AUTOMATED INVENTORY CONSTRAINTS


While the team at the product lead office created a great website that replicates the setup of servers and workstations in the ammunition system, the AIT suite still sits idle at locations that cannot implement hardware involving the local network enterprise center and integrated with the newest version of the software. One of the major difficulties is the inability to fix the transfer of data from the handheld terminal to the ammunition system. Te product lead team has waited for the next software version to correct serial number errors in inventory transactions.


Te inability to use AIT at theater ammu- nition supply points also stems from current policy and procedures. Te use of AIT should be part of the automated receipt and inventory processes, and the definition of administrative adjustments should include errors with AIT. Tis would give commanders and officers responsible for supplies waiting to be issued flexibility in using AIT for accountability func- tions. Current Army inventory processes still mandate the use of a counter and recorder with DA Form 2000-3, Instal- lation Inventory Count Card, for manual procedures, or the SAAS-generated inventory count sheet for automated proce- dures. Te reason for not integrating AIT into automated procedures is that much of the current Army ammunition manage- ment regulation mirrors what was written in 1998 for supply support activities.


EFFECTIVENESS OF AIT FOR AMMUNITION Theater ammunition aside, the orga- nization with the most experience in managing ammunition is the Army’s organic industrial base under Joint Muni- tions Command, which manages all of the ammunition plants and depots in the continental United States. Tese facil- ities use a different ammunition system. Implemented in 2015, the Logistics


98 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2019


AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY


Army policy directs that all commanders with AIT fully integrate the accountability functions of receipt, storage, inventory, issuance and shipment of sustainment materiel. The AIT suite can be used to scan bar codes. The DOD supply chain uses three types of symbols: linear bar codes, 2D PDF417, and the 2D data matrix. Bar codes carry a maximum of 15 to 20 characters. The 2D symbols are more complex: PDF417 symbols contain address and package identification. Data matrix symbols are used for mandatory unique-item identification.


Active RFID tags contain the same information as packaging labels, and are used in tagging a variety of assets in transit and to provide location information when shipments of containers pass RFID interrogators at network nodes. One of the leaders in the supply chain industry that uses AIT and RFID technology is Walmart Inc. Walmart has been using universal product codes (found on linear bar codes) since 1983 to collect information for analysis to support strategic distribution and supply plans. The company’s supply chain uses RFID to track pallets of merchandise, and employees use handheld scanners to read smart tags and identify which items need to be restocked. The military has leveraged these same technologies.


FILLING THE TRAINING GAPS


Terrence Oxiles, part of the 8th TSC Munition Branch, conducts hands-on AIT training in May 2018 with local national employees of 10th Support Group Ammunition Depot in Honshu, Japan. Because AIT is not part of the professional military education for some ammunition Soldiers and NCOs, Soldiers at the unit level where the AIT resides often find themselves with equipment they can’t operate. (Photo by Mami Wakita, 10th Support Group)


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