Original Date: 02/24/1997
Revision Date: 04/14/2003

The Industrial Operations Command (IOC) Acquisition Tracking Center (ATC) provides centralized tracking and reporting for major Conventional Ammunition Working Capital Fund (CAWCF) and Production Base Support (PBS) procurement programs. A minimum threshold of $500,000 has been established for tracking by the center, which includes 80% of CAWCF and 60% of PBS program actions encompassing approximately $870 million in procurement. There are 120 ATC tracked procurements, each of which may represent multiple customer orders. ATC streamlines and automates the existing tracking process.

The present process requires redundant manual data input, physical routing of forms for annotation by functional elements, and monthly hard copy reports for use by milestone managers. When faced with downsizing of the workforce and an ever increasing need to provide timely visibility to any problem that could affect the planned obligation of funds, the IOC began a program to improve effectiveness and establish a process which eliminates many of the manual steps. There are 13 major milestones in the acquisition process which are tracked through time periods as long as 18 months. The first milestone monitored is receipt of funds, with tracking continuing to contract award. The streamlined process is intended to provide online viewing, real time updates, more visibility for managers, and better accuracy when implemented by October 1997.

The streamlined process uses an ORACLE database combined with “Form Flow” and electronic mail. Data will be downloaded from the existing Commodity Command Standard System (CCSS) on a daily basis creating an electronic form for processing. This will be routed by electronic mail to the functional offices required to supply data. The pulling of data from an existing database and the processing of electronic forms will eliminate the need for redundant data entry by the ATC. It is also anticipated that this will eliminate a potential source of errors. Up-to-date, online viewing capabilities will eliminate two ATC book report printings and about 15,000 pages of paper each month. The streamlined process also links to the IOC Enterprise Information System which provides electronic summaries to the Command Group, Deputy Chiefs of Staff, and milestone managers.

Projected benefits include more efficient, accurate, and timely processing; elimination of paper routing and reports; and improved accessability of up-to-date status on major program procurement. This system will extract data from existing databases and supply information to an existing automated reporting system. Although no cost avoidance figures have been published at this point, the benefits from improved accuracy and more efficient processing are expected to be substantial. The availability of online viewing with real time processing, which provides program status to all levels within the organization, is seen as a significant improvement in managing the ammunition procurement programs.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.