NIPARS: An Analysis of Procurement Performance and Cost for Nonstandard Items

摘要

In a world climate of declining defense budgets and contracting force structures,there is an increasing requirement for Australia to ensure value for money when undertaking defense purchases. Cognisant of this increasing financial pressure, the purpose of this thesis is to research the NIPARS program and determine the degree to which it provides Australia and other FMS customers value for money in the field of nonstandard parts procurement. The research problem of this thesis was identified by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Supply Liaison Officer at WFAFB. The RAAF had participated in the NIPARS program for twelve months without feed back regarding the lead time and cost performance of the NIPARS program. This study analyzed seven variables to assess the efficacy of NIPARS compared to previous methods used to provide nonstandard support; Procurement Administrative Lead Time, Production Lead Time, Total Procurement Lead Time, unit price, unit price inclusive of NIPARS changes and total unit price. The results of this analysis indicates that NIPARS lead time performance is superior; however. NIPARS unit cost performance is generally inferior to previous nonstandard procurement methods.