Savi Teams with Department of Defense Leaders, Partners to Equip First Responders for Success

By Printed Electronics Now staff | 05.12.20

Multiple organizations join forces to overcome coronavirus supply chain disruptions to get essential new equipment to Army National Guard.

Savi announced that it has successfully delivered the first of two multi-million dollar orders of the Savi Portable Deployment Kit (PDK) III to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to help first responders deployed to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Coming amidst this major public health crisis and consequent widespread supply chain disruptions, completing this order required considerable flexibility, ingenuity and coordination between Savi, its suppliers, and the DoD.

 

This order from the Army National Guard for 221 Savi PDK III units for $3.2 million and another from the Army Reserve for 354 units for $5.1 million are the first large-scale purchases of the newly released Savi PDK III

 

Replacing obsolete equipment with state-of-the-art technology, the Savi PDK III enables warfighters and first responders to have a lighter and leaner logistics footprint in even the most austere, hostile environments.

 

Using funding available to the Army National Guard and Army Reserve for equipment modernization, the purchases enable Guard and Reserve units to maintain in-transit visibility capabilities during deployments. 

 

As first responders to the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., such capabilities are critical for both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve. The orders are part of the active RFID (aRFID) IV contract to provide U.S. government agencies and allied partners with state-of-the-art hardware, software and integration services for worldwide asset tracking and in-transit visibility. 

 

Savi is currently the sole provider for the aRFID-IV contract, which has a $102 million ceiling, is in its final option year and is managed by Product Lead Automated Movement and Identification Solutions (PL AMIS).

 

As international coronavirus response caused unprecedented supply chain disruptions, PL AMIS and Savi jointly cooperated to identify creative solutions to overcome transportation limitations, plant closures, and other obstacles to ensure on-time delivery to the Army National Guard.

 

Savi worked closely with PL AMIS and various suppliers to overcome those obstacles and complete the order. Savi, with its suppliers, negotiated exemptions to manufacturing plant shutdowns to produce and ship critical components in time to support the DoD’s mission readiness. 

 

Likewise, the Army National Guard Bureau (NGB) customer agreed to a change in normal inspection procedure to expedite the acceptance process, traveling to the Maryland location of First Source Electronics (FSE), a division of Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc., to inspect and accept the kits.