An evaluation of the prime vendor support approach to U.S. Army weapon system sustainment

Abstract

In recent years the Department of Defense (DOD) has launched several initiatives to contain support costs for weapon systems. Recently a new weapon system sustainment concept advanced by industry, known as Prime Vendor Support (PVS), has been either under consideration or already adopted as a means of reducing support costs. PVS requires that the DOD relinquish the weapon system support processes to the prime vendor. The research reported in this thesis presents a comparative evaluation of the support processes associated with two weapon systems., one currently in the process of implementing PVS the other still supported by the conventional organic Army support system. The Lean Enterprise Model (LEM), developed by researchers at MIT under the auspices of the Lean Aerospace Initiative, is used to assess these two distinctly different support processes, to determine whether and to what extent the PVS concept offers any tangible benefits to the Army. The LEM, which represents a framework for organizing, storing and retrieving lean principles, practices and metrics in the aerospace industry, presents a template for best practices that are applicable to the defense sustainment community. The LEM is adapted to the government environment, by proposing a two dimensional model. This model calibrates the LEM for the unique Army environment and is then used to generate a "degree of leanness" index for each major sustainment process. These measures reflect, in essence, lean effectiveness ratings. The rating process itself draws upon extensive field interviews with personnel associated with these two weapon system support processes. The resulting "degree of leanness" (lean effectiveness rating) measures are used to compare the two weapon system support concepts. The major finding of the research is that the PVS concept offers significant advantages, reflecting considerable cost savings, compared with the conventional support model. The "degree of leanness" (lean effectiveness rating) measures indicate three-fold improvements over existing processes, particularly in the reliability-related processes.