REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – Property accountability is an essential and fundamental part of our Army organizations and Hand-Held Terminals (HHTs) play a significant role in accelerating the process for conducting cyclic, sensitive item, and end-item inventories.
As the Army pushes to Transform in Contact, sustainment NCOs must train to become proficient on HHTs to gain knowledge and experience with using these devices while in garrison and during large-scale combat operations. The development also calls for logistics professionals to shift their focus from traditional sustainment methods to using modern methods that increase accuracy and reduce time.
To support that expansion, in April of 2023, the U.S. Army Quartermaster School’s Logistics Training Department traveled to Fort Stewart, Georgia to team up with the 3rd Infantry Division’s G4 to provide HHT utilization and training to sustainers across the Marne Division.
The training allowed logistics professionals serving in command or as middle managers who lacked education and knowledge of how to operate HHTs, which provide a user-friendly automated inventory solution for Soldiers to expedite the inventory process.
By using the HHT devices, Soldiers decreased inventory time, and inaccuracy due to misreading numbers and labels. Additionally, intuitive user interface allows for quick training and promotes accountability in inventory process due to digital records.
The training was conducted alongside an instructor from the Army Sustainment University’s Sustainment Automation Support Management Office course on the Very Small Aperture Terminal and Combat Service Support Automated Information System Interface course, aimed to close education gaps and provide Marne Division leaders with the latest hardware and software information to properly employ and utilize the systems in garrison and in combat operational environments.
With the utilization of these devices, Soldiers receive a user-friendly automated inventory solution to expedite the inventory process and can expect to see a decrease in inventory time and inaccuracies stemming from misread numbers and labels. An intuitive user interface also allows for quick training that promotes accountability in inventory process due to digital records.
To increase training efforts, from January to February, several pilot programs were conducted to assess the efficiency and effectiveness for conducting end-item inventories with network access compared to today’s manual paper-based processes.
During the pilot five units from the XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Liberty, North Carolina, participated in the program that used GCSS-Army mobile device/scanner and inventory app to conduct their February cyclic and sensitive item inventories. Emerging feedback from the pilot determined that HHT technology saved time and improved accuracy of inventories – further by providing the latest information at Soldier’s fingertips and enabling productivity and throughput of materiel for Soldiers serving in tactical and garrison formations.
The HHT systems, which can operate from the Combat Service Support Very Small Aperture Terminal and Non-Secure Internet Protocol Router networks, enable delivering ready combat formation and promote mobility for the end users to conduct inventories even during LSCO.
As the Army continues to develop multifunctional logistics officers and NCOs who can meet the demands of commanders during multi-domain operational environments, logistics officers, warrant officers, and NCOs must capitalize on employing sustainment data information systems to enhance freedom of action, extended operational reach, and prolonged endurance necessary to accomplish mission, consolidate gains, and win our nations wars.
As the Army continues to modernize for future LSCO operations in multi-domain environments and increase readiness our logistics professionals, sustainment Soldiers must shift their focus from traditional sustainment methods to using more modern methods that increase accuracy and decreases time and identify HHT training gaps and create viable training solutions to that train and develop sustainment Soldiers HHT systems. Sustainment professionals must understand the importance of retaining techniques to increase the throughput of materiel, which in turns maximizes organizational readiness.
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