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item purchases.

Therefore some 12 million items consti

tutes the total annual processing workload.

In order for the DOD and industry to process this annual workload of an estimated 12 million items, a substantial group of personnel has evolved in both government and industry. They have developed their own special "language" and serve as translators, counselors and advisors to the balance of people who contribute to the effort. In some sectors of industry a substantial amount of this effort is not charged directly, but is carried as engineering overhead or general and administrative cost. Consequently, the actual cost of provisioning is almost impossible to isolate, since much of the work is priced indirectly.

Upon purchase of an end item by the DOD, the provisioning process begins with the establishment of maintenance and repair policy, or anticipated operational factors, relative to the item to be supported. The contractor then provides the required voluminous and complex provisioning data with recommendations as to items to be stocked. Based on this data, DOD selects stock items.

Approaching the provisioning requirement from the standpoint of an industry employee with compliance responsibility, the first task is to master the terminology and intricate format.

Since

this could take months, it is usually not economical for a

small firm providing government equipment infrequently to develop the necessary expertise. After mastering the format

requirements, the next step is to gather the administrative,

physical, technical, functional and other data for individual items. Some of these elements are:

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O Federal Catalog System item name, and National Stock

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O Unit of measure, e.g., pound, dozen, each,

O Usable on Code (reference to next higher assembly)

O Failure factor (manufacturers estimated wear-out data)

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o Unit price

Unit pack

O Special material content code, e.g., antibiotic,

flammable gas, precious metal, radioactive

O Overhaul quantity

In addition to the above and other data, the list format provides space for coding of many varieties of provisioning decisions. The kinds of data required are, for the most part, not needed or considered by the equipment manufacturer in his design and fabrication. The employee in charge of technical documentation for industry usually must go to a number of sources to obtain the data, and he must explain to each the meaning of the requirement as specified by the government. When one contemplates that this provisioning "search and record" effort is necessary for every new item candidate, the results consolidated on specific forms, key punched, and listings produced and subsequently maintained, the enormity of the process becomes apparent.

The Commission's review of the DOD provisioning process has led to the following conclusions:

O Provisioning procedures and data requirements are too complicated for all but largest industrial organizations even firms which employ thousands of employees and are predominent in their respective fields of endeavor,

often find it uneconomical to maintain staffs

capable of responding efficiently to military proNevertheless, they are expected

visioning procedures.

to perform since there is only one general procedure.

O There is a mammoth quantity of industrial engineering and technical man-hours applied to generation of paperwork covering items never stocked by COD most equipment contracts require the preparation of the complex Provisioning Parts List. This may include all of the many data elements for every part, component, subassembly and equipment comprising the end item. On the average, only 20% or less of the total eventually are stocked.

Unnecessary paperwork is generated and provided to government for storage and maintenance

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the mass of

provisioning data described above continuously flows into government offices in the form of magnetic tapes, listings, punched cards, typed listings, drawings, specifications, standards, etc. After formal pro

visioning is completed, most of these data are maintained by the government as long as the supported end item is in the system, and often beyond.

O There is a need for change in basic policy

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Directive 4140.40, the basic provisioning policy

statement for the military establishment, reads: "The
using DOD component has the responsibility for the
final determination of the range and quantity of support
items..... These responsibilities may be delegated to
another DOD component.....but will not be delegated to
a contractor.".

Accordingly, defense agencies procuring equipment and systems are precluded from relying upon the designermanufacturer who has the real expertise to make viable selections with his own methods and techniques.

Procuring

agencies may, and almost invariably do, require the
contractor to suggest ranges and quantities of support
items. However, responsibility for final, selective
decisions rests with the government provisioner. There-
fore, he must have a data base from which to select.
Because many agencies, and many more provisioners,
are making decisions in connection

with a wide variety of equipment and systems, the data
base must be standardized. If the DOD policy permitted

the contractor to perform the initial selection (subject to DOD review and approval), the enormous data base would be unnecessary.

Most DOD provisioners neither have, nor should they be expected to have, the engineering and technical expertise to make

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