The 82nd Group Army of the Central Theater Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is experimenting with a “New Era” of equipment and military logistics management, in that it has built a intelligent warehouse management and real-time troubleshooting network ecosystem that allows for easily achieving three primary goals:
- one-click location queries for equipment;
- real-time monitoring of storage environments; and
- warning alerts when equipment consumption approaches critical levels.
As per a release issued in the PLA Daily newspaper:
Recently, a brigade of the 82nd Group Army conducted a rear equipment support training exercise. After receiving the support order from higher command, warehouse custodian and Second-Class Sergeant Zhang Meng tapped on his keyboard, and the storage location of the required equipment immediately appeared on the warehouse system’s display screen. Following the screen’s instructions, the repair unit quickly loaded the spare parts and drove directly to the location of the “damaged” equipment.
Subsequently, according to the digital and smart logistics management plans set in motion since the contemporary reforms of the PLA found their stead in 2016, the brigade decided to introduce technologies such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and intelligent warehouse management, building an integrated informationised warehousing system. They now apparently rely on this system, in which every piece of equipment stored in the brigade’s warehouse has its own unique electronic code. Whether equipment enters or leaves the warehouse, the system can automatically scan and identify it and record the transaction accurately.
In practice, the release informs that the brigade has also established cooperation mechanisms with several equipment manufacturers. Together they compiled a “Troubleshooting Manual,” organised and summarised catalogues of supporting equipment, and have entered the relevant information into the database of the informationised warehouse system. When equipment malfunctions occur, officers and soldiers can consult the system to obtain troubleshooting guidance, vitally improving their independent repair capability.
Since the release of the State Council General Office ‘Outline of the National Informatization Development Strategy’ in 2016, “Digitisation of Logistics” (信息化保障) has been a recurrent theme in both civilian and military domains. What is equally important is the release’s emphases on “smart stewardship” (智能管家) of logistics, as well as the highlighted cooperation between the PLA and equipment manufacturers, leaning into the concept of Military-Civil Fusion (军民融合). Especially on the former front, the logic is that that an informationised warehousing system is like a “smart steward” that helps with predictive logistics, in that it can not only help forces keep real-time track of warehouse inventory, but also remind them to replenish equipment in time based on usage frequency and consumption rates.
What is notable here is that in linguistics, a “smart steward” likely means an “intelligent” or unmanned steward. In this particular drill itself, the 82nd GA is not relying on an uncrewed, AI-enabled warehouse manager, hence the release’s use of the phrase “like a smart steward.” Nonetheless, their likely idea is to hint at the trajectory of PLA equipment and logistics management going forward – taking inventory management to a stage beyond informatisation, where AI, automation, and big data assist decision-making vis-à-vis automated tracking of inventory, predictive alerts about equipment consumption, integration with maintenance manuals, and faster decision-making in logistics support.