Cohen Reports to Vice President - Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen

Program Manager, May, 2000

DoD Year Acquisition Goals

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen reported to the Vice President Feb. 18 on DoD's progress toward achieving Year 2000 Acquisition Goals. The report, third in a series of six semiannual reports, was written in plain language to provide the American public a clear picture of progress in reinventing Defense Acquisition.

In his third report, Cohen outlined the Department's three-year goals, actions taken, and progress to date. The three-year goals were founded on the objectives of Delivering Great Service, Fostering Partnership, and Internal Reinvention that the Administration set forth in the Blair House Papers. Cohen's report reflected a Department that is moving forward.

"As we stand now, at the mid-point of our efforts to attain our Year 2000 Goals, I am pleased to report that the Department has already met, or met and surpassed, nine of its 16 goals. The majority of the remaining goals are ahead of schedule and are expected to exceed the performance set in the original goals."

This excerpt from the report presents only the three-year goals and actions taken. To read about how DoD measured its progress to date, download the entire report at http://wwwacq.osd.mil/ar/vpreport8-99/mainmenu.htm.

Delivering Great Service

We are becoming a world-class service provider! We are delivering weapons quicker than before. We are supplying our warfighters and peacekeepers better, cheaper, and faster. We are cutting bureaucratic red tape by using Government Purchase Cards for small purchases. And we are enhancing our skills by providing our DoD acquisition-related workforce knowledge, tools, and techniques through continuing education.

New Weapons in Less Time

OUR THREE-YEAR GOAL

Deliver new major defense systems to the users in 25 percent less time.

In the past, we were more concerned with focusing on performance than about how long it took to field systems. During the Cold War era, the threat environment was stable and predictable, and thus program schedule received much less emphasis than system cost and performance.

We must buy our systems faster and field them sooner. The Cold War is over, and the threat environment is now unstable and constantly changing. Therefore, we need to be more flexible and responsive in meeting the needs of our warfighters by fielding new systems in much less time. We expect that shorter cycle time will reduce cost growth and accelerate our modernization efforts.

Our goal is to reduce the cycle time of new programs (i.e., the time between starting a new program and achieving initial delivery) by 25 percent. That means the average cycle time of new programs, which started since 1992, will be less than 99 months by the end of the year 2000 -- a 25-percent reduction from the recent historical average of 132 months. [*]

(*.) Based on average cycle time of currently active programs started prior to 1992.

TAKING ACTION

Since 1992, we have employed acquisition reform, such as the use of commercial items and the latest computer technologies in the design, manufacturing, and management of our programs.

They have helped us in reducing cycle time, but we plan to do much more in order to reduce cycle time by at least 25 percent. Therefore, we will:

* use shorter cycle time as a planning constraint in structuring new programs;

* strictly enforce shorter cycle time in approving new programs; and

* closely monitor programs in the process of acquiring, programming, and budgeting to limit cycle time growth.

In addition, we are changing the way we manage our programs to achieve shorter cycle time. Specifically, we are emphasizing the urgency of near-time requirements and the availability of proven technologies as key criteria in authorizing new programs. This means that we can now satisfy warfighter needs incrementally -- by infusing new technologies as they become available with each subsequent delivery.

Better Logistics Supply Services

OUR THREE-YEAR GOAL

To achieve visibility of 90 percent of DoD materiel assets while resupplying military peacekeepers and warfighters and reducing average order-to-receipt time by 50 percent.

Our primary job is to supply our customer -- the warfighters -- with the products they need, when they need them. Today, this job is not being done as effectively as world-class companies, which respond far more quickly to customer orders than we do.

TAKING ACTION

Better Logistic Supply Services are first and foremost about gathering and using information about our inventories far more effectively than before. To this end, we will integrate our existing information systems better and build new information systems when necessary.

With our focus on improving asset visibility, we are providing direct access to timely, accurate information on the status, location, and movement of units, personnel, equipment, and supplies. By November 2000, we will also have the ability to redistribute inventories on time to where they are needed most.

We will also use information systems to reduce delivery times by relying on electronic, rather than paper, transactions with our vendors. We will further reduce delivery times by using commercial practices, such as contracting with vendors to provide direct support, and using faster transportation services to respond more quickly to customer orders. All of these steps will enable us to meet our customers' needs more rapidly, improving military readiness, while reducing inventory and delivery costs.