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n Sept. 14, 2010, Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics


(AT&L) outlined 23 initiatives, with 137 actionable items in five major areas, whereby DOD could achieve the goal of “doing more without more.” On April 12, about 1,000 members of the AT&L community and industry gathered at Fort Belvoir, VA, to discuss efficiency accomplishments to date and the path forward.


The Acquisition Community Symposium, sponsored by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), framed the mission and challenges facing the AT&L com- munity, as well as the tools and expertise at their disposal. “What we now need to take a look at is not acquisition reform; it’s best practices … looking at the best of breed” over the past 30-plus years, said DAU President Katrina McFarland, who played a key role in developing the Bet- ter Buying Power initiatives under Carter before coming to DAU.


How and when to change fundamental acquisition procedures is a separate dis- cussion, one centered on implementation of the Army Acquisition Review (see arti- cle on Page 73).


With DOD’s budget expected to grow by about 1 percent a year and warfighting capabilities are expected to require about 3 percent increase in spending a year, there is intense scrutiny of AT&L practices across the department, whether in major weap- ons systems, spares, or sustainment services, said Shay D. Assad, Director of the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy.


“With your help, we are doing okay,” Assad told the audience. “But we really need to step it up. We have really got to turn on our game. There’s a lot of money to be saved, and we can never forget that these warfighters need and deserve the very best equipment as quickly as we can get it to them.”


Christine H. Fox, Director of Cost Assess- ment and Program Evaluation (CAPE)


FICTITIOUS SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS


“This is a chart of what. This is not a chart of why,” said Christine H. Fox, Director of CAPE, of these “stack charts,” which identify where growth has occurred. With this information, program managers and cost analysts can “drill down and understand why.”


Figure 1


in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, noted that “we have a real need to recapi- talize the force and to invest in our procurement accounts even though that [money is] going to be increasingly under pressure. … We have to continue to invest in winning the wars that we’re in” and to prepare for a broad spectrum of threats ahead, which “ties up some flexibility in our ability to manage those [budget] declines,” Fox said.


Most important, she said, “We need to talk about how to make [efficiency] a part of our fundamental culture”—with every decision, every day, to ask, “Is this the best thing I can do to make every dol- lar count?”


“We’re about to enter a very complex period with a lot of challenges,” Fox said.


WHAT’S GOOD ENOUGH? Citing “the analytics of tough choices,” Fox said one of the major challenges fac- ing the AT&L community is “to be able


A S C . A RMY.MI L


87


BETTER BUYING POWER


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