Performance Based Logistics and the Implications of Organizational Design

摘要

The Department of Defense (DoD) has directed Military Departments to implement Performance-Based Logistics (PBL) as a preferred approach for product support. The purpose of this Joint Applied Project (JAP) is to analyze four Navy programs that have a fully implemented PBL process in place: F/A-18 E/F Integrated Readiness Support Teaming, AN/ALR-67(v)3 Radar Warning Receivers, Auxiliary Power Units, and the F404 Engine. PBL is a strategy for weapon system product support that employs the purchase of support as an integrated performance package designed to optimize system readiness. It meets performance goals for a weapon system through a support structure based on performance agreements with clear lines of authority. Product support is defined as a package of logistics support functions necessary to maintain the readiness and operational capability of a system or subsystem. These logistics support functions include material management, distribution, technical data management, maintenance, training, configuration management, engineering support, repair parts management, failure reporting and analysis, and reliability growth. PBL is about buying a solution or outcome, not defining the process or method to achieve it. The government's role in PBL becomes one of managing the supplier where the supplier has a more active role. This research is limited to one particular aspect of PBL, the implications of organizational design on PBL implementation. The authors identify the organizational characteristics of the four Navy programs that have successfully implemented PBL, and then determine to what extent those characteristics are being used or should be used in the Standard Automotive Tool Set (SATS), a program managed by the Tank, Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), Rock Island. Their final recommendation will address whether the characteristics or organizational structure of the SATS team should change to make PBL a successful product support strategy.