全球智库信息集成服务系统

Efficiencies Can Be Attained Throughout the Supply Process

• Restricting materiel used by deployed units to clinically necessary items and reducing the variety of substitutable items could achieve supply-chain efficiencies.
• Pooling usage projections across all end users might allow streamlined orders, maintain a fairly smooth aggregate rate of demand, and compel vendors to deliver materiel faster under contracted standards.
• Direct delivery of material rather than through an intermediate warehouse eliminates processing and shipping costs. Decreasing such operations in Southwest Asia alone could save $6 million to $11 million annually.
• The greatest barrier to further consolidating medical item distribution is the lack of a warehouse management software system that downloads item information based on commercial stock numbers.

The Department of Defense (DoD) provides medical care to service members all over the world and must ensure that health care providers have the proper quantity and quality of medical materiel. RAND investigated opportunities to gain efficiencies in the global military medical logistics enterprise without sacrificing capability, notably through minimizing intermediate materiel handling, seeking the greatest value from commercial freight, and streamlining warehouse operations.

RAND suggests DoD take steps to optimize its global medical logistic enterprise by maximizing direct delivery to end users, exercising control over the materiel catalog, managing inventory held overseas to support surges and bridge supply chain interruptions, and managing inventory and contracts to maximize supplier responsiveness.

To minimize intermediate materiel handling, the study recommended closing the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Center in Southwest Asia as a Central Command distribution point because its efforts are duplicative of those in Europe. Combined with renegotiating European shipping contracts, closing this distribution point could save $10-$20 million annually.

The study recommends against consolidating distribution of medical items with other items handled by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The greatest barrier to consolidation is the inability of the DLA warehouse management information technology system to download item information using the commercial stock numbers, which identify the bulk of military medical items. Thousands of new medical items enter military use each year, and it is infeasible for the organizations tasked with assigning military-specific stock numbers to do so for these items.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Medical Logistics in COCOMs

• Chapter Three

  Contracting / Catalog Management

• Chapter Four

  Transportation to First Delivery Location

• Chapter Five

  Warehousing

• Chapter Six

  Transportation to End-User

• Chapter Seven

  Conclusions

• Appendix

  Actions Subsequent to the Project Final Briefing