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OCR for page 35
8
Workshop Summary
In many areas of procurement, the results of the acquisition reform policy have
been positive and, the participants believed, have helpec} to reduce the complexity ant!
costs of the DoD purchase of major weapon systems and their many support
requirements. Many outcomes of the move away from military and federal specifications
to commercial or industry documents have also been positive.
The workshop revealed several co mmon themes, identified a key barrier to the
military use of commercial materials and process specifications, and identified two keys
to the rapid insertion of commercial technology.
COMMON THEMES
The following themes were common across all sessions of the workshop:
.
.
While the military can and does make use of many commercial items, certain
military-unique items will continue to require military-unique specifications
that are best prepared and coordinated within military organizations of the
DoD.
Although contractors are scrambling to recover, the recent wholesale
cancellation of military specifications has strained configuration control ant!
increased product performance risk throughout the military supply chain. The
additional cost to cope with this transition will continue over the next
generation of contracts and products.
Suitable NGSBs exist to meet the commercial needs of military products, but
DoD member participation in these bodies is required to ensure that the
resulting specifications meet military needs.
· The workload of these NGSBs has increased as a result of cancelled military
specifications, but user member and DoD member participation in NGSs is
decreasing, posing the risk that these "shared" specifications may not be
adequately maintained to meet future military-unique needs.
· Retirements ant! career decisions have led to an erosion of materials ant!
processes expertise within industry and the DoD at a time when increased
efforts are necessary to continue the transition to performance specifications
and NGS envisioned by the acquisition reform movement.
· The foundations of reliability for national materials and processes
(MIL-HDBK-5 and -17) are in danger of losing their independence ant!
credibility if they are no longer funded and maintained under government
cognizance.
35
OCR for page 36
36 Impact of Acquisition Reform on DoD Materials and Processes Specifications and Standards
The lack of an apparent DoD master plan and master coordinator over the
military materials and processes specification development strategy is causing
confusion and delays during the transition to acquisition reform.
Two keys to the rapid insertion of commercial technology were iclentifiecI. First,
neutral (government) control of the fundamental materials databases (MIL-HDBK-5 for
metals and MIL-HDBK-17 for composites) must be retained to allow rapid dissemination
of reliable data. Second, just as technical expertise and discipline are eroding at DoD,
strong expertise for materials and processes is required to conclude the transition to
NGSs and performance-based specifications and leverage the benefits into real cost
savings.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
commercial technology
