Control Division, ASF

After issuance of this document generally referred to as the McNarney directive, the ASF set up a system aimed at closer co-ordination of the various phases of procurement and distribution. Known as the Supply Control System, it was formally announced in ASF Circular 67, 7 March 1944. Its aims were summarized as follows by the Requirements and Stock Control Division, ASF, at the time the system was being put into operation ... 

Spare Parts for CWS Equipment. ASF, G-4 Spare Parts for CWS Equipment Rpt 144, Nov 43. CG, ASF File. This survey was conducted by Office of the Director of Stock Control, Mainte-ance Division, and Control Division, ASF. 

A major purpose of the decentralizing of depot functions was, as has been stated, the avoidance as far as possible of the inevitable tendency to choke the lines of distribution with an oversupply of goods, a condition particularly acute at the ports, where the lines of distribution converged on a few overcrowded centers. A rigorous system of stock control, based on limitation of station stock levels and the provision of careful controls on the rate at which materiel moved to the ports was the obvious corollary of the new depot system. In 1942 the Control Division, ASF, made a survey of stock control practices in the CWS. The survey disclosed that a records system for approximately 1,000 items, including components. 

In contrast to ASF activity at the depots, whose revised organizational structures were looked upon approvingly by key personnel in the CWS, the ASF decision to put Camp Sibert under the jurisdiction of the commanding general of the Fourth Service Command, was not viewed with favor by the Chief, CWS. General Somervell, nevertheless, stood by the ASF directive to make Sibert a Class I activity of the Fourth Service Command, as noted above. General Porter undoubtedly had that situation in mind when in September 1944 he set up the San Jose Project Division in his office to supervise all activities of the Panama installation. Porter was taking a precaution to insure that all responsibility for San Jose would remain under CWS control. 

In order to assist the Personnel Division of his office in carrying out its functions, General Porter in the summer of 1942 appointed a Promotion and Decorations Board composed of the executive officer of his office and the chiefs of the Fielid, Industrial, and Technical Services. Following the publication of the very important ASF Circular 39, ii June 1943, the Chief, CWS, appointed a second board, known as an Allotment Board, to deal with the allotment of civilian and military employees to CWS units and installations. This Allotment Board consisted of the executive officer, the two assistant chiefs of CWS, the chiefs of the Control and Personnel Divisions, and a recorder from the Personnel Division who had no vote. On 13 August 1943 the functions of the two boards were consolidated in an Allotment, Promotion, Separation, and Decoration Board. ... 

The work measurement program got under way in the depots as the result of an ASF directive of November 1944. Under that directive the Control and Supply Divisions of the Chief s office developed procedures for putting the plan in operation at CWS depots and chemical warfare sections of general depots. The program was not in operation in the depots long enough for its efficiency to be properly judged. 

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