Basic logistics requirements, item identification & work order cataloging is important process associated with standardisation critical to success of field-level missions. Current DoD approaches do not address sustainment problems head-on, either. DoD has emphasised performance specifications & standards aiming for supply line connection goals of obtaining common use items. This offers designers only limited information based on technical mandates and many items marked by variations can satisfy such requirements. Specification & standards do not identify existing equipment, so new/different equipment types are introduced at great logistics expense.
DoD work order type catalog functions identify the “Universe of Equipment” while the standardisation functions works to compress this “Universe.” Logistics Systems have been designed with intent to provide application, identification, physical/performance characteristics, availability of specification record, points of contact with dispatch specialists to initiate sustainment plans & information on repeatable supply line procurement sets for all equipment currently installed in fleets responsible for real-world mobile mission sets.
Logistics Models identify work order variables associated with service life phased support of equipment and determine cost/benefit of sustainment operations to be considered in processes assessing supply line competition procurement of functionally interchangeable equipment. The vast majority of equipment used by DoD is procured through performance specifications. This procurement approach results in greater flexibility with respect to equipment design & supply line competition, intended to produce more accurate cost/benefit assessment of item quality.
Traditional DoD methods for measuring operational/fiscal advantage of supply line competition is to compare difference in procurement expenditures. This process is quite logical in situations where no follow-on logistics support & service life phase sustainment expenditures are anticipated.
When follow-on logistics support is required as it is for most DoD equipment, additional operational/fiscal considerations must be evaluated to realistically measure cost/benefit associated with supply line competition. This evaluation has typically not been considered by DoD in the past since bills for service life phase sustainment expenditures are passed on to future fiscal years budgets, to the detriment of real-world, mobile Readiness Status.
1. Common or compatible operational administrative & logistics procedures
2. Common or compatible specification procedures & criteria
3. Common or compatible, interchangeable supplies & equipment components
4. Common or compatible tactical doctrine with each logistics service
5. Improvement of operational readiness realised by service divisions
6. Conservation of troop levels, time, money & resources
7. Optimisation of items on work orders utilised in logistics support
8. Enhancement of Plug & Play capacity, reliability & maintenance
9. Specification of requisite product quality obtained for essential missions
10. Assurance product specs, standards imposed in acquisition reflect field requirements