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DOD Efficiency Initiative Yields Nearly 100 Recommendations

AIA has provided nearly 100 ideas to the Defense Department in response to its request for proposals to reform the way it buys goods and services. They focus upon four areas: improving requirements definition and ensuring requirements and program stability; streamlining export controls; promoting efficient use of government and contractor resources; and eliminating unnecessary government-unique requirements.

The objective of Secretary Gates’ “efficiency initiative” as outlined in his speech is to fund a two- to three-percent net annual growth in programs without a commensurate budget increase. This growth would result from identifying and eliminating unproductive or low-value-added overhead and transferring the savings to warfighting systems.

DOD has an aggressive schedule and detailed approach for collecting and vetting initiatives from government and industry. Initial inputs were due July 26 and final recommendations are due Aug. 17 with the roll-out of specific actions to follow in mid-September.

The initiatives received from both industry and government will be reviewed by one of five issue teams addressing affordability, contract terms, productivity growth, productivity measurement and services acquisition. Secretary Carter is taking a hands-on approach to this effort, chairing the Senior Integration Group, which will have four public meetings with industry.

We are pleased that DOD is taking a comprehensive look at those factors that are cost drivers in government procurements, and we echo Secretary Carter’s statement that this ongoing endeavor is a marathon, not a sprint.

AIA and our member companies have been fully engaged in DOD’s efforts to reform the acquisition system. We have repeatedly stressed that as government contractors, aerospace and defense companies work in an environment based on a business model that is alien in the commercial world.

There are there are real, systemic inefficiencies in the DOD acquisition system that add time and cost to programs. We believe that this important undertaking must address those systemic cost-drivers and recommend specific changes in policies and regulations to eliminate unnecessary, duplicative and non- or low-value-added activities.

AIA Source: richard.sylvester[at]aia-aerospace.org