MIL-HDBK-502 - Barringer and Associates, Inc.

MIL-HDBK-502: ACQUISITIONALOGISTICSassociated with fault isolation and to speed up response time by reducingthe number of items in the supply system. Additionally, consumption ratesof support resources such as spare and repair parts increase throughsustained usage and limitations on allowable maintenance periods.Therefore, supportability analyses must consider both extremes.The outcome of the tradeoffs and risk assessments should be threshold andobjective system performance requirements that satisfy user requirementsand mission needs. These become part of the system specification. Thisincludes performance requirements for the supportability of the system..Remember, ensuring that supportability is included as a performancerequirement is not a one time thing. The specificity and number ofperformance parameters evolve as the program is better defined. AtMilestone I, performance parameters should be defined in broad terms.More specific program parameters should be added as necessary as thesystem requirements become better defined. Also, as new or updated userrequirements and authoritative constraints become present, performancerequirements will need to be added or changed, including supportabilityrequirements.5.2 ENSURING OPTIMAL SUPPORT SYSTEM DESIGNSupportability analyses should identify operations and sustainment supportrequirements based upon system characteristics and the planned operationsand support environment. Supportability requirements are expressed interms of operations and maintenance task requirements and the associatedsupport resources to accomplish them. Collectively, these define thesupport burden of a total system. The optimal support system design is onewhich can deliver the required support and which properly balances withthe other total system elements to meet the performance requirements ofthe user.Systems engineering done very early in the acquisition life cycle is similarfor both commercial and developmental acquisitions (see Section 4 forfurther discussion on types of acquisition). Development of performancerequirements and specifications follow a similar path in the earliestacquisition phases for commercial and developmental buys. Therefore, thetype of acquisition has little or no bearing on achieving the first goal ofsupportability analyses since system performance requirements areestablished up front in an acquisition. However, this is not true for thesecond goal of supportability analyses. In fact, the type of acquisition willhave a significant impact on the design of the support system.DoD policy initiatives emphasize the use of commercial ornondevelopmental designs, processes, and services whenever practical tomeet operational users’ needs. Because of these initiatives and the currenteconomic challenges of the present and foreseeable future, most DoD5-7