Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element - Supply Support
DAU GLOSSARY DEFINITION
One of the 12 Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements. The management actions, procedures and techniques necessary to determine requirements to acquire, catalog, receive, store, transfer, issue and dispose of spares, repair parts, and supplies. Supply Support includes provisioning for initial support, as well as acquiring, distributing, and replenishing inventories. Proper Supply Support management results in having the right spares, repair parts, and all classes of supplies available, in the right quantities, at the right place, at the right time, at the right price.
As captured in Appendix A of the Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook, and amplified in the IPS Element Guidebook, the objective of the Supply Support IPS element is to identify, plan for, resource, and implement management actions to acquire repair parts, spares, and all classes of supply to ensure the best equipment/capability is available to support the Warfighter or maintainer when it is needed at the lowest possible Total Ownership Cost (TOC).
Key Supply Support activities include:
- Initial provisioning
- Routine replenishment management, including buffer and safety stock management
- Demand forecasting and Readiness Based Sparing (RBS)
- Bills of Material (BOM) management and maintenance
- Support Equipment (SE) initial provisioning
- SE routine replenishment provisioning
- Reparable, repair part, and consumable procurement
- Cataloging
- Receiving
- Storage
- Inventory management
- Transfer
- Issuance
- Redistribution
- Disposal
- Material pricing
- Total Asset Visibility (TAV)/Automated Inventory Technology (AIT)
- Serialized Item Management (SIM)
- Item Unique Identification (IUID)
- Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
- Shelf Life Management
- Buffer Management
- Warranty Management
- Supply Chain Assurance
- Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM)
The primary purpose of DoD Supply Chain Management is to provide effective and efficient end-to-end customer service to meet operational requirements. To supply materiel to DoD units throughout the world, the DoD Components maintain a supply chain consisting of:
- Weapon system support contractors
- Retail supply activities
- Distribution depots
- Transportation channels including contracted carriers
- Wholesale integrated materiel managers (IMMs)
- Weapon system product support integrators
- Commercial distributors and suppliers including:
- Manufacturers
- Commercial and organic maintenance facilities
- Other logistics activities (e.g., engineering support activities, testing facilities, reutilization and marketing offices).
For more information about support and DoD supply chains, including processes and business processes, see DoDM 4140.01-V1.