On July 14, the 107-man General Support Supply Base platoon of the 496th began operating the Army's first European Redistribution Facility (ERF) at Boeblingen Maintenance Facility, for Class IX repair parts. The basic mission of the platoon hasn't changed, it's just that they do more of it and for a bigger customer.

According to Joseph A. Bush, of the Force Modernization Office, New Cumberland Army Depot (NCAD), the development of this new supply redistribution concept and the renovation of the company's warehouse at BMF is the first step in eliminating a lone-standing excess material storage problem in USAREUR. "The ERF will serve as the Army Materiel Command's (AMC) processing and storage site for excess material primarily repair or replacement parts that are being returned by Army units in West Germany, either because they are no longer needed or have to be repaired," he said.

"All we used to do was support VII Corps. We'd take its excess Class IX and, through 800th CMMC (Corps Material Management Center) other units had access to what we had in storage," said SSgt. Elliot Cox the platoon's Transportation NCOIC. "Now we support the world with our excess through New Cumberland Army Depot."

According to 1st Lt. Melanie McClure, the platoon leader, her unit's mission has gone from retail (limited resorces and limited customers) to wholesale (access to the whole Army).

Her facility has expanded in storage capacity and automation and, instead of going through 800th CMMC, she has, through Miessau Army Depot, a direct communications link-up with NCAD.

The new system has a myriad of advantages. It has reduced both transportation and procurement costs, increased the efficiency of the system, improved the limited storage capacities of USAREUR and decreased the amount of time parts remain stored at the warehouse, according to McClure.

"A high percentage of parts never hit the shelves," she said. "That's the secret of the time saving aspect. As soon as a part is processed into our Video Input Processing section we get a read-out, telling us if there is someone waiting for that component or not.

Immediately we know whether to process the part for shipment or storage. In the old process, we received parts, processed them for storage and then supplied the 800th with listings of what we had. It was then the 800th 's responsibility to match customers with our serviceable repair parts."

Time isn't the only thing the system is saving. Dale Crowell, the deputy chief of Task Force, a 13-man civilian team which is on hand to help establish the system and train the soldiers on how to run it, said that he expects the ERF to generate substantial monetary savings for the Army.

He could not estimate the dollar value, because the method for determining those figures has not yet been refined, but did note that the system has already reduced the average 'turn-around' time for parts remaining in the warehouse by an average of 66 percent. He also noted that within its first two months of operation, more than 5,900 parts of the 9000 processed into the computers had been issued. Eighteen-hundred of those orders were high priority requests.

Three months before its opening, soldiers of the 496th refurbished and outfitted the facility with enough metal and plastic shelving to alter the facilities storage capacity from 11,000 locations to over 30,000.

"One week during that time we were putting in about 15 to 16 hours a day to get this place ready," said Pvt. 1 Troy Fisher a supply specialist working in the preservation and packing section. "We worked over 100 hours that week!"

According to McClure, the rest of the refurbishing (the installing of the roller system, the laying of asphalt floors and the building of temporary bulk storage facilities) was accomplished through contracts with German firms.

"A depot level supply warehouse such as this is normally run by civilians," said McClure. "So this is excellent training and an excellent opportunity for the soldiers who may want to work at a depot on the 'outside' some day."

Sgt. Cheryl Miller, a supply specialist working in the receiving section, admitted that the job she was doing was exactly what she was taught to do in school. However, there are enough changes to make her present job seem quite different.

"We are more responsible in terms of accountability," she said. "For instance, when supplies come in we account for them by date, time, and type of carrier they came in on, such as truck or rail.

Also, the squad leaders keep track of our man hours and every section has to keep a board which tracks their production. For instance, ours accounts for how many boxes we worked on, and how many lines were in each box.

"I think we've been processing between 400 and 500 lines a day," said Miller.

"This job doesn't get boring," said Fisher. "The more I work here the more I understand, and everyone is getting cross trained into all the jobs in each section. We've even been trained and certified as customs inspectors."

October 1, the GSSB platoon's job expanded even further as it took on another class of supply: Auto Return items.

In Auto Return, chassis are refurbished, steam cleaned, body worked and painted, then returned to the system.

According to McClure two more ERFs are planned for the European Theater; one for the 21st SUPCOM and another for V Corps.