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

MIL-HDBK-502: ACQUISITIONALOGISTICSour mission requirements, and vendor competition is fiercefor continuous product improvement.“COTS maintenance manuals and drawings are limited. Atbest they will allow repair and identify support to the LRU(circuit card, power supply, etc.). Any more extensive datais either proprietary or the vendor asks for extremely largesums of money. To be effective, the depot should be ableto perform piece part repair. This is only possible throughreverse engineering, mockups, or the development of ATEsoftware. The time and cost associated with theseprocesses cannot be justified based on the quantities ofequipment we buy. Instead we receive extended warrantiesand allow contractors who already have repair capability torepair failed LRUs. There is also the cost issue of trainingmaintenance technicians on new equipment.“The type of equipment we procure has been found to havelong mean times between failure. There are exceptions, butgenerally we get 2-3 years before any failures on ouroperator positions. Also technology is constantly evolving,and in many instances we are upgrading the system withthis new technology within three years. Because ourequipment typically does not stay in the field a long time, itis not cost effective to strive for organic repair capability.“Although we possess some organic maintenance capability,the majority of COTS equipment is contractor supported.Rather than acquire the equipment and support capabilityon separate contracts as we did in the past, we found itbeneficial to acquire them together. Tying the supportcapability into the equipment purchase is best accomplishedby establishing a logistics support strategy early in theprogram before the RFP.”The experience of this agency is instructive. The following principlesunderlie the success of its efforts:• Plan for supportability from the initial planning stages.• Base supportability strategies on the expected service life ofthe product.• Be willing to consider nontraditional approaches to support:extended warranties, disposal upon failure, etc.6-23