The Design of Military Supply Tables for Spare Parts

This paper presents a technique for designing supply tables of spare parts which differs appreciably from those methods historically used in the military services. For a given size of table, the technique seeks that supply table which will minimize the expected number of shortages to be encountered during a given period of supply activity. A supply table is a pre-assembled group of spare parts to be used for a specified period without outside support. The proposed method makes use of probability distributions to represent future demand for spare parts, and considers the per-unit size of each part explicitly in designing the table. The computations give the quantity of each part to be included in the table, consistent with the specified size of the table. It also discusses how to compute follow-on supply tables. These are also pre-assembled, and are intended to support supply activity for a period following the use of the initial supply tables. The technique given for follow-on tables is very similar to that used for initial tables.