Army Looks to Launch Next-Level, Automated Warehouse at Fort Hood
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The appropriate procurement contract for the work is up for consideration.
The Army aims to completely reimagine—and subsequently transform—an existing Supply Support Activity warehouse into “a state-of-the-art, Model SSA” that taps artificial intelligence, robotics and more to speed up operations and help staff to be a little more hands-off.
Officials in the Army Materiel Command, or AMC, are eyeing an existing facility in Fort Hood, Texas for the first proof-of-concept, according to a request for information published Monday. Potential partners for the technology-boosted transformation are invited to weigh in on what’s possible.
Military units’ equipment and supplies flow in through these teams and warehouses. AMC members said the Model SSA they’re visualizing “would exploit advanced technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and automated systems for war-time, field and garrison missions” to improve performance tracking, enable rapid SSA configuration, and accelerate the time it takes for customers to access their needed deliverables.
“The government’s desired end state is a more efficient supply chain (SSA) that is able to receive, issue, pack, label, [conduct] inventory management, store stock and distribution utilizing minimal touch labor while significantly increasing the SSA’s operations efficiency and accuracy,” the RFI said.
At Fort Hood’s planned Model SSA prototype, there are roughly 4,458 unique inventory items, the majority of which weigh less than 31 pounds. Pointing to those numbers, AMC officials note that robotic “or automated carrying systems must be able to carry loads representing 95% of the inventory stored in the SSA in fixed and bulk locations, operate in various environments and support planographs built on the fly.”
The Army intends to use commercial off-the-shelf, non-developmental technology as much as possible in completing the work. Potential partners are invited through the RFI to submit white papers detailing the types of technologies that could underpin the effort, the contract type that makes the most sense to pursue, potential timelines for the work—and more.
The deadline for responses is set for Dec. 22.