Brigade combat team acquisition support division honored with army award for contracting excellence: OASA - ALT.Awards

Program Manager, Sept-Dec, 2003

On Aug. 11, 2003, the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) Acquisition Support Division was awarded the Secretary of the Army Award for Excellence in Systems Contracting at a special ceremony during the PARC [Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting] Conference in Seattle, Wash. This Team award for Systems Contracting also includes counterparts from the General Dynamics Land Systems' (GDLS) Contracting office. The government-contractor team works closely with contractors and other government personnel across the country and Canada. This is the second straight year that the team has won the Secretary of the Army Award for Excellence in Contracting.

The Secretary of Army recognition is awarded annually to teams and individuals selected from those nominated for their exceptional contracting efforts in support of their particular missions. The criteria for the team contracting awards include the following:

* Outstanding mission accomplishment-demonstrated customer service

* Contracting efficiency--reducing contract costs

* Human resource management--certification, training, and recognition programs

* Contracting innovation and process improvement--implementation of Acquisition Reform and streamlining (reducing cycle times and non-value-added processes)

The members of the BCT Acquisition Support Division met the challenge of ever accelerating expectations demanded by a program concurrently moving through development, test, and fielding. Contracts normally done sequentially had to be coordinated concurrently under the umbrella of the Stryker Requirements Contract and the various Delivery Orders covering the 10 vehicle configurations and associated requirements. Eight vehicles are in production. Two vehicles are in development, and planned Block Mods will be added to the Third Brigade. New contracts had to be developed to implement the logistics program.

As of July 3, 2003, 600 vehicles had been accepted. In the past year, the first brigade of vehicles has completed fielding at Ft. Lewis, Wash. Simultaneously, Performance Verification Test was ongoing. The second brigade has begun. Training has been ongoing since the first vehicle hand-off. Fielded vehicles have been maintained at an Operational Readiness Rate at or above 90 percent. The first brigade is currently preparing for its first deployment to Iraq, relying heavily on support provided by the contractor under the Interim Logistics Contractor Support (ICLS) contract.

The BCT Acquisition Support Division is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and on holidays to execute up-to-the-minute contract actions in support of customers. At the time of nomination, the team had issued, in less than a year, 341 Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO) letters, in excess of 200 contract modifications, and 25 new, additional contracts, and 51 Purchase Orders, GSA orders, and BPA orders. Contracting requirements have continued to accelerate. In the last year (FY03), more than 750 formal PCO letters and more than 250 contract modifications were issued.

In addition to achieving, and in many cases surpassing, program requirements, the BCT has found many methods for reducing contract costs by increasing communication and coordination between government and contractor personnel at all BCT locations, thereby eliminating redundant workloads and increasing efficiency All contracts and modifications are posted in real-time online for access from any Internet-capable computer, and automatic notifications are sent to all.

With the Army's sights set on having six Stryker Brigade Combat Teams fielded and operational by 2009, the pace required for the acquisition and support of the program is unprecedented. As a result, a number of innovative contracting processes have been developed to reduce the time necessary to carry out traditional contracting practices. Performance-based contracting and logistics have been adopted as the primary methods because they allow tremendous flexibility and adaptability

(Constance Tucher/SFAE-GCS-BCT-PIDSN 786-2020/tuckerc@tacom.army.mil)