Is NIPARS Working as Advertised. An Analysis of NIPARS Program Customer Service

摘要

Historically, Foreign Military Sales non-standard item support has been a labor-intensive, time-consuming process. Additionally, when forced to compete for USAF resources, the foreign customer's need is often subjugated to the higher priority active USAF requirements. These problems motivated the Air Force to initiate a program to streamline procedures for the procurement of non-standard items. The program is the Nonstandard Item Parts Acquisition and Repair Support (NIPARS) program. The basic program concept is to move the management tasks for nonstandard items from USAF resources to a contractor in order to 'fix' the inefficiencies of the previous system. This thesis explores the efficacy of this program by comparing the procurement administrative lead time, production lead time, cancellation rates, and costs of the NIPARS program to those of the Air Logistics Centers. Additionally, the expectations and perceptions of the NIPARS customer is evaluated to determine whether or not NIPARS represents an improvement in the quality of customer service the Air Force is providing to its foreign customer.... Nonstandard parts, Air Force procurement, Management, Foreign aid, Quality, Acquisition, Logistics, Customer service.