Application of a System-Based Inventory Model to Marine Corps Repairable Parts
Abstract
A critical component of the Marine Corps self-sustainment capability is its ability to procure and repair components for its ground equipment fleets. Secondary repairables consist of components that can be repaired, and for which repair is generally more economical and timely than purchase. The Marine Corps currently maintains spare repairable parts at seven principal locations, each operating independently of the other, There is excess inventory Service-wide because of the isolation of the inventories and because of mathematical flaws in the Marine Corps' sparing methodology The Marine Corps is seeking to centralize the management of secondary repairables and is considering options that include centralizing responsibility and funding (while keeping the inventory model as it is) and changing the inventory model as well as the responsibility and funding, We demonstrate that a centralized, "enterprise-wide" model of the inventory is superior to a decentralized one, Measures of comparison are total inventory cost and end-item availability, We evaluate stock levels calculated by both the current model and a commercial application called VMetric(TM)-XL. For a selected end-item, the current model produces stock levels totaling $25.9M in inventory and achieves 89% availability. For the same level of availability, VMetric recommends stock levels totaling $2.9M, a stunning 89% reduction in cost, We explain these results and suggest implications for Marine Corps logistics support,
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA397289
Entities
People
- Craig P. Barnett
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School