574th QM Company conducts wall-to-wall inventory with near-perfect accuracy

Courtesy Photo | Specialists Ashton Spence and Cedric James, both automated logistics specialists at the 574th Quartermaster Support Company’s Supply Support Activity, conduct location surveys and maintenance of National Stock Number items in support of the SSA wall-to-wall inventory Sept. 21.  

GRAFENWOEHR, GERMANY

09.25.2010

Courtesy Story

21st Theater Sustainment Command

Story by: Capt. Jennifer Dyrcz

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – Soldiers of the 574th Quartermaster Support Company, 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, conducted a wall-to-wall inventory in their Supply Support Activity here Sept. 20-24 with 1,555 lines of National Stock Numbers counted and located.

The SSA, which supports the 172nd Infantry Brigade, the 18th CSSB and customers from all local areas who request support, inventoried more than $13 million worth of items stocked by NSN and location sequence.

The Army standard is 95 percent accuracy for all inventories, but the SSA soldiers performed at 98 percent.

“It was a lot of hard work. You have to be diligent because you have to get a good count,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sulaiman Bah-Massey, a native of Rockville, Md., who works as a supply system technician and accountable officer at the SSA.

The soldiers had been putting in long hours before the inventory to get ready, working more than 12 hours per day during the week of the inventory. The hard work paid off.

“Even before the actual inventory started, we sent out memos to our customers and supporting warehouses notifying them of the move. Since the inventory week would cause a lull in service, we brought our customers up-to-date with their parts pickup in addition to clearing everything in our Standard Army Retail Supply System,” said Sgt. Canille Warde, the SSA stock control noncommissioned officer in charge and a native of Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Prior to the 100 percent inventory I did warehouse maintenance by making sure all the parts had the correct storage and bin labels, were free of accumulated debris, and all of the stock items were organized and counted with their quantities recorded,” said Spc. Cedric James, a native of Chicago, who works as an automated logistics specialist at the SSA.

“We accomplished our objective in a timely manner because it was organized,” said Spc. Ashton Spence, a native of Venus, Pa., and an automated logistics specialist at the SSA.

All the items were organized because the SSA used buddy teams to go through the warehouse. They consisted of two Soldiers per team. Once one team went through an area to count and record the stock items, another team followed to double-check the count.

“The main week of inventory was pretty easy due to the fact that everything was where it was supposed to be,” said Spc. Kingsley Inyang, a native of Columbus, Ohio, who works as an issuing clerk at the SSA.

“All the soldiers really pulled together to get the job done right the first time,” said Warde.

• Date Taken: 09.25.2010
• Date Posted: 10.25.2010 03:48
• Story ID: 58717
• Location: GRAFENWOEHR, DE