Sponsor:

Defense Logistics Agency

Research Team:

Manuel D. Rossetti, Erhan Kutanoglu, Yeu-San Tee, Nancy Sloan

Universities Involved:

University of Arkansas

Start Date:

01/01/01

End Date:

08/31/02

Summary:

This project examines the effect of pushing wholesale inventories as close to the end customer as possible, thereby eliminating several inventory echelon layers from the supply chain pipeline. his report presents a decision methodology and assessment that includes two solution approaches:
(1) commercial off-the-shelf software (2) theoretic approach
The purpose of the 2000-2001 TLI Research Project with Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) was to examine the effect of pushing DLA wholesale inventories as close to the end customer as possible, thereby eliminating several (within service) inventory echelon layers from the supply chain pipeline. The project examined a specific case, the stocking requirements at an Army base, in order to understand the trade-offs present. The focus was on Class II and Class IX items, personal equipment and spare parts respectively.
After a review of relevant literature and of relevant software, researchers tested VMetric-XL software for use in determining the best stock positioning strategies for these two classes of materials. Without actual data to test, mock scenarios were constructed and tested. The project report includes a complete VMetric-XL tutorial, results from tests of the mock scenarios, and recommendations regarding decisions related to inventory positioning. In addition, researchers are providing an analytical tool that can be used by DLA for its inventory positioning strategies.
As a conclusion, project researchers recommend the implementation of VMetric-XL at DDC for use in determining the best stocking policies