Common Authorized Stockage Lists for the U.S. Army's Brigade Combat Teams

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Girardini, Kenneth J.

Contributor:

Eden, Rick

Miller, Candice

Language:

English

Place of Publication:

RAND Corporation 2023

Summary:

The operational effectiveness of the U.S. Army's brigade combat teams (BCTs) depends critically on their tactical and combat equipment being available and mission ready. When equipment breaks down, maintainers require repair parts to restore equipment availability. This can happen quickly if the parts are on hand in the BCT's own Supply Support Activity (SSA). When critical parts are not available in the SSA, repairs are delayed, and equipment remains unavailable for use in operations. For over two decades, the Army has improved the methods used to calculate authorized stockage lists (ASLs) to capitalize on changes to its supply and maintenance information systems and to keep pace with advances in data collection and integration, inventory management metrics, and analytic methods. This article details the introduction of common ASLs (CASLs), single ASLs for each of the three BCT types (armored [ABCT], infantry [IBCT], and Stryker [SBCT]). The move to CASLs was enabled by pooling demand data across like BCTs and by shifting from a two-step heuristics approach to mathematical optimization. These changes provided higher ASL performance and thus better support of equipment readiness in high-tempo operations, SSA mobility on the battlefield, and reduced workload required to reconfigure storage locations and redistribute parts no longer authorized for stockage.