Acquisition Reform and Re-engineered Logistics - More Bang for the Buck

摘要

Turning first to the topic of acquisition reform - it has been my sense that itis easy to talk about wAy we need meaningful reform of the system; harder to talk about how and even harder to do. The Congress and the Department of Defense have been talking about acquisition reform for a very long time. More importantly, we are together now doing something about implementing real reforms. We are at a point in our acquisition reform program that is not too much different than the situation faced by Winston Churchill during World War II when the US entered the war. He observed that This is not the end, or even the beginning of the end, but it is, I believe, the end of the beginning. When you stop to think about it, this is exactly where we are in our program of acquisition reform and the reason why I selected The End of the Beginning as the theme for the Acquisition Reform Day recently observed about three weeks ago on May 31st by all Department of Defense acquisition activities around the world. It is important to note that Acquisition Reform Day was not a bad news story-it was a good news story. I felt a stand-down like this was necessary because we now have enough reforms under our belts that it was time to share with the entire DOD acquisition community our many successes and accomplishments. Perhaps the most successful aspect of the day was the effort made to promote horizontal communications among peers for sharing lessons learned, best practices, and initiatives under way. Many people did not realize the progress made by their peers. Based upon all the preliminary feedback received so far, it was a very successful day. The plan is to give the field activities an opportunity, over the next 60 days, to provide feedback up the chain of command on what's working, what's not, and what needs improvement. Lasting change will only come about with ownership.