picture. The oversea commander could get details on all items only from the LIF.
DSA and GSA were in business to supply whatever was asked of them, but they provided little data after shipment and had no responsibility for providing this kind of logistics intelligence. Ask for a ton of post toasties and that's just what was delivered; order friction tape based on a unit of issue of "each" and the changed unit pack would hit you right in the pocketbook.
So, user visibility and discipline by combat organizations essential.
Asset Visibility Required
Even today there is no mechanism available to find out what supplies are on the way to any particular unit, but it is possible to track unit needs and the readiness of that unit. While equipment readiness measurement is possible today, the translation of supplies en route to readiness is not only impractical, it is impossible because the intelligence is just not there.
If we are to eliminate installation and base level wholesale stocks, there is a real need for both the supplier and the consumer to have asset visibility and performance measurement knowledge by which to measure supply effectiveness and its impact on maintenance performance.
This is the challenge of the decade: convert current systems to meaningful readiness-oriented intelligence and build a user requirement and equipment readiness analysis capability that can recognize what inventory in motion means to readiness.
Colonel Theme T. Everton is the acting Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics (Supply and Maintenance), ODCSLOG, DA. A brigadier general-designate, Colonel Everton is a former commander of the 593d General Support Group in Vietnam. Colonel Everton holds a master's degree from George Washington University, a bachelor of science degree from University of Southern California, and is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Command and General Staff College, and the Quartermaster School.
| Date Taken: | 12.19.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.19.2024 12:51 |
| Story ID: | 487949 |
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