Item Essentiality Assignment

This analysis evaluated two methods of assigning Item Essentiality values to items with applications on active U.S. Navy ships. The Average method averaged the Item Mission Essentiality Codes (IMECs) and rounded the results up to the next highest integer, and the Highest method selected the highest IMEC as the Item Essentiality value. Due to a lack of Mission Criticality Code (MCC) data, 40 percent of the item's applications were not assigned IMECs. Based on the available information, the Average method assigned 11 percent of the items the highest value of 4. The Highest method is more sensitive to changes caused by one application of an item and has potential to migrate all items to the higher categories. Therefore, the Average method is preferred. However, since Navy Ships Parts Control Center (SPCC) is currently loading their files using the Highest method, Navy Fleet Material Support Office (FMSO) recommends continued use of the Highest method until Resystemization.