MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, January 27, 2004 - Irista Inc., an industry leading provider of logistics management solutions today announces San Diego, CA based National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) will deploy iristaWarehouse onboard the new class of combat logistics force ships that are currently being built under contract with the United States Navy.
The T-AKE, which has been designated the Lewis and Clark class, is a dry cargo/ammunition ship that will be operated by the Military Sealift Command. These ships will provide logistic support from sources of supply, either in port or at sea, and will transfer ammunition, food, fuel, repair parts, and expendable supplies to station ships and other naval forces at sea.
"The T-AKE is the first new Navy combat logistics force ship design in almost 20 years and is the first to combine lower-cost commercial design rules and specifications with high-performance marine technologies," said Richard Vortmann, president of NASSCO. "Inclusion of a computer driven inventory management system was an important piece of the ship's system design specification."
"Irista's logistics management solution will provide the Navy with time critical decision support capability that's necessary when conducting at-sea, ship-to-ship replenishments," said Jim Stollberg, vice president and general manager of Irista. "In essence, the T-AKE ships are multilevel floating distribution centers with much the same operational requirements as land based warehouses. The key difference is lives are dependent upon shipboard inventory accuracy and the efficiency with which it's transferred from below deck storage locations to topside replenishment stations."
Construction of the first of four T-AKE ships is underway at NASSCO's San Diego shipyard with delivery to the Navy scheduled for 2005.
