Management of Excess Repair Parts in Europe

Between 1974 and 1976, the U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR) instructed its VII Corps, V Corps, and 21st Support Command to establish special projects, identified as Project Capture, to retain and eventually use repair parts and other items of material on hand in excess of established stock levels. However, USAREUR had not established uniform criteria for the retention of this material and, as a result, large and duplicative inventories have been retained. No economic analysis has been performed to determine whether retention was justified. Although existing procedures provided for some excess material to be redistributed to meet needs within each corps, there were no plans for providing USAREUR or the National Inventory Control Points with visibility over these inventories. As of July 11, 1977, the V Corps had 2,300 items in its Project Capture inventory; 77% of items tested were retained in quantities that significantly exceeded those required for recurring needs. Procedures and criteria developed independently by the V and VII Corps differed significantly. The Commander in Chief of USAREUR should direct the establishment of uniform criteria and standard procedures to be followed by all USAREUR activities to insure that retained excesses are limited to those which are economically justified based on cost benefit analysis and that excess quantities of material are made available for redistribution to all other activities.