You know where the item is anywhere in the loop. Besides making items easier to track, SATS has reduced item processing time by 90 percent. It has also cut manpower by 60 percent in the receiving element and by 75 percent in document control, said Ventura. Additionally, the system has reduced the use of paper documents by 90 percent, he said. Another benefit of SATS is accountability.
Supply can track an item based on the bar code no matter how many hands it goes through.
Even though SATS is relatively new to Shaw, it has been in development for almost 10 years. The program began at the Pentagon in the early '90s and Shaw was selected as the lead base for the SATS1 technology in 1992. Work to install the program at Shaw began in November 1995, with on-line testing beginning in 1996. By January 1997, SATS1 was in full use. The original SATS1 program tracked asset visibility, eliminated paper documents, reduced errors, reduced processing time to a fifth of the normal time and reduced manning requirements.