Unforecasted demands result in short term parts shortages and backorders. Given the range and age of DoD's many weapons and equipment, it is difficult to forecast perfectly the parts that will be required, some of which take a long time to place the contracts and manufacture. Many of the spare and repair parts that DLA manages are not used in commercial industry, but are instead unique to the Military Services. Through our benchmarking efforts, we have found that the commercial airline industry experiences similar difficulties in this area. The third question concerns what is being or can be done about parts shortages.
Many efforts are underway to improve the state of spare parts supply availability.
Starting about two years ago, my Command undertook a fundamental change in how we do business. DLA took the opportunity of the BRAC closures to shift nearly a million items between these three centers in order to manage them under a weapon system alignment. DSC Richmond underwent the most change, moving from general material support to the Agency's Aviation Systems support center. A customer having an issue with support of an aircraft, for example, works with DSC Richmond who then coordinates the entire system response with the Columbus and Philadelphia Centers, as required. This refocusing along with growing experience working in this configuration has allowed us to better assist the users and maintainers of today's weapon systems in forecasting parts requirements and working lead time issues between customers and suppliers.