Downloaded from https://www.everyspec.com MIL-HDBK-502: A MIL-HDBK-502: A CQUISITION CQUISITION L OGISTICS OGISTICS associated with fault isolation and to speed up response time by reducing the number of items in the supply system. Additionally, consumption rates of support resources such as spare and repair parts increase through sustained 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 and objective system performance requirements that satisfy user requirements and mission needs. These become part of the system specification.
This includes performance requirements for the supportability of the system.. Remember, ensuring that supportability is included as a performance requirement is not a one time thing. The specificity and number of performance parameters evolve as the program is better defined. At Milestone I, performance parameters should be defined in broad terms. More specific program parameters should be added as necessary as the system requirements become better defined. Also, as new or updated user requirements and authoritative constraints become present, performance requirements will need to be added or changed, including supportability requirements.
5.2 ENSURING OPTIMAL SUPPORT SYSTEM DESIGN Supportability analyses should identify operations and sustainment support requirements based upon system characteristics and the planned operations and support environment. Supportability requirements are expressed in terms of operations and maintenance task requirements and the associated support resources to accomplish them. Collectively, these define the support burden of a total system. The optimal support system design is one which can deliver the required support and which properly balances with the other total system elements to meet the performance requirements of the user.
Systems engineering done very early in the acquisition life cycle is similar for both commercial and developmental acquisitions (see Section 4 for further discussion on types of acquisition). Development of performance requirements and specifications follow a similar path in the earliest acquisition phases for commercial and developmental buys. Therefore, the type of acquisition has little or no bearing on achieving the first goal of supportability analyses since system performance requirements are established up front in an acquisition. However, this is not true for the second goal of supportability analyses.
In fact, the type of acquisition will have a significant impact on the design of the support system. DoD policy initiatives emphasize the use of commercial or nondevelopmental designs, processes, and services whenever practical to meet operational users’ needs. Because of these initiatives and the current economic challenges of the present and foreseeable future, most DoD 5-7