Interagency Cache Business System Re-engineering (ICBS)
The ICBS-R Project was chartered by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) in March 2003. The USDA Forest Service and the DOI Bureau of Land Management are conducting this project in partnership with the National Interagency Support Caches (NISC). The NISC is a committee of the NWCG s Equipment Technology Committee (ETC) and the National Fire Equipment System (NFES) Subcommittee.
The re-engineered ICBS is an automated warehouse management system designed to assist in inventory control and cost tracking for all items that make up the National Fire Equipment System.
ICBS is intended for use by National and Local Area Caches hosted by federal and state NWCG member agencies. The system replaces the legacy ICBS which was first deployed in 1999 and was retired in 2010.
The ICBS-R Project:
- Introduces an improved system architecture that allows the use of ICBS by National Caches and Local Area Caches
- Satisfies the essential business needs of the nationwide cache system
- Exchanges data on a real-time basis with the Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS)
Goals of the ICBS Re-engineering Project include: greater inventory visibility among caches; increased inventory accuracy; enhanced information sharing for sound decision-making; the elimination of most current manual cache processes; improved agency-reporting of cache inventory levels and usage; elimination of redundant data entry into separate systems and databases; and improved overall service to cache customers. These increased efficiencies directly contribute to improved management of large wildland fire costs.
National Cache System
The National Cache System is comprised of eleven national caches hosted by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, and a larger number of smaller local area caches hosted by various federal and state wildland agencies.
You can see more information at the National Interagency Support Caches website.