Lessons Learned on Maintenance and Supply from Pegasus 6

By MG Jeffery Broadwater, COL Kevin Capra, and MAJ Allen Trujillo

Managing property and maintaining equipment is challenging, especially when you’re in an Armored Division with a high operations tempo (OPTEMPO). The impacts of COVID-19 on 1st Cavalry Division’s OPTEMPO provided Division leadership an opportunity to focus on some of the technical aspects of the Division’s sustainment systems. The Commanding General took this opportunity to conduct in-depth Sustainment Terrain Walks, revealing several important lessons about maintenance and supply operations.  

One of the key lessons learned is that in order for units to leverage Global Combat Support System-Army (GCSS-A) to properly manage property and maintain equipment, users must receive appropriate training and key leaders must provide oversight. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the Army’s -10/-20 Maintenance Standard and to serve as a guide for Battalion (BN) Commanders, Field Grade Officers, and future Company Commanders to improve materiel management so they receive appropriate funding for their units and ensure they are conducting maintenance and supply operations to standard. Incoming company commanders can also follow this checklist to manage and maintain a property book capable of deploying on short notice, anywhere in the world. 

What is the Army’s -10-20 Maintenance Standard?

Leaders at echelon often talk about maintaining equipment to -10/-20 standard, but how many leaders truly understand what it takes? In order to meet the Army’s standard, it is important to understand what the regulation states.

Army Regulation (AR) 750-1 defines the Army’s -10-20 Maintenance Standard as the following:

• Equipment is Fully Mission Capable
• All faults identified following prescribed intervals using the applicable TM 
• All repairs, services and other related work with parts on hand are complete 
• All required parts are on a valid requisition in accordance with AR 710-2
• All maintenance not authorized at field level is evacuated to the next level of support
• All scheduled services performed at the service interval required by the applicable TM
• All MWOs are applied to the equipment; all one-time SOUMs are completed 
• All authorized Basic End Items (BII) and Component of End Items (COEI) are present and serviceable or on a valid supply request.

Compare company hand receipt vs. Current UIC MTOE in FMS Web

Although this task may seem trivial, an incoming commander must compare the equipment on their hand receipt to the unit’s Modification Table of Organization and Equipment (MTOE) – the equipment the Army says your unit should have on hand. Prior to conducting change of command inventories, every incoming commander should gain access to FMS Web and verify their MTOE. As the incoming commander validates their property book against FMS Web, they must confirm with the Brigade (BDE) Property Book Officer (PBO) that their Outbound Hand Receipt in GCSS-A is cleared. This action means the gaining unit has properly posted goods receipted (PGR) in GCSS-A for all property transferred from the company’s UIC. The incoming commander must ensure the Outbound Hand Receipt is clear prior to signing the final property book.

Note: Any property remaining on the Outbound Hand Receipt is counted in GCSS-A as being on-hand with the potential to drive unnecessary lateral transfer directives. 

Identify all Class VII Excess Property and Class VII Shortages 

Once the incoming commander has compared the company hand receipt to the current UIC MTOE in FMS Web, they must clearly categorize the Class VII excess property and Class VII shortages. Incoming company commanders should consider the following questions:

• Excess: Is the End Item an In-Lieu of Line Item Number (LIN)? Has the In-Lieu LIN been approved by the BDE Commander? Is the In-Lieu of properly coded in GCSS-A?
• Excess: Is the item’s Maintenance Expenditure Limit (MEL) 0? If the item is MEL 0, how will the capability be replaced? Is there a New Equipment Training (NET)/New Equipment Fielding (NEF) plan? If there is no plan, the unit must ask BDE or Division for assistance. 
• Excess: Is the item in the Army’s Decision Support Tool (DST)? Does it have a valid Proposed Sourcing Decision (PSD)?
• Excess: Does the End Item require an Estimated Cost Of Damage (ECOD) in order to turn-in? The incoming commander and BN Executive Officer must ensure the BN Maintenance Technician conducts/reviews the paperwork.
• Excess: If the End Item has a valid PSD for turn-in or lateral transfer, what is the condition code for the transaction? If -10/-20 is required, have all faults been identified? Are all BII/COEI on-hand or on-order with a valid requisition?
• Shortage: Is there a sourcing solution for the equipment? (NET/NEF, Lateral Transfer, Stock and/or PEMA funded) Note: All PEMA funded shortages can be ordered immediately by the BDE PBO.   
• Shortage: Does the company have a comprehensive list of all Class VII shortages? Are all Class VII shortages prioritized? Does the BDE PBO have the prioritized list? 
  • Note: This prioritized list can be used to help build the sustainment requirements for the Defense Readiness Reporting System-Army (DRRS-A).
  • Note: Once the BDE has cleared their Outbound Hand Receipt in GCSS-A, the BDE PBO must run “AutoSource” to appropriately cross level equipment within the BDE  
• Shortage: Has the BN prioritized the Stock-Funded Class VII Shortages in the unit? What is the value for all the Class VII Stock-Funded Shortages? 
• Shortage: Does the BDE/BN have a signed “Do Not Order” memo? Is the PBO aware of “Do Not Order” items? 
  • Note: The “Do Not Order” memo is a signed document that identifies all of the Class II, Class VII, and Class IX items the BDE/BN CDR do not want or need to accomplish their doctrinal mission. Examples of items on the “Do Not Order” memo include: obsolete LINs, etc.
  • Note: The PBO must review the “Do Not Order” memo annually. Additionally, company commanders and BN Executive Officers must understand who owns the responsibility for validating BII/COEI shortages: Expendable – company level supply room specialists or NCOs, Durable – BN S4 OIC/NCOIC, Non-expendable – BDE PBO.

