An analysis of spare parts forecasting methods utilized in the United States Marine Corps

Abstract

The main thrust of this study is centered around the United States Marine Corps' initial provisioning of spare parts. The research focuses on two integral components for the establishment of stockage levels. The first component considers an analysis of the peacetime replacement rate and the production leadtime data provided by contractors. The second component evaluates the current Marine Corps inventory model as compared to the Navy's inventory model and the Initial Spares Optimization Model (ISOM). This study is primarily concerned with initial issue provisioning stockage levels maintained by the Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany Georgia. During the course of the study it was found that: (1) Difficulties exist in documenting contractor provided engineering estimates maintained in the Marine Corps Provisioning Files. (2) The current inventory is inadequate and state of the art methods and models should be implemented by the Marine Corps. (3) Contractor-provided engineering estimates tend to be skewed. Provisioners have no formal method for validating contractor data. One major contribution of this study is the development of an initial manual of standard factors that can be used by provisioners to validate data and as a baseline from which pertinent questions could be raised.