Refinements to Service Retention Limits for Reparable Aeronautical Components (Inactive Inventory)

Abstract

As aviation weapon systems progress through their acquisition life cycles, there is a natural fluctuation in the number of weapon systems in custody by the service components and the number of subsystems available to sustain operational availability. This thesis reviews current retention methodologies utilized in the Department of Defense, evaluates previous retention studies mandated by Congress, and proposes adjustments in the U.S. Navy retention algorithm of aeronautical components to reduce the stockpile of inactive inventory and generate cost savings. The proposed adjustments developed in this research complements the current life cycle indicator (LCI) utilized to discriminate aeronautical components in its inactive inventory. The main findings show that LCI retention policy can be refined by independently assigning LCIs to aeronautical components and coupling the LCIs with the newly developed condition based logical retention described in this thesis. The proposed adjustments can generate an optimized inactive inventory pool of aeronautical components for the U.S. Navy, that has the greatest value for an aircraft weapon system.