Inventory all LINs/End Items IAW GCSS-A Bill of Materials (BOMs) and Technical Manuals (TMs)

Once the incoming commander has identified Class VII Excess and Class VII Shortages, they must then inventory all of the LINs/End Items and identify the Class II and Class IX BII and COEIshortages. This inventory must be done during the change of command inventories. Incoming commanders must use the BOMs from GCSS-A for the inventory. However, incoming commanders are highly encouraged to verify the BII/COEI listings from the BOMs against the listings found in the TMs. If there is a discrepancy between the BOMs and TMs, incoming commanders must reconcile these differences with the BDE PBO. Once the BDE PBO identifies a BOM/TM discrepancy, the PBO must contact the GCSS-A Help Desk to request an update to the BOM. The Program Manager (PM) for the End Item is required to update the BOM listing in GCSS-A.

Note: BN Executive Officers must ensure ALL company commanders are conducting their cyclic inventories in accordance with the BOMs/TMs; -10/-20 must be adhered to during all inventories.

Create PB01s (Shortage Annex) in GCSS-A for all End Items

Upon the completion of the property inventories, incoming commanders, in conjunction with the sub-hand receipt holders, need to update their shortage annexes. Prior to the advent of GCSS-A, shortage annexes were maintained and updated on a DA Form 2062. In GCSS-A, the PB01 serves as the shortage annex for Class II BII/COEI and the deferred work order serves as the shortage annex for Class IX BII/COEI.  Company supply room specialists or NCOs (92Ys) should take the results of the inventory and update the PB01 for each End Item in GCSS-A. Similarly, maintenance clerks (92As) need to build deferred work orders for the Class IX BII/COEI shortages. For PB01s, it is important for the 92Ys to set the PB01s to NEVER in the system. The reason Class II shortages are set to NEVER and the Class IX shortages are created in deferred work orders is budget management. PB01s and deferred work orders allow commanders at echelon the opportunity to validate the BII/COEI shortages and prioritize resources. Furthermore, PB01s and deferred work orders allow higher headquarters to see the exact shortages across entire units. Lastly, in order for incoming company commanders to validate if shortages are on order, valid document numbers or requisitions can be found in ZPROSTAT. If there is no valid requisition in ZPROSTAT, those items are not on order.

Conduct Technical Inspections (TIs) for all End Items in GCSS-A

After the supply room updates shortage annexes/PB01sd in GCSS-A, users and maintainers must conduct technical inspections in accordance with the -10 and -20 technical manuals. The goal of the technical inspection is to identify all deadline and non-deadline faults. If a deadline fault is identified, the repair part must be immediately placed on order.

Note: Technical inspections are time consuming and require significant man hours to complete according to the technical manuals. Company commanders are recommended to conduct technical inspections on equipment during recovery windows after training events. Recovery operations must be a deliberate process; for best results, commanders should place these windows on the training calendar.

Create Deferred Work Orders for Non-Deadline Faults (05/12 Priority Faults)

Similar to deferred work orders for Class IX BII/COEI shortages, 92As must build deferred work orders for all non-deadline faults (05/12 priority faults). Again, budget management is the primary reason to place non-deadline faults in deferred work orders. BN Executive Officers must articulate the total cost of BII/COEI shortages across the BN as well as the cost of all non-deadline faults across the entire unit once all PB01s and deferred work orders are created. The total cost of BII/COEI and non-deadline faults represents operational risk to commanders at echelon. This risk is often unclear as many units lack adequate record keeping to capture all of the deficiencies in GCSS-A.

Note: Once a deferred work order is created, the item will automatically go into an “NMCM” Status. Additionally, deferred work orders often use the “Moving Price” rather than the “Standard Price”; in order to get an actual cost estimate for the Deferred Work Order, units may have to query the NSNs in FEDMALL to get the “Standard Price.” This distinction in price is important because it allows BDE and BN Commanders to execute their annual budget based on the actual costs charged against unit funds. 

Final Step: Tie PB01s to the Equipment Status Report (ESR)

The final step for commanders to complete is to tie PB01s to the Non-X, Non-M, Non-E check ESR in order to gain full situational awareness of maintenance and supply. The Non-X, Non-M, Non-E check ESR refers to a set of parameters 92As or BN Maintenance Technicians can use to pull the ESR. This specific type of ESR can be referred to as the “Wide-Open” ESR. Once PB01s are tied to the “Wide-Open” ESR, anyone with GCSS-A access can see all of the shortages and faults associated with End Items in any UIC. The other benefit of tying PB01s to the “Wide-Open” ESR is visibility on a commonly used document. Although ZPROSTAT is a way to validate requisitions, the ESR is more commonly used and understood by leaders at echelon.

Way Ahead

The Army’s -10/-20 Maintenance Standard is a continuous process. Once set-up correctly in GCSS-A, the system helps leaders at all levels maintain their equipment more efficiently through automated processes. Company commanders and BN Executive Officers must take a deliberate approach to document all shortages and make them visible on the ESR. Once all echelons understand the maintenance and supply readiness of units depicted on the “Wide-Open” ESR, they can allocate resources, as needed. Doctrinally, units are funded to maintain equipment at the Army’s -10/-20 Maintenance Standard. Right now, most units do not have accurate data in GCSS-A to show their true -10/-20 maintenance shortfalls. In order for the larger enterprise to understand the cost associated with equipment maintenance, units must improve their materiel management in GCSS-A. As an institution, we must embrace, learn, and use the full capabilities of GCSS-A; our equipment readiness depends on it.

Major General Jeffery Broadwater is the Commanding General, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Colonel Kevin S. Capra is the Chief of Staff, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. 

Major Allen M. Trujillo is the Executive Officer to the Commanding General, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

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