Downloaded from https://www.everyspec.com MIL-HDBK-502: A MIL-HDBK-502: A CQUISITION CQUISITION L OGISTICS OGISTICS system replaces two old systems or because the new system is easier to maintain. 7. Schedule Considerations. The logistician is obviously concerned in scheduling decisions. Support is a vital and integral part of any system that is fielded. Only when logistics is an afterthought should it cause delay. If logistic considerations have been interwoven with the program in all of its phases, then the supportability schedule will have been synchronized with the other system schedules. 8. Facilities.
Special consideration must be given to facilities because of the long lead times involved. 6.2 DEVELOPING PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS DoD policy mandates the use of performance requirements as the preferred method of preparing specifications. In the logistics field this policy means that supportability requirements must be expressed in performance terms. Requirements must express what the desired outcome is, but must not direct how to achieve that outcome. As acquisition management relies more and more on commercial sources rather than on unique military specifications-driven items, we must be careful not to restrict potential contractors.
For example, we may have an item that requires careful packaging to avoid breakage. The requirement, in performance terms, will give the acceptable limits, but will not tell how the item is to be packaged: The item, packed for shipping, will pass through a 5x3 ft. hatch, will not be damaged by up to a vertical 3 ft. drop onto a metal surface, and can withstand X pounds per square inch of pressure on all sides simultaneously. The goal is to identify the required outcomes, leaving the supplier free to provide the means and/or method that will produce the outcomes we have identified.
DoD 5000.2-R, Part 2, states clearly that support requirements are to be tied in to the program performance specification: “ Supportability factors are integral elements of program performance specifications. However, support requirements are not to be stated as distinct logistics elements, but instead as performance requirements that relate to a system’s operational effectiveness, operational suitability, and life-cycle cost reduction It further requires that acquisition logistics be an integral part of system development:
“ The PM shall conduct acquisition logistics management activities throughout the system development.” More detailed guidance on the preparation of performance requirements can be found in SD-15 and in MIL STD 961. 6-5