[This article was first published in Army Sustainment Professional Bulletin, which was then called Army Logistician, volume 3, number 1 (January–February 1971), page 15. The text, including any biographical note, is reproduced as faithfully as possible to enable searchability. To view any images and charts in the article, refer to the issue itself, available on DVIDS and the bulletin’s archives at asu.army.mil/alog/.]
THE ARMY MATERIEL COMMAND has elevated its containerization program to product management status in an effort aimed at developing a totally integrated containerization system for Army-wide application.
Product management status is reserved for items of equipment or systems accorded special intensive management attention for reasons of criticality of mission, urgency, complexity, or high level interest.
Colonel Raymond A. Cramer, a transportation and supply distribution expert, has been named product manager for container systems development.
Management Responsibility
Reporting directly to the commanding general, AMC, Colonel Cramer will have management responsibility for development of materiel and plans, as well as execution of life cycle pilot operations in supply distribution. Objectives of the program are to develop a total systems concept, wholesale supply doctrine, and plans for supply distribution operations and directive documentation and to develop, test, procure, and place into operation containerization systems, to include related materials handling equipment, that will provide the Army with an effective and economic containerized logistics distribution capability.
Prime Target
In FY 1970, the Army spent about $2 billion for the transportation of persons and things. The closely associated costs of packaging, preservation, in-transit losses, loading and unloading, and other associated elements drive that figure much higher and make it a prime target for cost reduction and improved efficiency.
The Army has been credited with pioneering efforts in containerization, having introduced its all steel CONEX (container express) container fleet more than ten years ago. This was a relatively small (roughly an 8-foot cube) steel box used for consolidating the many small packages which characterize the Army’s supply system into a unitized load.
20-Foot Size Containers
Since May 1969, the Army has employed a fleet of more than 1,300 leased units of the larger 20-foot size steel containers for shipments from West Coast depots to Vietnam. An additional 1,300 are being leased to extend container service to Thailand and Okinawa and for return of retrograde cargo to the United States.
Operation TOCSA, which was conducted from December 1969 through January 1970, demonstrated that the shipment of containerized ammunition overseas was feasible. Efforts are now underway to establish an Army-wide total containerized ammunition distribution system.
Ultimate Goal
A development and acquisition program for an Army-owned fleet of intermodal containers conforming to U.S. and international standards (8’ by 8’ by 20’) is now in progress and the first production model from a procurement order of 6,700 is undergoing tests for type classification.
As the Army sees it, a universal containerized logistics distribution system with associated standardized materials handling equipment and documentation procedures can pave the way to a throughput supply system. Under this system material would move from depots or factories direct to field units at a significant savings in transportation costs, manpower, and with substantially increased efficiency in operations.
| Date Taken: | 06.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.26.2025 09:05 |
| Story ID: | 501554 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 9 |
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This work, AMC Looks to the Future: Containerization Program Wins Product Management Status, an ALOG Staff Featurette, Thomas A. Johnson, Editor, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
