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Defense Inventory: Extent of Diminishing Manufacturing Sources Problems Still Unknown

NSIAD-95-85 Published: Apr 21, 1995. Publicly Released: Apr 21, 1995.
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Highlights

GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Diminishing Manufacturing Source and Material Shortages (DMSMS) program, focusing on DOD: (1) progress toward implementing the program; and (2) efforts to resolve DMSMS situations.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense Before DOD makes any decisions concerning the future scope of the DMSMS program or the need for additional program funds, the Secretary of Defense should ensure that, at a minimum, DOD has quantitative data on the extent of the DMSMS problem.
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD and the services have determined that it is not cost-effective to determine what indicators should be used to measure the magnitude of the problem.
Department of Defense Before DOD makes any decisions concerning the future scope of the DMSMS program or the need for additional program funds, the Secretary of Defense should ensure that, at a minimum, DOD has information to determine the effectiveness of ongoing and planned actions for minimizing the impact of DMSMS.
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD instructed the services in February 1996 to collect data and provide it to GIDEP for determining the cost-effectiveness of proposed corrective actions.
Department of Defense Before DOD makes any decisions concerning the future scope of the DMSMS program or the need for additional program funds, the Secretary of Defense should ensure that, at a minimum, DOD has supporting analyses for the cost-effectiveness of DMSMS predictive analyses versus other alternatives for dealing with DMSMS problems.
Closed – Implemented
DOD is tracking the costs of predictive versus reactive approaches for solving DMSMS problems.

Full Report

Full Report (16 pages)

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Topics

National Defense
Cost effectiveness analysisDefense contingency planningDefense procurementDownsizingMilitary electronicsElectronic equipmentInventory control systemsManagement information systemsManufacturing industryMilitary cost controlMilitary inventoriesSpare parts