SPARE PART SERIAL TRACKING

IT IS PROPOSED THAT A PLAN TO EVALUATE, SELECT, AND TEST (FOR ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY) AN ELECTRONIC SERIAL TRACKING SYSTEM BE DEVELOPED. MORE SPECIFICALLY, A MARKET SURVEY WILL BE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE AVAILABLE ELECTRONIC TRACKING SYSTEMS. NEXT, THE CHARACTERISTICS AND PERFORMANCE OF EACH TRACKING SYSTEM WILL BE DOCUMENTED. THE LIKELY OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS OF THE TRACKING SYSTEM WILL THEN BE IDENTIFIED FROM WHICH CHARACTERISTICS AND MINIMUM PERFORMANCE REQUIRE-MENTS OF THE TRACKING SYSTEM MAY BE OBTAINED. THOSE TRACKING SYSTEMS FAILING TO MEET THE PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS IDENTIFIED THROUGH CONSIDERATION OF OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS WILL BE REMOVED FROM FURTHER CONSIDERATION. OF THE REMAINING SYSTEMS, ONE WILL BE CHOSEN BASED ON PERFORMANCE AND CAPABILITY, EASE OF OPERATION AND INTERFACING, AND COST. FROM THE SURVEY OF OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS, ONE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT MUST BE CHOSEN AS A REPRESENTATIVE TEST SYSTEM. A TEST PLAN WILL THEN BE DEVELOPED AND EVALUATION CRITERIA SPECIFIED. THE "PAPERLESS" INVENTORY SYSTEM RESULTING FROM ELECTRONIC TRACKING WILL PROVIDE FOR THE RAPID AND ACCURATE IDENTIFICATION, LOCATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MILITARY HARDWARE. IN TIME, A DATA BASE SUFFICIENT TO SOLVE PROBLEMS CONCERNING RELIABILITY AND MAINTAINABILITY CAN BE CONSTRUCTED.