final decisions regarding quantitive support item requirements for new, highly technical, advanced concept DOD

equipment and systems. The extract from a U.S. Air Force training course quoted below recognizes that the contractor teams are the key to provisioning:

Because of the general nature of the information
available for provisioning decisions, final deter-
minations must necessarily depend heavily on
estimates and personal judgements. To insure that
these judgments are based on sound principles,
only the most competent technicians should be
allowed to make them. The vast experience of
weapon system contractors and the know-how of
their teams of engineering technicians must be
drawn upon to the fullest extent. Effective

communication and liaison with contractor organi-
zations must be maintained.

Design engineers and contractor maintenance experts have the requisite technical knowledge to permit accurate and reliable judgement in the initial selection and recommendation of support items. Contractors routinely perform this function for commercial items and items sold to foreign governments. In those cases, the contractor does not prepare a voluminous data base comprised of all of the items included in an equipment or system. Rather, his design and maintenance personnel

work from a statement of maintenance and repair policy and a set of design/engineering/manufacturing drawings and

make and record their decisions based upon their intimate

knowledge of the end item.

Current DOD provisioning policy,

which prohibits

contractors from selecting parts to be stocked,

is justified on the theory that some contractors would se

lect greater ranges and higher than necessary quantities

in order to promote sales volume. This theory would have substance if contractors were permitted to

make selections and merely deliver the items to the government for stock without prior review and specific, justified procurement actions. However, change in present policy does not have to go that far. The Commission's findings indicates that the contractor should be required to recommend to the government those items which, in his techncial judgement, should be stocked in order to meet maintenance and repair criteria. The government then would concentrate all of its provisioning expertise and resources upon the review of these recommendations, eliminating items and changing quantities to any extend deemed justified by its review. However, items not recommended by the contractor would not be documented for government consideration.

On this basis, the only subsequent

criticism which could fall upon the contractor would be in

the area of failing to select enough items for stockage.

The Department of Defense should revise its stated

policy prohibiting delegation to a contractor of
responsibility for selection of support items

and permit and encourage contractor

Requirements for provisioning documentation of items
not recommended should be discontinued unless
experience dictates a stock requirement. Following
such policy revision, provisioning procedures should
be developed and implemented essentially as follows:

о Master Plan

the procuring agency develops end item repair and maintenance master plan; i.e., equipment population, anticipated geographical distribution and operating conditions, operational criticality, reliability objectives, overhaul policy, estimated level of qualifications of field repair and maintenance personnel, etc.

о Contractor Instructions

-

the contractor is pro

vided in-depth briefing regarding repair and

maintenance objectives at pre-provisioning con

ference, in accord with current practice; is instructed

as to requirements for optimum utilization of

government standards and currently stocked items; is instructed as to necessity of and methods for pre-screening of selected items for which National Stock Numbers are not known; is instructed to identify vendor (commercially purchased) items

for direct government procurement; and is instructed to consider in the support selection process any available reliability and maintainability data,

qualification test experience, etc.

Contractor Selection

the contractor is dele

gated responsibility, within the above constraints, for initial selection of recommended items and for

recommending initial stockage quantities, working from data of his choice; and is required to provide data regarding selections and quantities in accordance with government format; government exercises broad surveillance over contractor

selection process.