Description
Organization: NAVAIR, PMA-201
Team Name: Joint Standoff Weapon System (JSOW) Program
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Alpha Contracting, Cycle Time Reduction (CTR), Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Specifications and Standards
Description:
As the Assistant Program Manager, Configuration/Data Management for the Joint Standoff Weapon Program, Mrs. Claunch performed "alpha-contracting" which involved the integrated product teams coordinating and ultimately negotiating the LRIP contract. This greatly reduced the previous acquisition cycle time, which involved the government solely writing the contract and the contractor independently generating their proposal. With alpha-contracting, the entire contracting process is completed within the IPT the contractor helped generate the contract and the government helped generate the proposal. The majority of the alpha-contracting activities were coordinated by the Mrs. Claunch's data management group instead of the contracts competency.
The majority of military standards and defense standards were omitted from JSOW contracts. If requirements from a military standard were required, the verbiage was inserted directly into the contract. All language that directed the contractor "how" to do something was deleted from the contract. Mrs. Claunch instituted performance specifications vice engineering drawings.
Data deliverables were greatly reduced in the JSOW contracts. The majority of the deliverables for plans were no longer required for delivery. The requirement to plan was still invoked, but the contractor's planning did not have to be delivered for government approval.
The configuration management process was changed to reflect the new acquisition streamlining strategy. Basically, the government would be in the loop to receive all Class II hardware and software changes for information only. If a problem was discovered in any of the changes, the problem could be reported back to the prime contractor Configuration Manager for correction. If there were any issues that resulted from the changes, they would be processed up through the risk management board (if they were a program risk). The OEM was not allowed to make any changes that impacted form, fit or function. Mrs. Claunch inserted the part re-identification verbiage from DOD-STD-100 directly in to the contract rather than invoke the entire military standard. The prime contractor was not allowed to change a part number without government approval. This streamlined the old CM processes used.
